Originally Posted by
ericmerg1
Trying to take a vintage bike and make a good road worthy machine that can hold it's own against most group rides/non races is very do-able, scoring kom's on downtube shifters is a pain but possible. It's better to just buy a new bike unless you already have stuff laying around/ don't care about end cost.
I'm not racing. I've been experimenting with Brifters... but my main bike still sports downtube shifters, and almost all of my Strava PRs are still with DT shifters, mostly flat sections, but I have a couple of hill climbs that I'm working on. Hopefully I'll start snagging a few KOMs this year, but may eventually away from steel.
Anyway, lots of good riders have ridden with DT shifters.
As far as cost, I think one is always better off buying used if one can do the work on the bikes. A scratch build allows custom options that might not have been available in a store bought bike.
Originally Posted by
rms13
You can always create new segments. Snag a few people "just riding along" (which can still be fast), but until the KOM hunters find it, you'll have a chance.
I'm in a small town, so perhaps the KOM's are different in big cities, but there are still a few KOMs held by 13 mph avg riders that can hammer it hard for a couple of minutes.