I love My Benotto but I am thinking about making it a bit more modern. Minimally what I need to know is what will it take to go from 6 speed to 10 speed?
I know the basics. I need a back wheel and cassette, Rear dérailleur, chain.
I assume I will have to swap out the Super Maxi cranks or are they usable with a 10 speed chain? I would like to keep the the Campy Friction shifters. Any reason they will not work a Shimano 10 speed rear deraileur?


Tell me what else I may not be thinking of.
Thanks

I've never heard of either 10-speed bar-cons, or 10 speed DT shifters. Perhaps your 6 speed shifters will work, but I suspect they may not generate sufficient reach. I also suspect that you need narrower chainrings and possibly a different crankset.

You definitely need a new 10 speed crank set because of the spacing between the chain rings are so much closer than the 6 speed. Shimano makes 10 speed bar cons.
Another thing to consider is your frame, you need 130mm spacing to get it to fit properly. Also some older frames have beefier chain stay that may rub when upgrading to 10 speed because of tolerance is so much tighter. You can keep the friction shifter to work with 10 speed, provided you get a new rear hub, chain and cassette.

That makes sense. I was thinking about tooth spacing. The width never dawned on me.


So the shifters should have enough travel to move a 10 speed rear from low to high?

I've been recently looking to upgrade a frame with 126 mm spacing to a new wheel set. What other hub options are out there for people looking to do this? Even in keeping a 126 spacing, what new hubs are out there? Any?

I'm skeptical of that but I've certainly never tried it.

I think the 10 speed shifters should work okay as long as they're not indexing. The freehub for a 8,9 and 10 speed is the same length. Right? What I'm wondering though, is how to get a 130 mm hub into a 126 spaced frame.

A few friction shifters, such as the old Schwinn TwinStiks, definitely will not have enough total cable take-up capacity. Good old SunTour ratchet barcons may come up short, as well -- I am not sure.

It should go into a steel frame very easily, but do not try it with aluminum or fiber.

The easiest way to obtain 18 (or even 21) speeds in a vintage bike is to put a triple in front.

My SunTour's do just fine.

I think shimano makes indexing 10-speed downtube shifters; there is still a market amongst the triathlon crowd. I am pretty sure that I've seen indexing 10-speed barcons as well.