Originally Posted by
ehcoplex
It’s very hilly where I live in the Western Catskills, with many of the secondary and seasonal roads I ride on having quite steep grades. When I got back into cycling last spring I had to rework the gearing on my Cannondale so I could handle the hills (while a touring model, a PO had put a road-triple 30/42/52 and not-very-wide cassette on it- I replaced with 26/38/48 chainrings and an 11-34 7sp cassette). 2k of riding this past season has helped immensely and I find I’m almost never using the granny now, though I’ll want it if I carry panniers, etc, and no doubt I’ll lose a lot of strength over the winter (no trainer, no space for one….). I do pretty regularly end up on 38x34 on longer, steeper climbs, though. So, I’m trying to decide on a gearing arrangement (friction, btw) for my PX-10 build/rebuild now… I’m not really concerned about higher gearing and spinning out on descents- I’m quite happy to coast, because there’s always a steep climb up ahead. It’s the lower end I want to be OK on.
I need ‘new’ wheels for the bike (it came with crappy, steel 27”)- I’m not having luck finding some more-or-less period-correct 700c wheels locally/cheaply, and if I’m going with new wheels I may as well cold-set the frame to 126mm and go with either a 6 or 7 speed freewheel. I’ve got an SLJ long-cage RD (5500, I think). Also have an SLJ FD to replace the original delrin FD which is cracked.
So my choices seem to be-
1) triple-ize the crank and add a 28t granny and run with a 28t large-cog freewheel. I’ve already got a longer spindle for the BB. 6 and 7sp 28t freewheels seem reasonably common… Research indicates the SLJ FD will handle the triple and the SLJ GT RD has the total capacity).
2) Keep the crank as a double and get the smallest chainring I can (37t) and find a freewheel with a 32 or 34t large cog. 34t gives me about the same lowest ratio I’m able to get away with on my Cannondale, and I think I’d do OK with 32t- though it seems like finding a 6 or 7sp freewheel with a 32 or 34t large cog might be a bit harder than 26t large…
3) Cold-set to 130mm, and get a wheel set that takes cassettes… Still leaves me with the double vs triple question and, really, I’m disinclined to cold-set from 120mm to 130mm….. but possibly more availability with cassette gearing?
$-wise, triplizing will cost me a little bit more (triplizer middle chainring + granny ring) than just getting a 37t ring for a double, though maybe that would get offset by being able to use a more common freewheel.
Yeah, sure, there’s the option of gearing the bike as original, but… no. I live on a dead-end road with something like a half-mile of 12% grade…. and then there’s my long, uphill, dirt driveway after that! Original gearing means an unusable bike for me!
Recommendations? Things I’m missing?
I'm again facing the same thing with my Peugeot PX-10 later in the year when I work on it. My idea is to build some 120 mm wheels with maybe a 13/32 rear end, and either a 52/48 half-step, a 50/34 compact/Alpine, or a triple. With these frames sometimes there are French threads which are not compatible with English or Italian. I'll see what will work.
If you have the original crank, you can add a granny most likely, getting a longer Stronglight spindle and get a deeper climbing reserve to negotiate that long 12%. This is not exactly complicated, but finding the right parts may take some effort and learning. But ultimately I think this would be best. I'd look into this possibility first. BITD Stronglight had a very deep catalog, so they nearly certainly had the ability to provide parts to make this modification to your white flyer. Problem today is to identify them and obtain them. But that is what I would go for.