And, like 3-cup monte, I always seem to be losing.

Looks good in the still photo, I need to set aside time to watch the video.


Getting everything attached to the bike, and ready-to-ride, are two different things.


In particular, getting this bike to shift correctly has been challenging. It really was not happy changing between the gears, especially going lower (higher tooth count). Taking a cue from advice given on my other (Atala) project, thinking about closing the gap from the top of the derailleur cage to the bottom of the sprocket. I noticed that the ‘claw’ I am using, not from the replacement SunTour BL (which did not come with a claw) but was on the original RD, seemed rather long in the measurement between the axle and upper pivot bolt (C-to-C). So, I rummaged around in my boxes of parts and found a leftover Campagnolo (heresy!) claw which measured shorter. Bolted it up; it was shorter alright, but the tang for the RD stop was too short and the whole RD swung too far forward, where previously, it seemed too far back. But it shifted somewhat better, even if, swinging so far forward, the chain was a bit slack on small-small. Back to the drawing board… I dug up another claw, no name on it, also short in “drop” but with a longer tang. OK, that shifted better still. With the RD still pivoted too far back, I took it off again and ground the tang some, and now it’s much closer to having the parallelogram parallel to the chainstay. After that and checking with the hanger alignment tool (first, each time I changed claws, I had to do that again, and furthermore, these things seemed made of soft metal, bending rather easily), now it shifts pretty well.

Note that in the photo, there’s a dork disc. During the process, I was so unsure of the shifting, with <1/4 turn of the low gear screw between not wanting to go into first and going into the spokes, I broke out the dork disc and cleaned it up and installed it. Yuk! If during a shakedown ride or two, if the RD behaves, I might remove it although that’s about 0.73mm of thickness removed behind the freewheel, so that means adjusting the RD yet again. Oh, in another topic I was dealing with the rear axle’s spacing and I shifted things around for a 5mm spacer on the DS of the axle — too much, chain could fit between the 5th cog and the dropout. So, it came apart again and I swapped in a 3mm instead… much closer and the chainline looks to be in the close-to-ideal range.

BTW, the Suntour BL replacement turns out to have a wee bit of the parallelogram wobble that the V-Luxe did, although nowhere near as much. The good news is that, once the chain is in tension on the installed RD, it seems to stay in place and the cage remains vertical and it shifts fine. Hmmm, in the future, if sourcing a SunTour I might pursue NOS (eBay prices are wild!)? Then again, this might work out fine and I’ll wager other forum members have put a a million miles on theirs with no issues. On my other project bike, the Atlas, the Nuovo Record I stuck on there, “PAT 74” has no such issues after half a century (but no clue how many miles if any).

I’d like to think that going over the bike with every bolt checked for tightness, and I might venture out and see how it rides.

That zip-tie on the chainstay is an eyesore, the only solution might be to get a clamp-on stop like a Campagnolo that has a secondary loop to stabilize the housing.

Actually, the best option is to use the original Suntour/Campagnolo coiled metal housing. It is much more flexible so will not need the zip tie to stay in place, and in my experience such a short length of outing will not make the sifting imprecise.

Good to know -- but I do not have any here. Does the inner diameter have room for a liner?

I'd hate to break up the all-red-housing part of the project's color scheme. As I've found several clamp-on stops in my parts bins, I'm inclined to just use one, routing the cable through the braze-on and into the clamp-on immediately behind it.

Both projects got a short test ride, just a few hundred meters on my street. Shifting (limited) and braking seem fine (the "safety levers" good for slowing down but that's about it), both are quiet with no untoward noises. Time for a longer shakedown tests perhaps over the weekend.

I believe so, although I've never tried it. Others in the forum have said that they've added teflon liners.

