My Paramount P10-9 has a 14-24 cog set and 52-42 rings. This gives a gear range of about 48 to 101 inches. A modern touring triple or mountain bike has a low gear in the teens. I've got a heart problem and I'm worried I'm not going to make it up the steepest section of my commute, where on my MTB commuter I'm at about 30" gearing. But I'm not sure I want to change it either - it wouldn't be authentic, would it? I do see 14-28 5-speed cogs are available and might change for one of those, but it still only gets me down to 41", and I don't know if my derailleur can hack it. I can't find any lower chainrings for this crankset either. I guess I'm just worried that the bike will be overgeared for me and I won't be able to change it without major surgery.

The P15 had a triple and a lower cog, and looks like different derailleurs too?

It's important to have authentic parts when you're lying on the side of the road dead.

My Paramount has a 34 in the rear and a 41 in the front (41 being the smallest possible for the 144BCD Campy cranks). To cover the range the bike is equipped with a 1st version Campy Rally. Its certainly not correct, but I obtained the bike as a frame and fork and built it up. But it has to have gears to allow me to ride around town and St. Paul has some serious hills, else what good is it? BTW this bike convinced me that 27 1 1/4 wheels and tires are not a bad thing at all. Of all the bikes I have its the best ride- fast but also smooth.

Pick up Rally style cage plates, repros exist. Should get you to 36 or 38 in the rear (with additional chain). The P15 had a triple crank; 52/42/36, hard to find these days. TA made a triple adapter middle chainring, even harder to find. Some specialty shops are drilling cranks to add a triple.

Thank you for your concern... :-D
I'm more limited by my blood pressure meds than by the actual problem, they prevent high heart rate.

I definitely have considered just getting a modern triple and biggest rear cogs I can find, plus derailleurs as needed, and saving the old parts in a box.

How do you get the big cogs in the rear? Are they homebrewed, or new old stock, or does someone make them?

eBay. There's a Shimano freewheel on there right now that is 14-34 teeth, plus several Regina units, all 6-speed. There are some nice Suntour 5-speed units that have the same range too.

6-speed goes right in where the 5 was, or needs skinnier chain or...? Sorry, I'm new to swapping stuff, have only ever replaced parts that broke on my other bikes.

It goes right in, you might have to re-space your axle and re-dish the wheel. but it's honestly doubtful.

You'll need a 6 speed axle, the extra spacers and to redish the wheel. Personally I think 5 are plenty, and I stick to Suntour freewheels. The NR rear will handle a 28 max if you get the chain length right. Been running those since 1972.

There was a freewheel called a Super-6 years ago, a 6 speed that fit in the space of 5, same chain, but not sure where you'd find one these days.

I'm pretty sure there are good bike shops near you. If you don't know what you are doing, take it to a shop, or an experienced forum member.

Only if it says SPECIALIZED on it

LOLs

Suntour Ultra 6 freewheels will more or less fit in the space of a 5 speed, but require a narrower chain. Current 8 speed such as an SRAM PC830/50/70/90 or equivalent KMCs work good here. As pointed out earlier, a Shimano or other freewheel (maybe even HyperGlide) are available in 5 speed, but of course your gear spacing will increase (amount of gap between gears).

A 41 tooth chainring is the lowest possible on a Campy 144BCD crankset, and they are nearly impossible to find, and 1 tooth won't make that big of difference anyhow.

Elliot Bay Cycles will (or at least used to) drill Campy NR cranks for a triple for around $140 (including the inner chainring), but you would also need to use a longer BB spindle, and Campy triple BBs are hard to find and $$ as well. If you decide to go triple, I would consider setting aside your current crank and BB, and using a different crank/BB setup in a triple. And use a freewheel with at least a 26T, maybe a 28T in the rear. Make sure the chain is long enough for the large-large combo +2 links here.

There comes a point where I might as well get a modern bike, like my brother-in-law's 1992 Diamondback Expert

And thanks for the help everyone. Clearly it's a work in progress...


IMG_0861 by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

I put a VO Grand Cru triple crankset on my 1973 Paramount. I cold set the rear to 126 mm and have a 7 speed 14-28 back there. It'll climb any hill around here in the Piedmont. Yep.

The gearing on that bike was too high for most people when it was new... there are not that many folks that would want to push a 46 gear inch low up any kind of grade for any length of time.

Getting the gearing down to 39-40 is going to help some but if that is not low enough some of the parts may have to be changed / modernized to expand the gear ratio, especially at the bottom end.

The Grand Cru triple is a great looking crank that would not look out of place on a chrome Paramount...

I was just looking at those but the resulting high gear kind of sucks.

It's not a chrome despite the dropouts, it's light silver and has some rusty spots... that's the next project

There's also the unsightly mega-range freewheels.

My stock '72 P15-9 has a low gear of 30.6 gear-inches with 700-25 tires. Schwinn used a rebadged Shimano Crane long cage derailleur labeled "Schwinn-Approved Le Tour GT-300" on the P15 on an otherwise Campy Nuovo Record equipped bike because it was vastly superior to the Campy Gran Turismo.



In contrast, the low gear on my Waterford RS-22 with a Campy compact double and the same tires is 30.9 gear-inches (34t chainring and 29t cog).

I can climb most hills around here on either bike, and I'm not that good a climber.

I would pick up one of the nice cnc made long cages from Elliott Bay Cycles as he sells them on eBay for 40. Then toss on a larger freewheel and give that a whirl. If you need more then send your cranks and have them made into a triple.

The velo orange cranks would look good; or get a sugino triple like this XD 500T from Soma: https://store.somafab.com/suxd600cr.html. You get a 48-36-24 with a steel inner (that's a good thing on a 24t inner chain ring). Add that to a 13-24 5 (or 6) speed and you're good to go. You'll have to do something about the derailleurs. You could get a campy rally or long cages for the NR but you'll get a better shifting with with a Japanese rear derailleur.

the Campag triple, #1048/5, threaded the crankarm-spider for theor 36t 3rd ring..
Paramounts did sell, fitted with them , back in the day.
with #3450, Rally RD , Ideally..

Another option you might consider is pairing one of the Electra Ticino compact cranks
https://store.electrabike.com/eSource..._/_750035.aspx
with a wide range freewheel and Campy Rally rear derailleur. The Ticino cranks have a very vintage look, kind of a combination of Stronglight 49D and Campy Record and the sale price can't be beat. I have one on my gravel grinder paired with a Shimano 14-34 meagarange freewheel and Rally RD.

Depends on the brand of Mega-Range.



I bought a '71 P-13 frameset a few years back and built it so my old, fat, and out of shape body could actually ride it here in the NH mountains. It has a Williams triplizer with a middle 42T and a granny 31T chainrings. I'm running 27 X 1 & 1/4 wheels and tires and a 13-32 Suntour Ultra 6. My current RD is a Sachs/Huret Eco Duopar. I've also used the Campy Rally 2nd generation, but they don't shift as well. If you need a triple, why not? There are plenty of faithful options out there.