geekrunner

All I can say is those bikes are sweeeet! I take that back, I have other things to say

I just sold my 87 Fuji Sagres 6 speed frame, but I had previously converted it to 7 speed by screwing on a Shimano Hyperglide 7 speed freewheel, and used 3 x 8 Sora brifters and Sora front and rear derailleurs. I was able to make the adjustments to adapt the brifters to 2 x 7 functionality. As far as the freewheel was concerned, I did not have to redish the wheel at all, or lengthen the axle to 130mm. I only had to grind down a screw that protruded beyond the right dropout. It was the screw holding the axle spacer in the dropout. As far as the clearance issue for using 8, 9, 0r 10 speed wheels, 130mm axle hubs will fit just fine in 126mm fropouts, it jsut needs to spread the dropouts 2mm on each side. I eventually bought new 700c wheelset and Tektro long reach brakes, converted to 8 speed, and it worked fabulously! I like downtube shifters in general, but for doing serious biking on hilly terrain, like in southern Indiana, I really like having brifters.

Good luck, and congrats on inheriting a great looking bike!

geek

ochizon

Ok, so here is the latest.

I installed the sora 7 shifters, and they are functional, but far from flawless. I installed a shimano 7speed freewheel, and its the same. I realized why the derailer does matter. Depending on the length of the arms of the derailer and the instertion angle of the shifter cable, a given distance of shifter index can result in more or less actual sweep of the dreailer, based on these variables (in my case, the derailer thorws a little further per shift than the spacing between cogs). In light of this, I realize that I will need a shimano derailer to have flawless shifting. So I have two questions:

1. do I need to go with a sora derailer desinged to work with these specific shifters, or is the "shimano throw" always the same among indexed shifters/derailers?

2. The largest cog in my freewheel is a 28t. Many of the shimano road derailers indicate a max tooth count of 27t. Is this set in stone, of can I get away with an extra tooth?

Thanks!

P.S. The bike is looking sharpe with the new shifters and bar tape! I'll get pics up soon!

cudak888 

Any of the SIS-compatible derailers should be able to do the job without trouble, though D/A and some of the latest models might not be compatible in some cases (though I haven't fiddled with these enough to know exactly which fall under this heading).

-Kurt

ochizon

What is d/a?

cudak888 

Dura-Ace.

-Kurt

ochizon

gotcha

Soooo, probably a 8/9 speed 105 or ultegra should do the trick?

I wonder what derailers were around during the time of this shimano 7 speed hyperglide cassette...

cudak888 

An older 105 from the 7-speed era would do good - also RSX and such. This should do you well, though the older black/silver 105's from the mid '80s would be a nicer fit with the Raleigh USA machine.

https://cgi.ebay.com/Shimano-105-Rear...QQcmdZViewItem

-Kurt

ochizon

Well, I ordered this on ebay. Got it for $44. Wish me luck!

Thanks for all the help guys!!! I will update soon!