Yesterday AM, I took the Gitane out for a more substantial shakedown run; 19 miles R/T on the local rail trail, mostly long shallow grades but with one substantial (for around here) 0.8 mile long hill. From the very start, the bike felt good, particularly the new wheel tire combo enabled moving along at a fine pace (early in the season, I took it relatively easy until I get back into shape after the winter). Yeah, the brakes squeal although I tried the idea of hitting the new Kool-Stops with a sander on the braking surface. Possible toe-in ahead. Braking seemed fine, even the secondary levers were OK if one did not have high expectations. Shifting seemed decent although the wider range (than I am used to) I felt meant slower shifts. Glad I tested the bike, as I found:

(a) This is substantial, all gears fine except major jump/skip activity on the 4th cog only, making that gear unusable; see the photo below, not sure how to measure tooth wear but it’s difficult to see anything else causing this in one gear. I really leaned on the other ratios, all OK. I hit, no idea without a computer, perhaps 22mph not he flat in 5th/outer, so issues. Not the long hill, went down to 2nd cog, pressed hard, just fine. I even tried 1st/inner but it just seemed like overkill so I got back to 2nd. So — now what. I do not see bent teeth on #4 but by appearances I suspect used more than the other cogs (and I have no idea where I got this freewheel!); too worn? My options include (a) all new freewheel; (b) ask PastorBob if he has something “underfoot” and he usually does, I’ve bought several outright from him; (c) ship him the existing freewheel in hopes he can replace the one cog, the rest of the freewheel seems fine; (d) try to locate a 17T Suntour cog, get a second chain whip, and try replacing it myself. Checking eBay, several 17T’s out there but all Winner/New-Winner, no idea if it would also fit a Pro-Compe (oh, and there are track cogs out there, not helpful).

(b) A truly odd squeak going over bumps, my hearing is mediocre but I thought from the front of the bike. Wow, the handlebar clamp on the stem was really, really loose! Yikes. Hopefully fixed now.

(c) My Amazon-purchase headset-cup press does NOT like tall head tubes… like all of my bikes, and certainly this Gitane. So, I usually tap them into place with a rubber mallet. I expected the cups to settle on the ride, and need the headset readjusted, and I was not disappointed.

(d) It’s hard to tell on the stand, but almost immediately on the ride, I saw the shifter band was rotated off a few degrees. Not enough to affect performance, but distracting and I kept looking down at the shifters. Is there an alignment gauge? EDIT: I had forgotten that the attachment/adjustment of the band is hidden. I took a photo of the disassembled parts, I think at the very least I need to remove the left side lever, etc.

(e) I found the FD (the Suntour BL) very sensitive to position if one did not want the chain to scrape the cage. For fun, I measured the spacing between plate: the Suntour is 9.5mm at the front, opening up to 13.5mm at the back. The Huret that I took off is a constant 10.5mm front to back. Worthwhile to swap back? I checked the chainring runout by eye, it started out with a waver but carefully bending with two adjustable wrenches (one on the spider, the second on the 1st wrench for leverage), I must be down to under 1mm.

I would try pastorbobnlnh first for a replacement 4th cog. If he can't supply that, maybe he does have a replacement FW.

N.B. only the lower stack will "settle" with riding. If the upper stack is not fully seated, riding will not fix that. If it's properly aligned, it may not matter, but if you find that you can't adjust the headset without either binding or slop, or both at the same time in different places, you may have to give the upper pressed race a couple more good whacks with that rubber mallet.

Looking at the picture, I do see wear on the smallest three sprockets, especially the 17T and the next largest which I'll assume is a 20T (without bothering to count the teeth). In my experience, Suntour sprockets (as well as most other freewheel brands) wear first on the spoke side. This is basically impossible to detect except on the largest sprocket, unless you remove them from the body for cleaning. When you see wear on the outside, usually there is significant wear on the spoke side.

The first two sprockets on ProCompe and Perfect bodies are threaded and are completely interchangeable. The threading and diameter are identical to threaded sprockets used with New Winner, Winner Pro, and Winner bodies in the second threaded position. These are interchangeable as well. Only the 13T and smaller threaded sprockets on NW, W-P, and W will not fit on ProCompe and Perfect bodies.

