Bryon Wright wrote:
>I remember when I had first posted that I picked the Raleigh Gran
>Sport for $100
>I want to ride the bicycle on the Waves to Wine ride this year and
>do the double century but I'm afraid the Simplex gears will not hold
>up to the challenge (the delrin plastic ones). Recently my dad was
>driving down a backroad and found...Huret Allvit derailleurs that I
>was considering on swapping for the Simplex gears mainly because of
>reliability of these components but I have not decided whether or
>not if I should.
That would actually be a downgrade. If you're going to replace the
derailers, even $20 Shimano units would be a HUGE improvement over
either of those.
>I was also thinking of the possibility of switching the bicycle to
>ergo bars with aero levers for more ride comfort.
I'm not at all convinced that "ergo" bars are more comfortable, but
switching to aero levers would make a big improvement in the braking.
The $40 Shimano levers are the best drop-bars ever made, and they
even come with cables and housing for that price!
>As far as gears are concerned I don't have any problems with a 10
>speed drivetrain and I've been told a bicycle such as mine is like
>owning a Porsche from the 60's and that no one would alter a 60's
>Porsche and why alter my bicycle?
The old frames ride nicer than most newer frames (that's not so of '60s Porsches.) The old parts, however, work much worse than modern parts, most especially the brakes and gears. If you don't plan to keep this as a museum piece (and it's really not rare enough for that) upgrading to better parts will make it more likely that you'll continue riding it.
Sheldon "Old Frames, New Parts" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees |
| things as they are, not as they ought to be. |
| --Ambrose Bierce |
+--------------------------------------------------+
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