DayTrick

My Davidson.

Rocket-Sauce 

^^What a beauty. I don't see a need to modernize anything. If you replace the cables, chain, cassette and lube everything you will be suprised at how great it rides.

BF etiquette: always photograph your bike showing driveside, preferably in front of a white garage door.

Homebrew01

You have a wide variety of choices (and prices), many good ones already mentioned.
I did a couple of budget conversions to 10 speed for about $350-$400 each, by shopping for lightly used or NOS drivetrain parts.

If it's just a gearing issue, switch to a triple or compact and leave everything else alone. You may find that 7 in back is enough once you have lower gears up front.

You can also put an 8/9/10 wheel on the back with an 8/9 or 10 chain, and stick with friction shifters.

DayTrick

How much of an improvement are the sti shifters vs my old down tube shifters?

pcfxer

You don't need the frame spread. You just pull the stays apart and slide the wheel in, works on my 80's Bianchi Limited just fine.

pcfxer

STI = Great for racing but for casual riding stick with Frictions. There are beautiful Dura Ace 10-speed fiction shifters at JensonUSA for $90. STI shifters are less reliable .

ndbiker

I'm not a gear head but I did replace the triple on my 2002 Bianchi Eros to a compact double. I had an 1983 Raleigh Super Sport Mixte that I wanted to set up for my wife so I talked to my LBS about putting the triple on my Raleigh. It worked great. If your goal is merely to have a lower gear you might check into just replacing the crankset. I know Campy cranksets are (or were) designed to use friction shifters. There are other companies which I know their cranksets are designed to be used with friction shifters (ie. Sugino which you can get with alot lower gearing). I bet you could find a crankset that's a couple years old (maybe even one never used) for a lot cheaper than replacing everything and it would give you 80+% of what your looking for.

https://cgi.ebay.com/CAMPAGNOLO-CENTA...item588e5de9bd

tanguy frame

I did something similar and I'm almost done. I upgraded a 1978 steel frame with old style campy record to modern 10 speed. Here's how it worked out for me:
first I got some wheels (250), cassette (95) and chain (40), rear derraileur (95) and right hand side shifter (37). I selected 10 speed campy cause I like campy. I used a combination of ebay and e-tail. I added new cables (40) and handlebar tape (20), color matched of course.
I rode that for a while and decided I needed new saddle (140), handlebars (64), pedals (75). When I changed out the handle bars, I replaced the left side shifter with campy ergolever (25) used from ebay.
My next and final swap will be to get a compact crank and bottom bracket, which I expect to pay around $150 for.
I love my steel frame and it rides like a dream machine now. I'm happy with the upgrade, and don't ride my Moots much anymore

That was about $900. I did it over about 3 months.

DayTrick

So...will any compact crank work with the 7-speed? It seems most of the ones I've looked at are for 10 speeds. And would a Campy compact work with my original Shimano 105 friction shifters? Would it be easier to just stick with Shimano? My head is spinning...

ndbiker

When I moved my 9 spd. Veloce triple over to my Raleigh it was a six speed and works fine. I believe, and those who understand bikes better can confirm or deny this, that so long as your shifters for your front deraillers are friction shifters there should be no problem.

Nachoman

Huge improvement. You'll love it.

DayTrick

My Shimano 105 SL-1055 shifters are indexed but have a friction option. Any advantage to upgrading to Dura Ace downtube shifters? My 105s seem to be in excellent condition.

I'm thinking more and more of keeping my bike as vintage as possible. I like the Sugino Alpina compact crank (48-34) a lot and would also upgrade to new chain, cables/housing, brake pads.

Should I also consider a new cassette?

nateintokyo

Beautiful bike!

I second the 'keep it vintage' idea. Save a bit more and get a modern bike too? The Davidson certainly is very sweet as it is.
If you are going modern, alternatively, I'd want to get Campy Athena 11 on there. The alloy group would look great on that frame.

Homebrew01

Probably. A new chain on an old cassette often suffers from skipping .... not always though, depending on wear.

DayTrick

Quick question: Campy Athena alloy crankset ($135.00) or Sugino Alpina CS ($150.00)? Both will work with my 7-speed.

The Campy is 50/34 and the Sugino is 48/34.

sethco

Both will perform fine and the extra two teeth on the Campy will give you a little more high end but probably not a big deal either way. I would go with Sugino, it is probably cheaper in the end.

