Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,520
Likes: 12
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Bikes: 1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo (frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame), 1974 Peugeot UO-8
Originally Posted by
John E
On a classic bike, how many of you try to keep the OEM gear ratios, such as a knee-breaking 52-45 / 14-15-17-19-21 with an early 1970s PX-10, and how many of you freely change them? In my usual style on many topics, I have a centrist position of freely changing gear ratios within the constraints of the OEM derailleurs, and preferably with period-correct and brand-correct components. There is no way I am going to ride a Capo with 52-48 / 14-16-18-20-22 gearing -- the lowest I can go with my cranks and derailleurs is 45/26, which fortunately fits my needs.
I'm with you on that John, more or less. I don't rule out changing the oem derailleurs out for a period/brand correct replacement with more range though - say, swapping a Nuovo Record for a Rally. I live in Colorado so I have to be a bit flexible if I still expect to be able to walk when I'm older.
Currently my Bottecchia has a 52-40 front in place of the oem 52-42 setup and the oem 14-28 setup in the rear which is fine for riding in town and really wasn't bad for an oem setup but I'm seriously considering swapping the rear axle to allow a 13-32 7-spd with a Campagnolo Rally derailleur for riding some centuries this year. Those 12,000 passes are rough. BTW, back in the day I swapped the oem 14-28 freewheel on my bike for a 13-21. It was flatter and I was younger.
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1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista