I'm confident it would work with indexed; I just happen to like Bar-Cons. I now have them on two of my three derailleured bikes. I may throw a freewheel with ramped cogs on the back to make shifting a little cleaner, but it shifts pretty well as it is. So much better than friction DT shifters. I feel the reach for a rider as tall as I am to get to the DT shifters just put me off balance.

To bring out the tan a little more, I got a tan plaid tool roll from Bike Burrito on Etsy.







I think it looks more distinctive than the generic black saddle bag I had on there.

Great progress. I like it.

Future mods:

. Close ratio 7-speed ramped freewheel, and replace the Suntour aRX with a Cyclone M-II rear derailleur.
. Even though I pulled out the flat spot on the rear rim, I can still feel a bump in it. Gotta get a better wheelset on there. I've got a few ideas; maybe I can get something better out of the stuff in my garage.

Very cool build. Personally, I liked the look with the black wrap set off with the twine. Really brought out the black and tan theme.

I thought there was lots of black and not enough tan, so I decided to go with the cork tape.

"I know Raleigh USAs were essentially Huffys in the mid 80s, but I've had a couple of them now, and I really like their livery." - D.H.

Seem to be pretty nice bikes. Not too bad at all for stuff from Huffy, or any other manufacturer for that matter.
I have the Raleigh Touring 18 and it is pretty decent.

BTW, don't forget the Black and Tan terriers. A nice breed of dog.

Don't think you could have gone wrong either way

Yeah, true. I think if I hadn't been trying to go with a particular theme, I would have left the black on there.

Very nice. Really sets off the two tone paint.

I just picked up a Aged B17 to use on one of my older bikes and that might be the perfect tape to match the saddle.

Is it honey brown? The tap I used above (Cinelli cork) + amber shellac = honey brown. My other bike:



Warning: The shellac will not stay on this tape where you put your hands. It will wear away, but even then, it looks like worn leather.

Nope its listed as tan by Brooks. Have a Honey flyer on one of the other bikes. This is much more washed out look. I suspect it will darken up with Profide and some use.

Well that was easy. Haven't test ridden it yet, but the install of the new freewheel and derailleur went well.

Very nice choice. I favor the Cyclone myself.
Except for the one near my house last year

I've had a chance to ride it a few times now. Pretty sweet.

Build looks really clean, what freewheel is that you installed?

This is great, and very practical too.

Have you considered tanwall tires to spread the color scheme around a little further?

I have, but the Forte 27 x 1s with Kevlar belts that I got with the bike haven't flatted yet. Until they do, or they wear out, I'm leavin' well enough alone.

It's a SunRace R30 13-25 7-speed ramped freewheel, JayBlurr. It mates up with my Cyclone rear derailleur really well.

I haven't used every derailleur ever made, but I suspect that the Cyclone M-II models may be the all-things-considered best derailleurs available for friction shifting.

Yeah.... funny thing is, I traded someone an older bike for a frame, and the other guy picked up a few derailleurs and gave them to me cuz he thought he was getting the better end of the deal. One of them was the Cyclone MII. I read here on BF that it's supposed to be a better RD, so I decided to get a close-ratio freewheel to try it. So far, so good.

thats probably the RD i need, i have a Suntour Sprint and get nothing but chatter from the chain with my 13-19 6 speed freewheel. I hate noise.

Do you have a ramped freewheel? (i.e., has the freewheel been replaced?) If inot, that's the way they all worked back in the day. If it all the teeth are identical and flat, no ramps, they are going to chatter in between gears. In the mid to late 80s, Shimano and Suntour came out with indexed shifting systems. At first they just tried angling the tips of the teeth to help facilitate shifting. It led to crisper shifting, but there was still a fair amount of noise in between gears. Then they came out with ramped gears that have shapes built into the gear profiles to give the shifting chain something to "grab onto" in between gears, producing nearly silent shifting.

The Cyclone is smooth-moving and gives nice shifts, but without a modern, ramped freewheel, there will always be chatter between gears.

And now I have a front derailleur to match the Cyclone in the rear.



Thanks to mkeller234!

Nicely done! Sorry to hear that the Marathon is toast, but this bike is a sweet ride! Congratulations on the up-grade!

The Marathon has a severely bent derailleur hanger, and a slightly bent dropout on the right side. My plan is to perhaps make a path racer out of it, maybe with a two speed Bendix kickback I have (in pieces) or perhaps some other IGH. I like the thought of a kickback with no shifter cable. I have other things ahead of that in the line, though, so I'm just hanging onto the frame for now.