Newbie with a question

Hi All from Tadley, North Hants,

I have just joined after purchasing myself a Raleigh Equipe. I only got it a week ago, but it has already been stripped down ready for its respray and tart up. I am really looking forward to getting it back on the road again...maybe with slightly different gearing!

Question 1. The gear shifters are fixed to a threaded insert, which appears to be either welded or bonded to the frame. Will these be okay to leave on for powder coating?

Question 2. The gearing seems to be totally different to what I am used to on my modern MTB. The front sprockets are rather large, resulting in me almost getting off to walk some hills! at the moment it is 52/42. Is there somewhere I can purchase smaller front sprockets that will fit the bike, to make things a bit easier on my old legs? Any recommendation on size?

Many thanks in advance.

Gunter.

Hi Gunter

The gear lever bosses would be brazed to the frame, so should be left on.

Nothing wrong with 52/42, it should give you plenty of low gears, just that you need to learn to pedal, and have your shoes attached to the pedals. Mrs K used to time trial with 55/53 and 13 to 19.

Keith

Re:

Thanks for the quick reply Keith. I will leave the bosses on, frame is hopefully going in tomorrow for a new lick of paint.

Re:

My brother bought an Equipe new, IIRC it was white/yellow/grey

What gearing on the back are you running, you could always maximise that too

Swapping chain rings might be a pain, depending on the BCD of them. Probably cheaper to look out for another chainset. If you are not worried about originality then a cheap compact will help. If originality is your thing learn to push a bigger gear.
Different freewheel or cassette could help a bit as well.

Re:

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure of the rear gearing, but they are pretty small! I will check when I get home this evening. I'm not overly stressed about originality, I would rather have a useable bike, so probably go for another complete chainset.

On another note, the frame was dropped off today at the local powder coaters for a coat of bright orange plus clearcoat. Can't wait!

keithglos":2pj3wfgy said:

Hi Gunter

The gear lever bosses would be brazed to the frame, so should be left on.

Nothing wrong with 52/42, it should give you plenty of low gears, just that you need to learn to pedal, and have your shoes attached to the pedals. Mrs K used to time trial with 55/53 and 13 to 19.

Keith

Click to expand...

A 42 probably won't give you many low gears at all in my experience - depending on the what sprockets you have on the back, you'll be luck to have anything lower than a 50" gear which is no fun at all. In reality we now use much higher cadence that we did in the 70s/80s and we use much lower gears (even more so if you are coming off an MTB). To give you an idea, on a modern compact setup (50/34) with say a 12-27 cassette, you will have lower gearing on your big ring than a 42t chainring with say a 13-21 block.

You may be able to fit a 40 or 41t chainring and you could try and source a more forgiving rear block/cassette. You just need to be careful not to exceed the maximum capacity of your rear mech.

Mrs K must've been a machine in her day!

Okay all, I have checked the rear cassette and it is: 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14

I would prefer not to change the rear gears, as it just means more money and headache! What I have found for the front is something like this: http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... 0s109p2000

Any ideas if this would work? Excuse the ignorance, this is my first rebuild with very little experience

Gunter.

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For a triple you should really fit a longer BB axle and you might have to change the front derailleur too, and possibly the rear derailleur.

It would be cheaper and easier to fit a 14-28 sprocket on the back, you shouldn't need to change anything else.

Use Sheldon Brown's Gearing Calculator http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/ to work out what range you have and what any proposed combination would give you.

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I cycle to work every day with 52/42t front and 14-24t rear and take in some pretty steep climbs. It is tough to start with but your legs soon get used to it and soon you'll be charging up those hills before you know it. Just keep at it