trail_monkey

I know a local fella who takes donated bikes (and has for years) to take the best ones and fix them up along with donated toys for christmas gifts for needy kids. He has accumulated about 100+ bikes and most are worthless. His main bikes he gives away are the 20" kids bikes like the cheap dept store bikes that are in good shape. I have given him about 4 bikes over the years that my kids outgrew that were in rideable shape. Last year I gave him a brand new girls bmx that my daughter rode for maybe a couple miles before getting a used Trek. He has let me rummage through his pile in the past for any parts I may need. Last winter while rummaging for parts for an old mongoose I seen several old Panasonic road bikes in the pasture in a pile of old junkers. So today while out riding I stopped by to see if this bike was still under a pile of Huffys in his pasture against a tree. There was an old Trek and a couple Panasonics still sitting there. I asked him if he would part with the Panasonic and he said sure just take it. I had no idea the condition this thing would be in. I aired up the dry rotted tires and went for a ride. It shifts flawless and brakes decent. It basically needs a good cleaning and some greasing. Heck the cadence and speed sensors from an old Garmin are still attached. I think this will make a nice vintage ride for when I feel like going old school. And maybe one of my kids will take it someday. I did remove the toe clips from the pedals after 5 minutes riding with 1 leg trying to get the other one flipped over so I could get my damm foot in lol.

Bradleykd

That's a damn nice bike for the price paid. Well done!

trail_monkey

Thank you!

CV-6 

No drive side pics? You know better!

trail_monkey

Sorry lol. It's been a while ha ha

trail_monkey

What would you guys do with a bike like this? Leave it stock and just clean it up and ride it or make it more useable with some mods? The gearing on this thing is horrid for climbing. It has a 6 speed freewheel which according to Sheldon has a 126 mm rear drop out spacing. I have a Deore 7 speed MTB cassette hub sitting in the toolbox which should have a 130 mm rear spacing. I could, when I get time, buy spokes and nipples and use the original rim and build a new wheel with this hub and get a stronger, and wider spaced gear range which would make the bike more rideable for me when it comes to climbing. I saw that they have a wide range 6 and 7 speed rear free wheel but I don't know if the freewheel axle could handle the extra stress of a 32 rear cog. But not sure if altering the originality of this bike is a good thing? It even had original toe clip pedals on this thing.

SkyDog75

I'd probably just pick up a 6- or 7-speed freewheel with a larger big cog. Swapping out the hub seems like an awful lot of work (and expense) in comparison.

Remember that you'll probably need a longer chain if going to a larger cogset, and that wide gear ranges may necessitate a medium- or long-cage rear derailleur.

trail_monkey

Yea but knowing that freewheel axles are weaker, I was reading that they used to have a tendency to break especially if you added an extended range freewheel which would put more stress on the axle in the lowest gear. Is this true?

John E

The stress on the axle should be about the same, unless you are using a longer axle because of a laterally wider cogset (e.g. 128mm 7-speed vs. 123mm ultra-6 speed). I have broken three rear axles (solid French 120mm OLD, hollow/QR French 120, QR Campag. 126), but these were spread over more than 100k miles of cycling and never stranded me or threatened my safety.

To obtain a lower bottom gear, first see whether a smaller inner chainring is an option.
Next, determine how large a low gear cog your current rear derailleur can accommodate. As Chas. has demonstrated in other threads, you can often push this beyond the advertised specifications, which tend to be conservative, as engineering specs. should be.

trail_monkey

Well maybe I'll look for a wider range 6 Speed Freewheel then. I just measured my mountain bike freehub and it is 135. Now I removed the back wheel from my Panasonic and I was able to squeeze this Hub in the dropouts as it's not hard to spread a frame a few millimeters. But one thing that was different the mountain bike Hub is a 32 spoke and the Hub on the Panasonic is a 36 spoke. Can I put a 7 speed Freewheel on this bike and use the same derailleur? That would give me one extra gear and a little wider range.

69chevy

I just built a similar bike with 5700 bits.

10 speed wheel are cheap. They fit the 126 no problem.

All you need is cheap wheels, shifters and cassette.

trail_monkey

You know I just thought of something I've got a 2008 Diamondback mountain bike that has a 7-speed rear Freewheel on it. And it has a triple front with a granny gear so it's putting a lot more torque on it than this Panasonic is and it holds up just fine

mrchaotica

Nice bike! It looks to be of similar quality to my wife's mixte, which we paid $100 for.

I broke a freewheel hub once, on a 7-speed MTB. It failed at the freewheel body, not the axle (in other words, the cogs came loose so I couldn't pedal very well, but the wheel kept rolling in the frame just fine).

SkyDog75

Yes, you can use the same derailleur. The derailleur generally doesn't care how many cogs are on your freewheel, especially if you're using friction shifting. If you're using indexed shifting, you need to make sure the shifter matches the number of cogs and that the derailleur matches the cable pull ratio of the shifter.

Now while the derailleur doesn't care about the number of cogs, it does care about the size of the cogs. There are two specs the derailleur needs to meet: First, the derailleur needs to be able to handle the size of the freewheel's biggest cog. Secondly, it needs enough "wrap capacity" to handle chain slack. The wider your gear range, the more slack there is to handle in your lowest gear, and the more capacity the derailleur needs.