Older Campy cranks used an ISO taper bottom bracket; newer ones use Campy's PowerTorque bb. The Sugino uses a JIS taper bb which I think is what you have now.

If you go with the Campy you will definitely need a new bottom bracket. With Sugino you may be able to use the existing one; it is possible that you will need a shorter or longer spindle bb but JIS taper bottom brackets are easier to find and less expensive than ISO in my experience.

2ndGen

For $600., you can get this:



Buy it and be done with it. Ride it, enjoy the progress of 20+ years that cycling has gone through.
Build up your current steel bike as a project picking up parts as you find them at great prices.
That way, you can still "ride" while putting together a beautiful classic and learning as you go.


Or, if you love your current bike, upgrade it.

DayTrick

Is the current Shimano 105/Ultegra/DA this type of BB? I would like to get a new one as the stock BB is 20 years old.

sethco

No, new Shimano cranks use a different bb system called Hollowtech II. If you need a new bb I'd recommend just getting one of the less expensive ones like a Shimano UN54 (also available from many retailers or your LBS), that crank is speced to use a 110mm spindle. For the most part more expensive bbs may weigh less or have bearings that will last longer but the less expensive one will perform just as well until it wears out in a few years.

You might not need a new bb though. You said that the other components are near mint so presumably the bb is as well. It probably needs an overhaul (new grease and might as well put in new ball bearings while it is open) but I bet the races are fine and it will serve you well for many years. I recently overhauled a 20+ year old Dura Ace bb that had probably never been serviced; the grease was dried up and dirty but the races were still in good shape and it spins just fine now.

Are you planning to put the new crank on yourself or have the shop do it? If yourself then you will need a few specialized tools but it isn't hard and you can find good tutorials (for example on the Park Tool web site) and some good help here on the Mechanic's forum. If you are going to have the store do it then I would just bring them the crank (or have them order it) and let them make the call about whether the existing bb is worth overhauling.

DayTrick

THanks for all the info Seth; you've been very helpful. Sounds like the Sugino is the way for me to go and it's a beautiful piece of equipment. The cool thing about the Sugino is that I could throw it on now without other mods and it would also allow me to use it if I upgraded to a ten speed in the future. Do you agree?

I got in a 26-miler yesterday with some guys who were doing a full metric century and I kept up fairly well despite being a little out of shape (they pulled away from me on the hills) but I kept thinking having lower gearing and 10 speeds would have been nice. The bike really felt good though and convinced me to do the further upgrades for enhancement. In the meantime I just need to ride, ride, ride.

Standalone 

I enjoy shifting my DT shifter Panasonic much more thanmy 3x8 Shimano Sora STI Jamis. The little extra clicks necessary to trim the FD drive me up a wall. I prefer the quick and intuitive shifting of the old friction DT front. I hardly ride my fancy steel/carbon bits Jamis as a result. I'm probably a lone voice here, but I say just keep your bike as is and buy yourself a cheap-ish modern bike to ride on for a few seasons and see what you like or don't like about it. I got my Jamis used for like $350.

edit/ps -- imo, 10/11 speeds are best for serious racers who are in awesome shape and will benefit from having a certain gearing that will be most efficient. For the rest of us, I think operating in a wider "power band" and sometimes pushing a gear slightly taller or at a slightly higher cadence actually winds up giving a better workout and training us better. Then, even when we take that old 7 speed out and ride hard against a group of fancy bikes, we've trained that little bit harder and can give them all a run for their money. And if you really do get riding more, you're not going to need that compact. A regular 52/39'll do ya just fine.

sethco

yes, that crank should work with a 10 speed chain. I have the Grand Cru crank which has similar specs on a bike with 10sp cassette and it works fine.

DayTrick

My crankset is 53/42 and I'm really slow on the hills. But yeah I need to keep riding to build some strength, speed.

DayTrick

So...a fellow BF'er (Bill) has offered me a full used Ultegra 6600 group (good condition) and will install for $450. The crankset is 53/38. He also has a used Bontrager wheelset he'll throw in for another $100. Cables, tubing also included.

Seems like a good deal, especially considering the free labor. And I have no experience with bike mechanics, so...

What'ya think?

Homebrew01

Sounds good. You might be able to get a few bucks back selling your old "vintage" parts.