Are you sure you want to go through all that, if your only concern is friction shifters? How long have you ridden with them? I bet it wouldn't take more than a couple weeks to get comfortable. It's kind of like playing a string bass vs electric. Once your fingers know where to go you don't need to worry about the frets.
-- You may have to widen the spacing on the rear dropouts to accomodate a 9/10 speed hub. 130 mm is the standard for road bikes. I would imagine the Raleigh is 126 or 130 mm. 126>130 is not a hard stretch.
-- You could also get brand new Shimano Sora 7 speed STI brifters, presuming your bike is 7 speed, or some used downtube index shifters.
-- I consistenly ask myself similar questions re my 1987 Paramount, and have so far stuck with the original C-Record drive train, downtub shifters and Phil Wood hubs (7 sp freewheel).
One possible conversion I keep coming back to is bolting on a Campy Racing Triple and keeping the DT shifters, to give expanded hill gearing without having to replace the hubs. I could always add new wheels and index shifters later.
Any kind of full drive-train conversion would probably have to be justified as an aesthetic, rather than cost-effective decsion -- not that there's anything wrong with that.
But so far I have been reluctant to shell out the coin or to break up the C-Record group. And I enjoy my riding thoroughly -- about 700 miles on it this year so far, plus another couple hundred on my Nuovo Record-equipped 1978 Chris Kvale. (And a few hundred on my twist-grip shifting commuter.)
Last edited by rmikkelsen; 08-27-08 at 12:46 PM.