Standalone 

My old DX2000 was an awesome bike for what it was -- the butted hi-ten tubeset rode as good as any basic CrMo I've ridden. I'm sure the 3000 is just that much nicer.

trail_monkey

I am having fun putting this thing back to vintage. Luckily I don't need much except bar tape, tires, tubes, and hood covers. I cannot decide if I should leave this vintage Italian seat on or go with a modern seat which might be more comfortable? Are these older 80s seats comfy on long rides? The design goes against everything I have learned in that a slim sleek seat will be more comfortable than a fat cushy one due to rubbing and chafing.

Oh and what is it with all these 80's road bikes having the drop bars angled down at such a downward angle? Nowadays we tend to put them level or just a tiny bit up but everything back then is pointing at the ground lol.

OldsCOOL

Nice find! What about that old Trek??

trail_monkey

I didn't investigate it lol

davester

Very nice find. You need to show us a photo of the drive side or at least tell us what rear derailleur you are using to be able to determine how large a rear cog you can use. It looks like that the bike has a short cage "racing" derailleur and that you'll need a different one to get hill climbing gearing to work.

The size of rear cog has no effect on the susceptibility of the rear axle to breakage. That is more a function of dropout alignment, rider weight and how many potholes/curbs you run over. If I were you I'd stick with a freewheel setup since it's the cheapest way to go and should work fine if you don't spread the dropouts. If there's a bunch of extra space between the stay and your current smallest cog you might be able to fit a 7-speed in there...that's what I did on my Miyata. Of course, if you have index shifting you won't be able to do that and will need to stay at 6-speed.

trail_monkey

Tell ya what. .... when I get home later I will post some drive side pics. I am not sure yet if i am going to change out the freewheel yet. I may keep it all stock and vintage. Of course a few rides may change my mind lol.

The Golden Boy 

First- that's a really sweet bike. Whether the whole frame is Tange Mangalloy or the frame is CrMo and the fork and stays Mangalloy- That's a good quality frameset. One of my big regrets is selling off my Mangalloy Trek 420. Figure your CrMo/Mangalloy frameset is about equal to a contemporary Trek 600 level bike. That's a good bike.

Second- wow- that thing is in great shape. Congratulations!

Third- what is you gearing on there? It seems to me you're kind of confusing freewheels, cassettes, axle length/spacing, number of cogs and cog size.

IMO- the number of speeds (rear cogs) only has importance with the steps between gears.

Generally- the more cogs, the wider the spacing between the dropouts - for freewheels- that means a longer axle. A 6 speed freewheel has a good distance for the axle to not be overextended.

The size of your rear cogs has no bearing on your axle length.

The size of the rear cog is limited by the ability of the rear derailleur to shift onto and off the rear cog- which also takes into account the length of the dropout hanger thingy. Generally, an ATB rear derailleur will have a greater range- it's a matter of the design of the derailleur, not the cage length. (a lot of people think a long cage derailleur will allow you to use a larger cog- the longer cage takes up more chain for a triple crankset, which generally come on bikes with a larger range of gears).

IMO- I like low gearing- although no one should tell you what you *should* have on your bike- IMO- a 28 or 30 big rear cog with a 40 or 42 chainring should put you in decent 'road' hill climbing business. It looks like the Shimano Megarange 6 speed freewheel gives you 14-24 and then a 34 bailout. (and magic marker over the billboard Shimano branding works well ) I don't think your Golden Arrow RD will work on a 34 tooth cog.

As far as what you want to do with the bike... It's not a super collectible bike, so you can mess with it as you see fit; it's a good quality frame, so you can "upgrade" parts and stuff- you can end up with a REALLY nice bike.

Congratulations and good luck!!!

trail_monkey

It is a tange crmo frame and a tange mangalloy fork. Gearing is a 42/52 front and a 13-28 rear. I contemplated the new free wheel cause I thought I should have a bailout gear but I think I am going to stick with the factory gearing especially since it is all in such good shape. I already cleaned and repacked the bb, both wheels, and the headset so it is ready to rock n roll.

The Golden Boy 

One of those Megarange 14-24 + 34 freewheels will cost you around $15 with shipping. It's an inexpensive way to play with it and see if that's what you want/need. You can ALWAYS put the stock freewheel back on, or put it back on.

Again, you'll probably need a different RD to get on and off the 34.

How are the brakes? I have/had 600 Arabesque stuff and found the brakes to be... lacking. But pretty.

The Golden Arrow stuff is neat looking, but IMO- Suntour stuff was just THAT much better than most any Shimano stuff at that period of time. If'n it were me, I'd get some slick Suntour ratcheting shifters, a Cyclone MII GT derailleur set, some styley Gran Compe brakes and levers...

trail_monkey

Brakes feel good although I am sure compared to my hydraulic discs on my other bikes they will take getting used to lol.

Question. .....my rim strip was torn and my tubes need replaced. Price point had tubes for 1.29. This is cheaper than a new strip. I am planning on buying 3 700c x 28-34 tubes (1 for a spare). My tires are 25mm but they are out of stock in tube that size. Can I use the 28-34 tube with my 25mm tires? Second question is can I buy a cheap 26" tube and make a rim strip out of it? Price point doesn't show a search result for an actual rim strip or any cloth rim tape. These are single wall rims with exposed nipple heads.

trail_monkey

Scratch that last post fellas. I finally ordered velox rim tape and several tubes plus blue cloth bar tape from Niagara cycle works. I spent this afternoon truing up both rims before I put my new rim tape over the spoke nipples. I am going to try and get drive side pics yet fellas. I was at the hospital earlier today with my mom who's sick with cancer when i said i would post drive side pics and I spaced off more pics when I got home in favor of wheel truing.