More Upgrade Help
 

Ok, folks you were all wonderful last time. I need some more help now. I have a late 70's Raleigh International. Last summer I asked for help on upgrading the crankset to help get up the hills. I decided to go the cheaper route. I ended up with a Campy Veloce Compact Crank. Works just fine. The problem now is the Super Record RD is just too extended. Even use the tricks, I'm not comfortable. I want to upgrade. I have a narrow six speed 14-28 on the back and 50/34 on the front, which gives me a 30 chain wrap. I want to stay Campy, so I have a couple of questions. First are all modern Campy RDs capable of being used in a friction mode? Second, according to Campy's web site, with that chain wrap and cog I'm into a mid cage range. I've read a couple of articles that say the short cages are rated fairly conservative. The SR RD has about a 45mm cage. Most newer Campy short cages are 55mm. Is that enough or do I really need a med cage?

Thanks.

Yes to friction. Indexing is in the shifter not the derailleur. I would go at least med cage and if it was my own bike I would go to a long cage. It a matter of grams weight difference and you never need to worry about chain wrap with a long cage. Roger

Since you want to stay Campy - take a look at Chorus. Some of them aren't "in-your-face" modern looking.

I would go long cage... just in case as the rider gets more vintage you ever want to go triple. :)

If you used 46-34 / 13-28, you would get the same top and bottom gear ratios with 27 teeth total windup.

I would go with either a medium or long cage Campy derailleur. Fortunately, fairly recent models (rated as 8 or 9-speeds) are commonly sold for greatly reduced prices. Now that 10-speeds have become increasingly more common and of course most popular with newer bike buyers, older models are just dead stock on bike shop shelves. The earlier models will still have the same generous reach in case you ever decide to update the frame to 130mm spacing for 8-9-10 speed cassette rear hubs. Just look for a lower tier model which will still have aluminum construction rather than carbon fiber paralellogram plates and it will maintain the more classic component look I assume you'd prefer. Keep them well maintained and derailleurs used on road bikes can last a lifetime. :thumb:

You could do something like this to keep the vintage look, but you'll be much happier with the shifting performance of a later model derailer. Besides, you've already blown the vintage look with that Veloce crank.

http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/30...600x600Q85.jpg

There's an early '90s Racing Triple on ebay that would be perfect.

Thanks for all the help from everyone. I've finished the upgrade, but it was a little more involved than I had planned. I ended up getting a Veloce Med cage 10 speed RD. I knew the pulley wheels would be too narrow, so the first thing I did was replace with my old sealed bearing pulleys. However, I didn't think about the pulley screws being too short. Got some 5mm screws from the hardware store that worked fine. Next problem, even though I used the original pulleys, the way the cage was designed still rubbed the original chain sometimes. So I ended up replacing with a new 8 speed chain. Problem solved. Next, because of the was the RD mounts I had to replace the shifter cable and sheath because it was now too short (anyone know where I can get the old style spring type sheaths). Finally everything was working. I when to adjust the RD limit screws and discovered that the low gear limit screw was too short for the 120 mm spacing. Argh! Went back to the bike shop and the guy found a longer limit screw from a junk RD that worked perfectly.

Now that it's all done all I can say is wow! I wish I'd done this years ago. It rides beautifully and shifts so smoothly and positively I can't believe it. Who needs indexing. Another advantage of the narrower chain is virtually no trimming of the FD. At the end of the day the whole upgrade: cranks, BB, RD, chain and odds and ends cost about $180.

Again thanks to all for all the advice.

This is funny - I was trying to do the same exact thing in this thread:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=455776

and came up with the same exact solution!

I feel better I made the right choice, now knowing that you already tested it for me - thanks!

I liked John E's approach above: 46/34 on 13-28. I don't see the point of carrying the hardware for gearing that you'll never use. It's because we like to think that we have the same machinery as the pro cyclists (though we don't have their legs or lungs). And the manufacturers egg us on in this delusion, and won't provide cassettes built for sport riding -- starting and ending with larger tooth counts.

The choice, at least for someone who's gotten over the shame of riding a bike with lower gears, is to build your own cassettes, or just go with smaller chainrings. The former (like a 16-28 freewheel or cassette) gives the possibility of more gears that are closer together, but the latter is cheaper.