Originally Posted by
atufft
Your bike must be newer than mine then. Mine had a 5sp cluster, and was cold set to 126mm to fit in a wider axle. According to what I can find on the Trek antique website mentioned above, rear drops were probably 120mm apart.
Originally Posted by
atufft
I think I need to swap out the rear wheel and put in one with original Shimano 5sp cluster, then I need to rewrap the handlebars. I'll keep it as a guest bike.
If you look at all the catalogs- any 700 series bike (531 frame, fork and stays) would have come with either a 6 speed freewheel or 6 speed cassette.
If the bike is prior to 1978... it may have come with a 5 speed.
My bike is a 1978 Trek 736. It came with a 6 speed cassette.
Your bike has been upgraded. Going back isn't going to put the genie back in the bottle.
It's your bike, do what you like- but if you're keeping it for people to ride- might as well make it as pleasurable to ride as possible. I think it's a fool's errand to waste the money in trying to revert it to a 5 speed rear end and make the bike less functional.
If you're thinking of selling and thinking that the old components are going to make it more valuable... You've got a frame/fork that's worth under $200. If you have it built up with period parts, it's worth around $400. If you have it built up with somewhat modernized parts, it's worth around $400. For you to spend the money on a new (old) wheel and sourcing old parts- you're gaining nothing.
My bike came with Shimano 600 "Arabesque" components. That's how I got it. I didn't like the way it shifted in both the front and rear and didn't like the way it braked. Over the past few years I've replaced the derailleurs with contemporary Suntour Cyclone parts, the brakes with Suntour Superbe and the shifters are the mid 80s ratcheting Suntour Sprint shifters. The crankset was replaced with a Stronglight triple. I've kept the original wheels with the Shimano 6 speed freehub. It's a nice riding bike, it's not original, but it's built mostly of components from around the same time period and it functions
SO much better. The Arabesque stuff is pretty to look at- but ****ty shifting. I effectively upgraded the bike using contemporary parts.
This was after I cleaned it up and put new bar tape on:
This is after replacing all the 600 parts with Suntour/Stronglight stuff:
We don't actually know what your bike is or how it would have come.
Personally- I'd leave the 7 speed rear wheel on there- if you've got good components- cool. If you've got a hankering to upgrade the bike from where it's at- do that. Indexed shifting... pretty derailleurs... nifty stuff... It's a cool bike, there's tons of fun games to play with the bike, and to me, none of them involve going backwards.