Modern bike features that've spoiled old bikes for you..

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raleighnut

Legendary Member
Exactly! My singlespeed - a 1977 Mercian - still features its original single pivot Weinmann calipers. Sure, they aren't as good as modern brakes, but the difference is not huge.

I fitted dual pivot calipers (105) to my Raleigh 'Road Ace' they're bloody lethal, more than one finger on the brake lever and they 'lock up' 3 times I've been spat over the top just by trying to brake..............no 'feel' whatsover
 
Carefully!

I was always careful, once I even waited until I was clear of a blind bend before overtaking a logging lorry. (1988, Albula Pass)
 
OP
OP
wafter

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
Ahead set headsets are also pretty nice.
Genuinly curious; what would you consider the benefits over a quill stem setup?

I'd be happy to take the latter in the interest of appropriate aesthetics on an old / retro bike; what drawbacks would this bring?


Googling out of curiosity, I find a huge variety in estimates of wheel rim life. For alloy rims we are looking at 1500 miles to 25,0l00 miles, depending on care, quality and conditions. That’s some range.
In terms of years, I get 1-2 years to 50 years. Wow.
Surely hugely dependent on use / conditions. Given how poorly MTB drivetrains last compared to those used on road, as little as 1500 miles for set or rims wouldn't surprise me.. unsurprising that the off-road market adopted discs decades before everyone else.


I fitted dual pivot calipers (105) to my Raleigh 'Road Ace' they're bloody lethal, more than one finger on the brake lever and they 'lock up' 3 times I've been spat over the top just by trying to brake..............no 'feel' whatsover
Perhaps a combination of lack of familiarity and component (in)compatability..? IIRC standard road levers have a nebulous "cable pull" of about 7mm (per 20 degrees of lever travel) while the "SLR" calipers used on later Shimano groupsets have 8mm... not a huge difference but potentially exacerbating the additional mechanical advantage of the dual-pivot calipers..? Must admit I've not yet got my head around the ratios contained within these..

In contrast I fitted 5800 dual--pivot calipers in place of Tektro items that came with my old Boardman and the Shimanos were significantly better all round - both in outright stopping power and feel... although a chunk of that may have been due to the different pads as well.
 

brommieinkorea

Well-Known Member
An Aheadset is nice, easier to adjust, lighter. Snug it, tighten the clamp bolts, done ,no headset wrenches less irritation. But, they're not really a game changer like actual brakes or led dynamo lighting, which is rarely stock , why I wouldn't list it here.
 
OP
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wafter

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
An Aheadset is nice, easier to adjust, lighter. Snug it, tighten the clamp bolts, done ,no headset wrenches less irritation. But, they're not really a game changer like actual brakes or led dynamo lighting, which is rarely stock , why I wouldn't list it here.

Cool cheers; pretty much corroborates my own experiences. A bit more straightforward (and admittedly I'm not keen on the potential for slippage / damage with the skinny headset spanners) but not a game-changer :smile:
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
An Aheadset is nice, easier to adjust, lighter. Snug it, tighten the clamp bolts, done ,no headset wrenches less irritation. But, they're not really a game changer like actual brakes or led dynamo lighting, which is rarely stock , why I wouldn't list it here.

Easier to adjust the bearings, maybe, but not at all easy when it comes to to adjusting the up-down positioning of the bars. In fact if the steerer has been cut too short you're limited to fugly riser stems.

Edit: Also it depended on the headset. Some of them had a non-rotating washer with a tab or there was a flat spot on the fork, so you could set the bearings with your fingers with a knurled race and tighten up the locknut with a spanner with no risk of also rotating the bearing race. Not that much more fiddly than a threadless one. Others you needed two spanners and were a right faff.
 
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Rhythm Thief

Legendary Member
Location
Ross on Wye
My road rims would last less than two years, riding in all conditions. I had folding bike rims fail on my commute as they had got too thin. My disc braked wheel rims just keep going and going.

On the other hand, I rode a '90s Dawes Audax on its original rims all year round for four years of commuting in muddy lanes and A roads without appreciably wearing out the rims.
 

lostinthought

Well-Known Member
Genuinly curious; what would you consider the benefits over a quill stem setup?

I'd be happy to take the latter in the interest of appropriate aesthetics on an old / retro bike; what drawbacks would this bring?

I was going to paraphrase Jobst Brandt's comments in response to this, but it actually makes more sense to link to his better-written article instead:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/threadless-headset.html

As usual with most bike related queries, Jobst answered it cogently and accurately, decades ago (In short- it's primarily about preventing stuck stems)

Although I'm also with you- I'd use a quill on an old bike for appearance's sake, and just refit and grease it regularly.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I was going to paraphrase Jobst Brandt's comments in response to this, but it actually makes more sense to link to his better-written article instead:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/threadless-headset.html

As usual with most bike related queries, Jobst answered it cogently and accurately, decades ago (In short- it's primarily about preventing stuck stems)

Although I'm also with you- I'd use a quill on an old bike for appearance's sake, and just refit and grease it regularly.

That's interesting and well put. He didn't address some engineering benefits of the threadless version, but as I'm no engineer I've never understood these. ("Brinnelling" whatever that is)

He kind of underplays the problems of the lack of up-down adjusment as he dismisses it as applicable only to "new riders and rental bicycles". He fails to consider that it makes buying and selling second hand bikes trickier, and also doesn't take into account that we change as we get older and may want to adjust bar height accordingly. It's more than a minor shortcoming.

Anyway, threadless headsets have their pros and cons and personally I wouldn't put them in the category of things that I'd feel the need to retro-fit onto an old bike because they are so much better than what came before. I have an olde style headset and stem on my olde style bike and it's just fine.
 
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