My Dynatech

I thought I'd pop up a picture of my Dynatech. It's nothing special, but it's comfortable over long distances and fast, great for just getting the miles in - and you can't ask much more of a road bike than that.

It's a Dynatech 300 frame - a 531 equivalent but bonded with bolt on seatstays, running Aksium wheels, 8 speed STI with Dura-Ace mechs and chainset. Front brake is 'classic' Ultegra (6400) and the rear is a non-series long drop Ultegra equivalent.

I seem to have defied Sheldon Brown and got Dura Ace-8 mechs working perfectly with Sora levers and Ultegra cassette. I've gone semi-compact, running the smallest rings I can get away with on the chainset, 38 and 50 with a 12-23 cassette.

The best bit about this bike is that I assembled it from eBay for about £150, only expense has been the new wheels, £100 a few weeks back.



*Looks forward to long, light, warm evenings*

Nice, good to see another Dyna Tech out there!

Hi, I just bought a Dyna-Tech 300 from eBay and am very happy with it so far. But I know little about them, eg. when they were sold and how much for.

Also I'm considering upgrading the Exage components. What would you recommend ?

Thanks in advance!

You cannot go far wrong with the new bottom end Campagnolo stuff, it looks lovely, works well and doesn't cost the earth. I am running a Veloce rear mech (though Xenon is the cheapest and still looks great) over a shimano spaced block with Ultegra down tube shifters. Pop the inner cable over the wrong side of the pinch bolt and it will work a treat with your shimano down tube shifters.

The cranks look better for the money than anything else on the market and even the brakes seem nicely finished.

The nice thing is if you fancy going ergo power later you already have the right rear mech, just remember to get some new wheels built to take your 9speed campag block (hubs look great too!).

Hi - congratulations on buying a great bike!

It's a mid 90's bike and was toward the bottom of Raleigh's "serious" range of bikes. I'd say it was a £450 bike in its day.

If the frame's in good nick (both the bonding and any corrosion) then it's worth upgrading some stuff - once you've used STI on a road bike you'll never go back to down tube levers.

You'll need to cold set the rear triangle if you want to go greater than 7 speed, Sheldon Brown's website is a good source of info on how to do this. My method was to use a threaded rod, two washers and two nuts and to then just wind it out a few mil.

I bought some Mavic Aksium wheels recently and they've really transformed it, it's twice as lively now. Road bike stuff tends to lose its value quickly when new kit comes out so there's plently of bargains on e-bay, especially for 8 speed stuff.

Terry...