80's 'racer' refurb

[freniq]

Hello to everyone out there on CycleChat,
I'm a new poster on here, hoping for the benefit of your combined wisdom. I've been a mtb commuter for about 15 years, and before that I had a Raleigh 'racer' which had 5 gears, weighed at least 35lbs, but which I covered most of Northern Ireland on in my youth. I'd like to get myself a drop bar bike for longer (30-60mile) weekend rides, and my preference is for old school straight thin frame tubes, so I'm either going to buy an old wreck and rebuild it or win the lottery and buy a Bianchi Dolmitti. My question is, would I be able to put modern running gear like bottom brackets, wheels, gears, derailleurs etc on an old racing frame, or would I have to source old bits to put an old racer back on the road.

Apologies for the length of the post - once I get my 'racer', I'm hoping to join a cycling club. Then I'll have an outlet and maybe some new friends to bore instead of you guys!

luv, Freniq

 

[tyred]

 No reason why not but just be wary of the cost. It's easy to get carried away.

There are a few oddities to watch out for. Nottingham built Raleighs with cottered cranks have 1 3/8" x 26 tpi BB cups  which are unique to old Raleighs. Old French bikes can have metric cups which are also unique.

 

[Alembicbassman]

You can buy a late 1990s roadie with Reynolds 531 tubes that has pretty modern stuff on it. Today's Shimano 2200 is 16 speed as was the late 1990s Shimano 105 stuff so should be OK.

 

[Amanda P]

One small point to watch: if your old frame is old enough to have been built for 27" wheels, you may struggle to find good quality 27" wheels and tyres today. But if you change to 700 wheels, you may struggle to get brakes with a long enough drop to reach the 700 rims.

For this reason, I'd steer clear of bikes old enough to have been designed for 27" wheels unless you know what you're doing.

 

[Amanda P]

One small point to watch: if your old frame is old enough to have been built for 27" wheels, you may struggle to find good quality 27" wheels and tyres today. But if you change to 700 wheels, you may struggle to get brakes with a long enough drop to reach the 700 rims.

For this reason, I'd steer clear of bikes old enough to have been designed for 27" wheels unless you know what you're doing.

 

[tyred]

There's still a reasonable selection of tyres available in 27." 

 

[freniq]

Thank all,
Dolmitti it is then (in my dreams)

 

[Baggy]

With help I managed to refurbish a 1960's Carlton with modern bits and pieces but it didn't quite feel the same. I used extra long drop brakes to get over the 27" to 700c issue.

As for the Dolomiti...

 

[CounterfeitKelly]

The spacing on the rear dropouts can affect the number of cogs you can fit (force...) into the frame. Older frames might be 126mm from the inside of one dropout to the other, limiting you to 6 speed rear freewheels or cassettes. Modern frames come in at 130mm (MTBs at 135mm). If you get a good quality frame then a good bike shop or frame builder may be able to 'spring' the rear end out the extra 4mm.
Also be aware that if you get an Italian frame off the e-bay or such like that it may well have an Italian threaded bottom bracket (both threads are the same direction as opposed to English threaded BBs where one side is normal thread, the other reverse...).
An older frame probably will come with a quill stem with the stem sliding down inside the fork where modern frames have the a-headset style stems that clamp round the outside of the fork, but this is a minor problem and suitable stems should be easy to find (and in some ways are more attractive since you can much more easily adjust the stem height to suit your needs).

If in doubt google Sheldon Brown...