I should have a decent 17T in my spares and will check later this morning and post a picture. It might not be a match in color, but it will certainly get the job done and should solve the issue. While I'm hunting, I'll see if I can find and post pictures which show the wear difference between the spoke-side and the outside of the sprockets.

In retrospect, of course that's true. I need to recheck that. The best solution is find a press long enough to deal with longer head tubes or, on my cheap Amazon Porsche, find a replacement threaded rod to extend it (I suspect difficult).

Thanks for all that detail, and the PM. While getting a 17T and a chain whip would be the affordable solution (I am in about $200 in on each of the project bikes and am still hoping to present them to the owners for $0), I am reading carefully the "wear on three sprockets". While I do not expect the Gitane to get heavy use, if it really needs 3 sprockets changed, is replacement of the entire FW smarter?

Thank you for your patience as I looked for 17T Suntour sprockets. I have this NOS ProCompe with lots of patina and a little rust on the spoke-side.


An Evaporust bath will certainly solve that issue.

Below is a great example of how sprockets show wear on the spoke-side first and then the outside.

Outside: Perfect sprocket on top. New Winner on bottom.

Spoke-side

As can be seen, the Perfect looks pretty good on the outside, but after it is flipped you can easily spot the wear. However, this doesn't mean the sprocket is no longer useable. If shifting is still acceptable continue to use.

The New Winner, on the other hand, clearly shows wear on the outside, and when it is flipped, the full extent of the wear is very apparent. I would never install this 17T on a freewheel that is going to be ridden.

Great illustrations, and interesting. Now I am trying to understand how it wears more on that side unless there's a major chainline problem.

Got your PM, I think swapping out cogs could be interesting, and I do have ONE chain whip. Hmm, is there more than one size (excepting one inch pitch ), maybe those designed for 8/9/10/11 gear setups too narrow for 5SP? EDIT: Got out my unused chain whip, brand name Oumer's (any good?), and it fits the 5sp setup despite the description on Amazon saying for 8/9/10, so I think it's fine, going the other way might be a problem. So, I can buy another or, as PastorBob advised, just screw the freewheel down to a chunk of lumber to hold it.

Inexpensive bikes from this era often had excess chainline, so might wear one side of at least the largest sprockets with the chain crossing so sharply.
It's hard to imagine your big ring being far to the right of the 2nd-smallest cog, but it might be.

Anyway, the wear on the side of the cog isn't what causes a new chain to skip under load.
The wear to the driven-side edge of the cog teeth on your 17t cog looks to be fairly high up on the teeth, suggesting a well-worn chain was replaced. This wear leaves a rearward-protruding, driven-side corner at the tip of each tooth (protruding in the backward direction). This protruding corner contacts the roller as it is falling between teeth, moreso when the chain is tensioned by pedaling, causing the chain rollers to stay atop the tips of the teeth instead of between them, leading to violent chain skipping.
The corrective action I apply is to bevel down the protrusion at the tip of each tooth, removing a half-millimeter along a line about 30-degrees from a radial line along each tooth's center.
I am able to do this without removing the wheel from the bike, ignoring the small bit of grinding dust as the 3/8" diameter Dremel grinding stone spins in front of my safety glasses.
The first time I tried this, I was heading out on a new build's maiden voyage, to the start of a training ride, and immediately noticed the new chain skipping on one of the smaller cogs. So I returned to my house, grabbed my Dremel and in about two minutes had slightly trimmed away the protruding corners that I believed were preventing the chain's engaging the worn sprocket under load.
To my amazement, the skipping was cured(!) and I was still able to time-trial myself in timely manner to the ride start location.
Since then, I've repaired well more than twenty freewheel and cassette cogs this way, with about an 80-90% success rate (I've learned it's important to not remove too much metal).
Oh, and just to clarify, the "driven side edge" of the tooth is the edge that the chain rollers push against.

This is a visual of the "ba"-stamped cog tooth, with an exaggerated bevel applied at the wrong angle, (looking more like 45-degrees instead of 30-degrees to the tooth centerline):