1989 Claud Butler Pagan. Gravelly Rebuild?

[Takingabreak]

they are difficult to come by. I ended up building my own. Might be worth having a look through your secret stash of bike parts in your shed to see what you have. Also, it will be worth planning out all the parts you need to get the bike you envisage before starting to buy anything. The thing to decide up front is how many gears on the back you want as it will affect which hubs and hence wheels you need and also what type shifters you want to use. Early mountain bike cassette hubs were 7 speed and can be found in 130mm spacing, but they are limited to 7 speed and so you need to find 7 speed shifters to match. Later road 130mm hubs can take up to 11 speed, but 11 speed kit is expensive. Another thing to throw into the mix is that road sti shifters are not generally compatible with V brakes as they have different pull ratios. They can be made to work using cable travel adapters, or mini V brakes can work with road sti shifters. Mini v brakes cause another limitation though, fat tyres won't have enough clearance. I need to stop typing now before I put you off entirely

 

[Takingabreak]

oaklec calling @Peachy! come in Peachy. Claud Butler alert.

 

[doctor-bond]

You’ve had this from new and used it, and let your son loose on it, and it survives: it has to be rescued. I’d suggest buying a donor bike from the same era but with better components and swapping them: likely more cost effective. Lots goes under the radar on eBay.

Alternatively, let’s make a list of what you need then get the retrobike massive to look in the shed and see what’s available: I bet most is out there for a beer and postage (pretty sure I’ve got 130mm wheels that need a good home).

The frame, you could really go to town on, with a strip and repaint & new stickers, or just clean it and love the story that the scratches tell. There is a resident CB nut on here who will advise: @Peachy!

Getting easy gears will be no problem even on older components. Add a set of hybrid tyres and you’re good to go for another 30 years.

 

[Jaffa]

Lol dont worry, this frame and I have history, yes its heavy but its comfy and looks good I'm happy to put some time and effort into it.

I seem to remember looking at this back in 2015 and decided to ride as it was. The state it's in now I need to replace so much I might as well build what I need?

How do cranks and chain rings work on these, if I stuck with regular hubs could 7 speed 34T freewheel be made spinny with a small front sprocket?

 

[Takingabreak]

yes, they will work fine as long as the rear derailler is a long cage version. There will be a limit as to how small you can go on the front due to the BCD (bolt circle diameter) of the crank. Or it's easy enough to fit a smaller bcd crank to enable a really small inner ring

 

[Jaffa]

Great stuff chaps super inspiring!

So get some nice newer wheels with 130mm hubs and fit that Shimano 14-34T then choose a suitable front sprocket/crankset for slowly spinning up horrible hills.

If I want drops I need the right brakes and probably bar end shifters?

The bike currently has cantilever brakes.

 

[Takingabreak]

what @doctor-bond said about reaching out to retrobike members for parts is a great idea. People on here will have all the parts and know how you need and are usually only too happy to help new members.

If you want drops, then you need to work through choosing levers / shifters / brakes that will work nicely together.

 

[Jaffa]

Ok that sounds like a great idea. How does one go about doing something like that?

I'm always up for forum searching a subject so the bar/brakes info will be good to dig through.

How does having cantilever brake bosses affect things? I guess I cant easily change the fork, due to both the bosses and geometry issues?

 

[Takingabreak]

canti bosses mean you can use canti brakes or v brakes. Once you work up a list of the parts you need, just add a post in the wanted section

 

[Jaffa]

Great, I'm off to do some research then.....