I actually appreciate the flexibility of friction shifting with my go-as-you-please riding style...if the bike I'm riding has it, I use it. Friction shifting combined with modern ramped cassettes and ramped/pinned chainwheels does great. If I decide to ride a bit more aggressively, however, I prefer the "slam 'er and hammer" to the "find 'er and grind 'er".
As to the Colonel's statement of cost, you're probably right. When the stuff gets a few years on it I'll buy it used at a fraction of the price. :thumb:

I usually only use Veloce cassettes.

They really are all most of us need.

As for wheelsets, I took a chance last winter and bought a set of Fulcrum 5s. The 2013 cx version.

A bit heavy, but they spin up great.

Durable as well.

I think I paid $207 or so on sale plus another $35 to get them here from the UK.

I ended up buying another set for my son's cross bike I am collecting parts for this summer.

Once a guy takes most of the goshawful decals off, they don't look half bad.

Anyone done many 9 of 10 conversions? I've got some questions!

I am in the midst of restoring an old 1980's era Miele beta with the idea of training on the roads again and possibly a few tri's or duathlons. Its been sitting in the garage for almost 20 years gathering dust. Its been stripped and I'm in the final stages of repainting it. Basically its friction, downtube shifting Shimano 600 throughout with campy hubs (probably rear cluster as well). All the original components are in very good shape so I've been planning to just put all the old stuff back on again. However, and this thread hasnt helped matters :lol:, I'm debating strategic upgrades to bring it a bit more into the 21st century. Cost is an object sadly but I'd love to get into sti and/or integrated brake/shifters. Despite having had a number of other road bikes over the years, I've always loved the ride of this Miele and it'll be a keeper. It'd be nice to show it some love and get some upgraded components on it but I must admit to being a bit stuck on what to do. Help?

For the simplest (and cheapest) approach to keep your drive train essentially the same, you could consider Kelly Take Offs or Retroshift to just move the shift levers up to the brake levers. Then some cable stops to put on the braze ons where your levers once attached, some new bar tape and cables and you'd be good to go. Unfortunately, some would also say this (especially if you use the Kelly's which I personally love the functionality of) is the ugliest approach.

Of course, you could also put an entirely new group on it if you wanted to go that way instead and cost were no object.

How many cogs are on your freewheel and what's your rear spacing? Are you happy with your current number of gears and their range?

I agree and Campy cassettes get expensive really fast.

Here's a neat bike I rebuilt recently.

when i received it is wasn't so pretty and the shift levers didn't work. I flushed them out and got rid of all the particle and stuff and relube the mechanics and now it shifts like butter.

http://torontovintagebikes.com/wp-co...130713_2_m.jpg

All cassettes get expensive fast. Fortunately, like Grady says, we don't need the fancy stuff. I run veloce cassettes and centaur chains (on record bikes) Both of them work great and last quite a while. I catch them on sale and stock up.

New Campy is very reasonable, so is used Campy, in many cases.

I bought new Veloce and Khamsins for $603 delivered a couple of years ago.
I bought used Centaur and Spinergys for about the same a few months ago.

However, I just unpacked a bike I bought a few months ago. I was fully planning to run 9-sp Dura Ace on it, with DT shifters, and long-reach Tektros to enable the 27 to 700c conversion. It's 2x5, so thoughts of expanding the rear entered a "doubtful" stage, and then I rode it around the block, and Cyclone, well-lubed and adjusted, is delightful, enough to pull me out of my niche build approach and just appreciate it.

So on my Ciocc I have all Shimano 600 Ultegra except for the shfiters, but I put a 10 speed cassette on it and 10 speed down tube shifters. I love downtube shifters, but I do have the matching 600 STI that work great. Should I put the brifters on and be all matchy matchy or keep it 10 speed with downtubes? I prefer the downtubes. But you get it

Wow, well done. It's in really nice paintscheme, this one. Where I live we see a lot of Cadex, but always in purple/yellow/greenish screaming paintschemes. This is a lot more soothing to the eyes.:thumb:

Posterity pics.. since my last attempt didn't really seem to be a pic of the bike.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps1d679058.jpg
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps6cdb008a.jpg
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...psc2caf0ab.jpg
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps55416f56.jpg

A Columbus SP Bottecchia I dressed up in 8 Speed Titanium Record. While it's not perfect (Nashbar pedals! Non Campy QR skewers! The horror!) it does 150+ miles/week--it's not just a vanity project.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7288/9...9b03eb03_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3825/9...8405bd7d_c.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7435/9...04e66f8e_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3706/9...cdf4a0c4_c.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7378/9...484dc2d2_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2879/9...b3ee0e30_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5453/9...80f98570_c.jpg

Don't see how you keep it that clean with that mileage. :) Nice!

Is it just me, or is the barrel adjuster on your brake upside down?

It absolutely is. Pretty bike though.

Pretty bicycle.

I wouldn't worry, every bicycle I build has some wacky detail I missed.

That's why I ask Casey to help.

So they turn out right.

1984 Simoncini. Columbus SLX tubing. Paint was beyond saving, surface rusted.
Powder coated, decals from Holland, group from UK, some BF trades, 10sp Centaur.

The frame seller left the TT cable housing in it, for my convenience. Unfortunately, it came out in pieces. Once it was powder-coated, I then found out the internal TT routing was a tube, and it was 100% blocked by some kind of cable housing liner. There was no pulling it out, as one end snapped back like a ligament on a fried chicken leg. I had to drill out the openings, snapping about 5 bits in the process. Then, it was coat hangar time, with the hefty bends. Once I had the coat hangar through, I realized that moving the Jagwire housing up from the rear, with that "leader" housing on it, was going to be nearly impossible, so I cut the leader housing off, and ended up with about 2" of housing to spare, overall. It followed the coat hangar from rear to front and I finally got it cut right and operating smoothly.

I can only imagine the original setup (red with white decals) had some very short-reach calipers, as the Centaurs are about at their limit of "short reach" with the Vento G3's. It turns very much like the Cinelli. I also compromised one of the fork tubing decals, so I'll have to order another. Definitely another "BF" bike: cudak888-frameset, bulldogge-bars, whatwolf-stem, shoota-seatpost, thirdgenbird-saddle. I know I got the shifters/FD/RD from someone here, but it's probably been at least a year..

http://i.imgur.com/LEsYmhZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KYht09O.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AD8w7TW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/vO4MYqq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/G8zy88K.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LddGBaq.jpg

Thanks for the complement Grady.

robbie, great job! I recognize that saddle :) pretty impressive weight. Those ventos are not the lightest wheelset around. Your eurus wheels would probably make it even more impressive.

Impressively light bike. My 760 with a 1550g wheelset and carbon blade fork (offset by rolls saddle) weighs 22 lbs ready to ride.

Nice color combo too. Lots of nice looking builds on this page.

I weighed it twice, and it locked on that both times. Surprised me as well, as that weight is with pedals.

^Pedals ad about a pound, that's really great Robbie!

hehe. Yes! This was my first time building a modern bike (i.e. not friction shifters and centerpull brakes) and the the brakes came like that--which I thought was wierd given the unsightly cable housing to brake joint--but figured I was wrong. Anyhow, the brakes work and I have since fixed it, the pix are old. I guess that's how the parts are screwed together for shipping to keep everything together?

I think you did a great job on the bicycle.

I always find things to tinker with on bicycles I build and it looks like you are in the same boat. :)

I am interested though in ride impressions. Is the bicycle everything you thought it might be?

Robbie, isn't that a 60cm**********?

Nice :thumb: