None of my bikes are particularly special, but if they are all original and I want to upgrade, I do. I keep the original components just in case I want to sell or change back. No big deal to change out components.

I vote for keeping & upgrading current bike. As you said, you've ridden it for 10 years so you know it fits you and how it rides. No guarantee that if you bought a new bike it would work out.

You really like to sling out troll posts to get a rise out of people, don't you. This just in...you're in the classic and vintage forum. Most of the Reynolds tubing types you're BSing about were introduced within the last 10 years so are irrelevant to this forum. The only one that could possibly be called "vintage" is 753, which appeared in 1976 but was not widely used until years later and is nothing more than heat-treated, slightly thinner-drawn 531 tubing. Notably, there were lots of problems with early 753 frames and a number of riders (including Merckx) rejected it as too harsh for road racing. The next oldest tubing is 853, introduced in 1995. Your entire diatribe regarding 531 tubing is nonsensical and largely fact-free.

When I was into cars, I used to get perturbed at people who'd swap Chevy engines into Fords. Then I realized that it didn't matter, especially when it came to engines that were getting rare. It was great that those engines were being used and seen, instead of a cookie-cutter 350, or other "easy" engines. Part of the reason I stopped with the car thing was the shows themselves, the same model cars over and over, done the same way. It was utterly boring. I loved the oddballs, but those cars were shunned when they'd show up.

It doesn't really matter, do whatever you'd like, keeping every bike as manufactured or period correct is boring. Do what makes you happy, don't be the fart huffers that have a heart attack over the right shade of paint or other utterly meaningless minutiae.

Threadless adapter, threadless stem, spacers to cover up the skinny adapter.

In a competitive marketplace, things that don't work die. 531 is still available to special order. I would conclude that it worked (and still works) pretty well.

Do you mean.... will Jesus cry if you up grade your bike? My guess would be NO. Upgrading and modernizing a quality old bike is perfectly normal and natural. Enjoy the project and be sure to post/share pictures here when done.

So what do you think of electroforged Schwinn's?

i have to wonder how much actual, hands-on experience you have building frames with Reynolds 531 tubing. True, it has been around since the 1930s, but it was optimized for brazing and brazing was the primary means of building bike frames well into the 1980s, so there was no compelling reason to change anything.

Reynolds 753 is just heat treated 531 tubing, and like 531 is optimized for brazing. The heat treatment means that it is even less tolerant of heat than 531, and must be brazed with silver to retain the properties of the heat treatment. And yes, if you're wondering, I have built frames with Reynolds 753. And 531. And Columbus SL and SP. And Ishiwata 022. And Tange Champion and Prestige. And probably some others I can't recall at the moment.

The newer steels like 853 and the 9nn alloys are optimized for welding rather than brazing as welding has displaced brazing as the primary method of joining bicycle frame tubes. The newer tubes are also available in fashionably larger diameters than traditional tubes. That doesn't make them "better;" it just means they are more appropriate to use than 531 or 753 if you value the oversize tubes and/or intend to weld them.

Even mid-range stuff from the 70s and 80s goes for a lot of money on here or the bay. So you could get an old 600 setup for the same price as a barely used 105 or Ultegra Brifter setup used. Makes sense in the market to go with the updated stuff, especially since it does provide some riding benefits. Really, whatever gets you in the road and your bike out of the garage.

This is simply my opinion and is not based on any expertise, but...if the bike is not going to be a collector's item where keeping it original will affect its resale value, and you simply want to ride a nice old bike, then yeah, upgrade that sucker. Whatever it takes to keep it on the road.

My first bike build was a Raleigh Sports, frame only, that turned into quite the frankenbike by the time I was finished. However, most of the changes were upgrades rather than blatant changes...I kept it a 3-speed.

I just took an old Bianchi Sprint 76 (which I may have paid over the odds for, but what the heck), that probably "wasn't worth fixing" to most people, which had definitely seen better days... and I put it back on the road with a mix of Campy 9-speed Mirage & Veloce, + a set of Campy Khamsin wheels I got for a smokin' price off eBay - and I love it, absolutely brilliant to use for commuting into & out of the city.

Otherwise, it'd just be sitting in the back of a vintage Italian scooter shop in Ireland.

So *please* go and upgrade that old bike, and *enjoy it*.

I guess there's always a point to where "it's your bike, you own it."

I don't understand the person who goes looking for a highly desirable bike, manages to acquire one- and then spray paints it bright orange as "theft deterrent" and THEN decides he doesn't like it.

Actually, I do understand that person. That person lacks intelligence.

Upgrading nice old frames is about half the activity here in C&V. It's what we love to do. Do it, and share your joy with us.

Which tube set are you speaking of? A great number of tube sets have been made with 531 metallurgy, using various dimensions and gauges and shapes. If you had a bad experience with one or two 531 frames, that doesn't mean they're all bad. It's like saying all Bridgestone car tires are bad because a few of them failed for various reasons.