Anyone had experience with older bikes?

[wesfoster]

I have an old Raleigh Falcon - 80's I think. Been riding on the parts that it came with when I bought it used, been used heavily in the last six months so its about time for new parts. Just got new brakes - 57mm drop and some drilling to do.

There's a few little bits I'd like to know if anyone's had experience with (where possible I want to try and get standardized parts so that they're easier to get hold of - modern where preferable, rather than trying to restore.

The spring/mech in my front derailleur went a few months ago so I just got rid - I'm looking for a way of having only one front crank - any one had any experience with a good single crank around 48T roughly? It will need to be a full crankset - my BCD is 128 or something currently so nothing fits as it is. What has anyone else used in a similar setup?

If I can find one for a good price I'd also quite like to replace the bottom bracket - I have a feeling there may be a crack in it but I'm not sure. Again any advice would be appreciated about what anyone else has used.

Front bearing seem to make a noise, tried cleaning them out, tried tightening them but to no real difference - any other advice for that?

Has anyone had experience drilling bottle cage holes into a stem similar? Tubular steel, I guess. Not essential, but it would be nice for shorter trips (otherwise I use a bladder in a camera bag).

Also what experiences have you had with doing up - or modernising older bikes?

Much appreciated,

Wes

 

[IncoherentJeff]

Have you looked at attaching a bottle cage without drilling the frame? There are afew types of fixings available, these seem to get alright reviews but I've never used them http://www.wiggle.co.uk/elite-vip-bottle-cage-clamps/

 

[wesfoster]

Ah hadn't noticed those before, cheers.

I've been looking in bike shops, ended up with a handlebar mounted one for £3 - going to try it out because it's all anyone had and for three quid I'm not losing anything if it doesn't feel 'right'. If this handlebar mount doesn't fit the bill I'll order those ties with my next big Wiggle order.

Thanks again.

 

[biggs682]

@wesfoster almost any crank with matching ring will do you might need to play with bottom bracket length

as long as fr wheel brgs are clean and greased up with correct adjustment all should be good

 

[wesfoster]

what would you recommend or have you used as Bottom Brackets previously? and are all bottom brackets the same size?
(I apologise, good at the simple stuff, very wary of the more complex)

Yeah that's what I can't work out - redone it a few times, varied tightening and cleaned over and other and still doesn't change.

 

[Tim Hall]

As you're not restoring, a cartridge bottom bracket will be a Good Thing. Shimano UN52 or UN54. Inexpensive and last ages. Available in a range of axle lengths, threadings and shell widths. A pound says you need 68mm wide "English" thread. Axle length will depend on your chainset, amongst other things. An extra "gotcha" is there are two standards for square taper chainsets and therefore bottom brackets. Japanese (Shimano for example) tend to be JIS, whilst others are ISO. You can use an ISO crank on a JIS spindle, it will sit about 4.5 mm further out than it would on an ISO spindle of the same length. Similarly a JIS crank on an ISO spindle will be 4.5mm further in. More on this from Sheldon.

 

[TheDoctor]

The Stronglight chainsets from Spa are good and cheap, but 46T is as big as it gets.
They can also sort you out with a BB too.

I'm currently using a 40T one with a 12-32T 7 speed cassette. Threw it together nearly 4 years ago as a quick bodge, still using it now. 7 gears is plenty, as long as they're the right 7 gears...

 

[wesfoster]

Slowly everything on my bike is becoming Shimano - those BBs look good but seem a little rare now, only available on ebay... if possible I'd like stuff easy to replace if need be. Looking at the UN55 which seems to be a lot more common at the minute and just about the same.
Yeah I'm currently trawling through blogs like Sheldons and bike shops to try and figure out what's the best, for value and practicality. That's why I really want to know what anyone else has done on similar bikes.

Stronglight look good too - I'm currently running a 42T which I find a little soft, so 46T may actually work out better and more practical as a single.

Thanks for the help again, really appreciated.

 

[Tim Hall]

Slowly everything on my bike is becoming Shimano - those BBs look good but seem a little rare now, only available on ebay... if possible I'd like stuff easy to replace if need be. Looking at the UN55 which seems to be a lot more common at the minute and just about the same.

Oops, that'll be me, not keeping up to date. UN55 seems to be the current version.

 

[wesfoster]

Arduous checking of bottom bracket sizes and models last night lead me only to trying to date my bike and reading about various brands on Sheldon's blog.

Yeah the UN55 looks good, think I'll be going with that.

Found a local bike shop that might even fit everything for me - every other one seems scared of touching old bikes or anything they don't sell which is a shame. Would do it myself but for lack of tools.