Retromod - Di2 on a classic steel road bike - advice/links to those that have please?

[non-fixie]

thanks Matt for the tips! I might have come up trumps, my neighbour was one of the high up managers, possibly directors at Raleigh BITD, I was chatting to him the other day and said he used to own a lovely Raleigh road bike from late 80s/early 90s, that was irridecent green (custom/rare Raleigh colour he told me) & possibly full Campag groupset - he gave it away to one of his friends years ago (whos now in his late 70s & doesn't ride anymore) - he's still got it and going to re-gift it to me, possibly for this very project!

Another issue will be if I kit it out in Di2, the downtube shifter mounts will be redundant and I really don't want to chop them off (to avoid ruining the originality of the frame) - nor do I want to just leave them as bare sharp stumps... wondering if there is anything I could fit over them to neaten them up?

The Raleigh I know of that came in "iridescent green" is the 1984 Competition 12, one of the prettiest Raleighs ever, IMO.

This is the (lousy backlit) 1984 catalogue picture:



In reality the color leans more towards blue:



If "your" bike of one of these, I would not hesitate to update the frame by removing unwanted braze-ons. They are not that rare.

 

[TOMAS]

The Raleigh I know of that came in "iridescent green" is the 1984 Competition 12, one of the prettiest Raleighs ever, IMO.

This is the (lousy backlit) 1984 catalogue picture:

View attachment 578041

In reality the color leans more towards blue:

View attachment 578042

If "your" bike of one of these, I would hesitate to update the frame by removing unwanted braze-ons. They are not that rare.

Cheers buddy.... do you mean you WOULD or WOULDN'T update the frame by removing bits? I'm yet to set eyes on said bike, i'm gonna need to head over to pick it up from the neighbours friend. This would be the FIRST retromod bike i've ever done, all my others (MTBs) are as true to original as can be and I really don't EVER believe in chopping bits off or repainting if at all possible. I'm even having reservations over taking a drill to make 'ports' for Di2 cables, so might even just run it all externally where the original cabling went but again will take away the mega clean look I'm trying to achieve.

 

[Mike-p]

I'm pretty sure I have that exact Raleigh frame in 24 inch seat tube ctt with the st shifter braze ons removed and paint stripped if you're interested.

 

[non-fixie]

Cheers buddy.... do you mean you WOULD or WOULDN'T update the frame by removing bits? I'm yet to set eyes on said bike, i'm gonna need to head over to pick it up from the neighbours friend. This would be the FIRST retromod bike i've ever done, all my others (MTBs) are as true to original as can be and I really don't EVER believe in chopping bits off or repainting if at all possible. I'm even having reservations over taking a drill to make 'ports' for Di2 cables, so might even just run it all externally where the original cabling went but again will take away the mega clean look I'm trying to achieve.

Sorry, my bad. I meant to type "would not". Corrected my post.

Although I am generally very much against "drewing" old and collectible frames (it's only original once!), in this particular case and with this particular frame, if you decide to retro-mod it with Di2, I feel a half-baked effort would be a shame. The result would be neither here nor there.

So, either don't touch it or go the whole hog and make it into something really stunning.

Just my tuppence.

 

[TOMAS]

I'm pretty sure I have that exact Raleigh frame in 24 inch seat tube ctt with the st shifter braze ons removed and paint stripped if you're interested.

Cheers fella but at 5'10" with short legs I think it would be too big... i'm also looking to keep costs minimal on this, the Di2 groupo was free (well cost me my time on a full service in the workshop) and looks like the potential donor bike (Raleigh) is going to be pretty much free (maybe a bottle of Scotch to the neighbour for xmas lol)... not looking to spend out on paint etc, just my time really inbetween service and repair work on customer bikes - if i've had a tough day wrangling with a bike then i'll pull this out the back of the workshop and do half hour here and there to chill me out lol.

Non-fixie, I couldn't agree more with your vibes, either whole hog or not at all... i'll stick some pics up of donor bike before I make my mind up!

EDITED - just had a brainwave - IF it were ahead (which I doubt it bill be) I could run BMX gyro style headset topcap/hollow bolt to feed the Di2 cable down into centre of the steer tube, then drill a port hole at the rear of steer tube level with the downtube joint with headtube (would need to be about 5mm) and feed said Di2 cable down the downtube internally - granted the steerer will turning by approx 90-100 degrees either side but it's food for thought - that way it would make for an even cleaner look! Only other alternate is finding an old school quill stem that runs a large hollow bolt to the quill, but don't think i've EVER seen one of these before.

 

[TOMAS]

So I came across this tonight... couldn't resist for £20.00 on marketplace... looks BIG but I used to go in the Rourke shop in Stoke a lot about a decade ago, its got some war wounds and no doubt a Campag seatpost that wont be fun to remove but i'm keen to properly ID it and get it cleaned up

 

[TOMAS]

Abandoned the Rourke as its too far gone

Here is the donor bike, nothing like he described haha. Trying to age it, I think mid 90s between dyna and mtrax eras. Shimano 600 groupset & super clean!

 

[TOMAS]

For anyone interested I've now pretty much nailed this build...
Bike is dated as 1995 - it came to me completely stock and has a 1995 molding mark on the underside of the saddle, its a hybrid between the Dyna and M-Trax eras, hence Dyna decals and M-Trax paintwork (as featured on some of the Tour De France bikes that year). I've removed the entire Ultegra 600 drivetrain and brakes, replaced with Ultegra 6870 Di2 setup (R8000 chainset) 50/34 and 11-28 11spd.

I ended up having 1.7mm machined off of the inboard of the cassette to get it to fit on the stock 34.9mm Shimano 600 freehub - r.mech awfully close to the spokes on lowest gear so i'll look to put a very small spacer (1mm max) between freehub and hub to aid this (still need to experiment).

Di2 wiring straight through headtube badge allignment pin hole in headtube, neatly opened upto 3mm, all internally and then out the chainstay dropout breather hole - had to chop/splice/solder/heatshrink the cable ends but not overly difficult.

28mm Conti Grandsports might be swapped up for tubeless tanwall Vittoria Corsas that I have spare - might even attempt a tubeless setup with them.

Really happy with how its all turned out.