sethco

Well it is your bike and your money, the real question is what do you think?

$450 installed including new cables & housing sounds like a decent price to me (assuming the shifters and derailleurs are in good working condition, if not it will end up costing more in money and time). This probably won't do much to meet your original requirement of some lower gears though.

DayTrick

So I passed on the Ultegra deal and just want to buy the Sugino Alpina 48/34 and replace cables/housing. Maybe get new wheelset down the road. Recommendations for a 7-speed? And should I change out my cassette while I'm at it and maybe change the size???

DayTrick

So, Homebrew (great name BTW), can I put on a new 9 or 10 cassette and chain as long as I use the friction option on my DT shifters? I assume I would have to add a spacer on the back??? I'm still trying to nail down my options for upgrading. For sure I want to upgrade crankset to a 48/34 Sugino, replace old cassette (7-speed 105), chain, brake pads and cables/housing. I'll probably upgrade wheelset in awhile, too.

I think that's all I'm going to do for now. No need for brifters at this point.

DayTrick

Can I get some advice on the cassette issue? And then I will get this whole upgrade decision settled and I won't bother any of you anymore!

...at least for a few days or so. ;^)

sethco

No, you can't put an 8 or bigger cassette on your 7 speed hub; 8-10 speed freehubs are wider to accomodate a wider cassette. You can put a 7 speed cassette on an 8-10 hub with a 4.5mm spacer on the inside but not the other way around. If you changed the wheelset to one with a newer 130mm hub it would take a bigger cassette but I don't know if your 7 speed derailleur would be able to shift all the way up to the biggest cog, it was only designed to move far enough to span a narrower cassette.

You can buy 7 speed cassettes still, for example at Harris Cyclery or Loose Screws (I have bought from Harris and their service is great, haven't bought from Loose Screws but I have heard that they are good as well). If you upgrade the wheels and want to keep the 7 speed derailleurs you can get a spacer from either of them as well.

Do the chain and cassette really need to be replaced? Way back at the beginning of this thread you described the components as "near mint"; it is possible that those parts still have some life in them if the bike wasn't ridden too much.

kaliayev

If your sticking with the old stuff except the crank, why not just buy some new chain rings and get lower gearing much cheaper. I have an old Fuji that I wanted lower gearing on for commuting. I went from 52/42 to 48/38 with some brand new Stronglight gears I won off ebay for $22 shipped.

DayTrick

Well I finally finished my upgrades. Only took 7-8 months...only. I tried to keep it as retro as possible and making the bike more comfortable and efficient regarding the gearing.

Here's a list of my upgrades:

Sugino Alpina crankset 48/34
SRAM 9-speed cassette 11-28
SRAM chain
IRD bottom bracket
Neuvation M28 aero wheels
Conti 4000S 700x25 tires
Nitto Randonneur handlebars w/ new black wrap
Nitto stem 90
Shimano brake pads
New cables and housing

Before:


After:

Dean V

The bike looks great. You can also buy Dura Ace 10 speed indexed down tube shifters. I have them on my bike and they work very well.

DayTrick

I have the original stock 105 shifters on it now...they're indexed for 7-speed, but have a friction option. The 105s are in great condition...no need to switch.

TnDiamondback

A "properly" set up triple works fine, I have no problem with mine and it is lowly Tiagra, OP may want to look at that groupset, it is better equipment than most of us are riders, after all I have heard it referred to as yesterdays 105.

shelbyfv

The silver stem looks much better! Good job. Where did you find the Alpina crank?

DayTrick

It's actually an XD2 500...very similar to an Alpina if not the same thing. The chain rings are anodized not polished though. Thanks.

DayTrick

So I took my Davidson out for the first time since the upgrades and less than mile into the ride...my rear wheel came loose and I crashed! Fortunately I was going kind of slow uphill, checking the bike out, and my fall was a softish landing. Bruised hip, scraped elbow, not too bad.

It seems the open cam skewers from my new Neuvations weren't strong enough to hold the wheel in my 20-year-old frame that had the older style horizontal dropouts. The tire jammed into the left chainstay and wouldn't rotate . Down I went in a hurry. So I went back home and swapped the new rear skewer with my old stock Shimano 105 rear closed cam skewer. It tightened down well and hopefully will be OK now. Didn't get a chance to ride today...hopefully later this week.