rpincus

I know very little about bikes and their different parts, all I know is how to ride a bike. I own a mountain bike but I have always wanted a road bike. I live in a small town with a few antique shops and one shop has a bike (it looks in pretty good condition just a little rust which is easily fixable) that I am interested in. The only thing is is that the gears look old and outdated and I was wondering if it was possible to put a whole new gear set on the bike. Also I am on a little bit of a budget. I like working with my hands so I would be happy to do any of the work myself if it does not require an experts touch. Any help or suggestions is very appreciated.

noglider 

It's probably possible to replace stuff on the old bike, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea, necessarily. Ride it first before you decide.

Read old threads on this forum.

Read sheldonbrown.com where there is a wealth of information for you.

Kevindale

Step one is take a few photos of the bike in question, and post them here. Step two is let us know how tall you are, and your inseam. There's no point in going further with this bike if it won't fit you. Road bike frames tend to be bigger than mountain bike frames, especially vintage road bikes.

As noglider suggested, you may not need to mess with the gears. On many vintage bikes, the gearing and shifting mechanisms are fine, they just need (usually) new cables and cable housings, and some cleaning. It's things like bar tape, chain, tires/tubes, and often the saddle that need to be replaced. And all the bearings (wheel hubs, bottom bracket, head set) need to be cleaned and new grease applied.

Note well - general antique stores often vastly overestimate the value of old bikes. Even if it's a desirable brand of bike, it may be one of their low-end models, and not be worth bothering with. So get some photos, put them on a photo-hosting site like Flickr, and link them here. Or post 9 more times and you can upload the photos directly to the site, though they'll be lower resolution.

Bad Lag

Gears don't get outdated, they get rusty. Rust on the cogs can be cleaned (or ignored). If the chain is stiff after a thorough cleaning, lubrication and some attempts at flexing, a rusty chain should be replaced.

Working on bikes requires some investment in tools. Some tools are generic and you may already have them (or not). Others are unique to bicycles but are common to many bicycles. Some are specialized to particular brand-name parts on your particular bike. If you do not have the tools to do the operation, you should probably not do it.

Bicycle tools
Chain breaker (and putter-together-er)
Cone wrenches (for hubs and pedals)
Spoke wrench (for the spokes)
Bottom bracket tools (usually 2 different tools)
Crank removal tool

Brand-unique tools
Freewheel removal tool


I'm sure I missed some, this is just off the top of my head.

ryansu

+1 on Sheldon Brown as a place to start and there are a ton of videos on Youtube as well. I've also noticed that you can get bike maintanence books from the 70s - the bike boom era - for pennies on Amazon and you might even find some at your library.

nashvillebill

It's actually a 3-step process: 1) Remove wallet from pocket, 2) Take all money out of wallet, 3) Spend said money.

Sometimes this is followed by discussions with one's significant other.

johnbobey

Keep the faith and keep asking questions--I've found the members on these pages to be generous and knowledgable...before you know it, you'll be dispensing advice of your own. Keep us posted with updates!

exmechanic89

Make sure the bike fits you before you go any further..

jimmuller 

Yeah, it's easier to discuss when you have context. Which is to say we need to see pics of your starting point because "bikes to ride" can cover a lot of territory. We could then point out details about that particular bike, what might be good or bad, whether it's worth effort and money, that kind of stuff.

You will need some specialized tools plus some common tools as found in most toolboxes. You may need components, probably will, but they are around. You have to know what you are looking for, what fits that bike, its threads, tube diameters, etc.

For most folks a good starting place is a good steel frame by a reasonable manufacturer. Brand by itself isn't as important as the model and what market segment it was built for. Even more, it's important to start with a decent specimen regardless of the brand. Derailleur bikes with 6 rear sprockets are a good place to start because there are lots of them and a 6-speed rear allows decent gearing; they have an inside space of 126mm between the rear dropouts. Cranks come in several varieties, English/ISO/Japanese (most common), Italian, French (scarce now), Swiss (even scarcer). You need to know what you are dealing with!

howellhandmade

Everything sounds good except the part about being on a budget.

By the time you have "upgraded the drivetrain" of a given bike, using purchased parts, you will have spent more than you would have for a bike that came with those parts, for a bike that is wort less. Which is fine if you know what you're getting into. If money is scarce it can be a hard lesson.

Roll-Monroe-Co

When I started working on bikes, I messed some decent old stuff because I did not know what I was doing. Tore up a nice crankset because I did not know how to use the extractor tool. Sanded some original paint and decals off a classic touring bike because there were a few chips in the paint and the decals were a little tattered. While some of this is inevitable, you might benefit from our experience by posting detailed pictures of the gears on this bike so that we can try to talk you out of it, most likely for one of three reasons: (1) it will take a lot more work to do change it than you think, or (2) it will cost much more than the bike is worth to update into a frankenbike and, meanwhile, (3) the bike needs lots more basic maintenance or has a bent fork anyway.

Welcome to a world where "old and outdated" is something to celebrate! Show us photos of the bike! Some members can help with posting if you don't have privileges yet.

Lovenutz

It's not too tough. You will need a few bike specific tools like freewheel and bottom bracket removers. I didn't know anything about bikes until 2 years ago, now I rebuild them as a hobby. I really enjoy it. Read Sheldon and watch RJ on youtube and you can pretty much do it in a weekend.

randyjawa 

Noglider nailed it when he suggested that you ride the bike first, then make time, effort and cash investment decisions later. I could not agree more. As for the budget thing...

You can do the work your self, as most is not rocket surgery. There are some, no lots of, things to know, but you will learn. Start by making sure the brakes and steering work. Ensure the tires hold air, and then ride the bike. You can, of course, get the transmission working, but it is not a have to issue, at this point in time. If you do ride and like the bike, then you can decide on upgrades and such.

That's the way I do it. And this is a bit more detailed, if you are interested.

This old Bottecchia is set up for a safe test ride. The brakes work fine. The wheels are true. The tires hold air, and everything has been checked to ensure it is tight and/or lubricated, as required. But I did not need a transmission to test the bicycle's fit, structural integrity and appeal...

rpincus

Thank you all for the help, yall are very knowledgeable about all of this. I'm glad some of yall suggested to check if the bike fits because I didn't even know that could have been a problem. Sadly enough the bike doesn't fit my size (Im 5'7'' and the bike is too big) but I will keep an eye out for another one and if I can find one I will surely return here with my concerns. Thanks again everyone

jimmuller 

Bummer. But you can still post a pic of it. You will find another.

Wileyone 

You Tube is a great resource also.

Chanel's like RJ The Bike Guy can be very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/user/shyflirt1