Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi,

I have an old Indi 500 10 spd roadie. Noticed I have a bunch of modern parts and so I'm wondering if it is worthwhile spending the time to use these on the old Indi? The 700c Wheels should replace the old 29 easily but the new wheels/hub/cassette would be too wide for the frame. Is there a way around this? I suppose the gearing would all be wrong etc etc. So maybe it's a waste of time eh?

Any ideas? There's a lot of info out there but have not come across swapping of new parts for old.....

Thanks in advance!

You will get those wheels in the forks, just use some grunt!

Foo

Yes, front wheels no problems. Rear wheels will require grunt, but as the derailleur was for 5sp and I have 9sp on the new wheels, presumably it can only use some of the new gears. Ill need a new narrow chain but not sure if this will suit the cranks. Hence my question if it will end up needing too many things to make it worthwhile.

I put a 10sd wheel onto my old roadie and just, adjusted the the two limiting screws and I get all ten gears on each chain ring. My rear changer is I think from memory Shimano 600 or Dura-Ace. (1980 vintage)

Foo

Been there, done that.

Had the frame spread, longer reach rear brake caliper (smaller dia wheels) , a new front fork (for safety), threadless headset (range of stems), alloy seatpost (longer, but an odd size). The crown-to-dropout distance was a bit shorter which caused the rake of the bike to be wrong, but it wasn't a major issue... but the frame cracked ~ 18 months later.

At the end of the day... it wasn't cost effective to go down this path. My current "cheap" bikes are both Ribble frames shipped from the U.K., everything just bolts on. A Cell bike would have been cheaper and probably last longer as well.

Is it worth it? Depends how much of a born fiddler you are.

Arguably from purely the cost factor - no - but if you enjoy getting your hands a little dirty and getting tactile with how things work - I'd say go for it. Sure you'll likely just end up with a mongrel hack bike by anyone elses definition but if you enjoy getting to know how things can interchange and swap on a bike the sense of satisfaction is worth it. It'll give you a better confidence later if you do invest in an entirely new bike to do more yourself.

There are resources on the 'net to help you consider how things work. If you read and still have questions - that's where these forums come in - particularly here in "The Shed" Remember there's no such thing as a stupid question - just some are more informed than others.

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated. I will press on with this project simply because I have all the spare parts lying around. With the 9 sp cassette, i may end up with weird ratios but see what happens. I'm waiting for a narrower chain to arrive so i can test this out. Was tempted to re-use the old wheels but they are rusty and weigh a ton. Anyway, if it ends up being too hard, it'll be in the next council pickup!

The early model sun tour derailleur on my refreshed steel commuter won't hit all the gears, even with the limit screws all but removed. It just won't shift in far enough, so I'm running an 8 spd freewheel a 7 spd cassette with a spacer to make it fit and I can only get to 6 gears, can't get onto the biggest cog. You may have better luck. I don't really need that gear anyway and the old derailleur has a nice style/look so its staying, alternative is a modern derailleur but not for now.

This is a steel frame road bike? Spreading the frame a bit is pretty standard bike-wrangling for anyone used to working with steel. Best to get your good LBS to do this as they will (should) have the tools to realign the drop-outs and ensure all is still symmetrical. BTW this is only a problem at the rear - front hubs are all a standard 100mm.

Don't try this if it is aluminium.

10 speed? This would be friction shifters then. You'll have fun getting the right gears using a 9sp cassette. The change-over to 9sp brifters is going to be expensive unless you already have them.

You can buy brand new 9 speed indexed shifters, Shimano still make the 7700 D/T ones, there is a guy in the US that modifies the 7700 from 9 to 10 speed, I as yet haven't tried them, but I will at some stage be getting a pair.

The 7700 9 speed is easy as you can mate that to any of the Shimano 9 speed gruppo parts, there's no modification required (besides stretching your frame to run the 130mm wheel), it runs pretty much faultlessly, I know I've done it to my late 80's Vertex.

Friction shifters work fine with 9 speed cassettes you just need a good ear and a bit of practice.

Depending on which wheels I'm using, my #2 bike runs fixed, 8, 9, or 10speed. Friction levers let me get a lot more use out of this bike due to the variety. I pulled the 9 speed brifters off that bike to put on my tandem (before I converted it from a double to a triple and now it has a friction front lever too).

Friction shifters never have compatibility issues.

Cheers,

Cameron

ironhanglider wrote:Friction shifters work fine with 9 speed cassettes you just need a good ear and a bit of practice.

+1 to this. My most frequent ride atm is a a mid 80s Miyata with downtube shifters, using a more recent derailleur and 9speed cassette. I'm not a competitive rider so the lack of accuracy and occasional bit of rear trimming doesn't bother me with the friction shift. Unless you're playing for sheep stations - learning to friction shift really improves your options with reusing bits.

Just bear in mind, that for the higher gear gear counts at the back, if you want all of them you need a later derailleur with the slightly wider throw action. This corresponds to the wider frame spacings of the 8+ speed bikes; 130mm+ versus the old 126mm. If you run an older derailler (one intended for upto 7 speeds) you will lose the bottom end of your gearing, in that it won't reach across to the lowest (biggest) sprocket. This might be another option for strength training on the hills though