Vintage Raleigh --> Budget CX Bike

[balexander87]

Curious to hear people's opinions. Got my hands on this old Raleigh, and am thinking about trying to outfit it to do some dirt road rides and whatnot. From what I can tell, tire clearance is the biggest concern. Any other tips or thoughts?



EDIT: I just looked up the difference in rim diameter to go from the 27" rims here to 700c rims. Looks like it only equates to a 4mm change in brake reach. By the looks of how the brakes are set up, that should definitely be doable. Cool!

[i69whitey]

so now there are 2 racers in my newly created class:
Ghetto-Cross

not the fastest, or state-of-the-art ride, but with the proper motor she goes OK

it's always a shame to mess with a vintage raleigh, but it appears yours is a newer one
if it was a '60's frame or a super-course i would say keep it stock, but do it up your way and ride

I used the original center-pull Raleigh branded brakes, they reached fine for the 700-c's
you may want to up-grade pads later
i'm running 700x35's now, plenty of room.
the smaller diameter rim gives ya just a little more clearance for tread

there are some indexed shifters and even some vintage brake/shifters for 6 and 7 speed rear shifting
i used a cheap grip-shift myself
or just swap rims/tires and ride, upgrade as you go
any questions that sheldon brown can't answer, feel free to pm me

they like to be rode hard and put up wet

[balexander87]

You're right. I did take some liberties with the word "vintage". Nearest I can tell, it's from some time in the 80s, and a very low end bike. At first I was more concerned with keeping it stock, but those feelings are all but gone now.

The stock freewheel is a 5-speed. Need to check with Sheldon to see how hard it would be to slip an extra cog in there. Also, the cottered crank is a bit stubborn from not having been touched since new and having been left to the elements for some years before I acquired the bike. I really need to get in there and repack things, so I guess I'll be seeing if I can get some replacement cotters.

Edit: Sweet looking bike, btw

[i69whitey]

scrap the cotter crank, they will consistantly loosen
the 'newer' four-sided designs are cheap and last almost forever

and six (or maybe even 7) speed will spin right on
gotta have shifters to match the cassette (or friction shifters)

[balexander87]

So I got the bike mostly torn down tonight. Here are some pics of the workspace. It's a work in progress itself. That is an old shower caddy I'm using as a portable tool/rag/whatever holder I just move it around to where ever I need it and when I'm done I can move it over against the wall out of the way! Improvising is a strong suit of mine!







The cottered crank put up a fight, but in the end it proved futile to resist

[bh357]

Suntour Ultra 6 will spin right on. Other freewheels will require a re-space and re-dish of the wheel... and a frame cold set to do properly. I don't know what indexing would work with Ultra 6.

I'd either do a singlespeed cross, or get cheeeep used modern components to build on the frame.

Drop hangers for brakes are easy enough to make, for using 700c wheels on a 27" frame.

[balexander87]

I'll have to look into the Suntour freewheel you mention. An extra gear would certainly be nice. I don't guess indexing would be an issue if I were to stick with the friction shifters that are currently on the bike. Indexed shifters would be awesome, but I'm trying to keep this things on a tight, tight budget so I may just live with the friction shifters.

I was starting to think about a single speed. Would take away a lot of the potential issues with the shifters and I've always liked riding a single speed. Regardless, you can bet your life I'm only gonna put cheap parts on it. The biggest question for me is the bottom bracket, I haven't taken a real close look at it yet, but I think the cups and spindle are in decent shape. If I could get away with just getting some new ball bearings, some grease, and a couple of new cotters, that would be awesome. Although, I know there are potential issues with the cottered cranks working loose...

If I stick with the side-pull brakes that are on the bike, I don't think reach will be an issue. Set up for the 27" rims, the pads were at the top of the slides. From what I've read, you only need about 4mm of travel to reach from 27" rims to 700c rims, so I should be okay. *fingers crossed*

[mtb_frk]

Ask Chunky what he did for his Le tour he picked up a few years. Welded on some bosses, re-painted etc... Turned out nice for a frankencross bike.

[bh357]

Ask Chunky what he did for his Le tour he picked up a few years. Welded on some bosses, re-painted etc... Turned out nice for a frankencross bike.

Le *beep*...

http://podiumquest.blogspot.com/2009/02/from-ashes-to-glory.html
http://podiumquest.blogspot.com/2009/02/from-ashes-to-glory-part-2.html
http://podiumquest.blogspot.com/2009/03/from-ashes-to-glory-part-3.html

[balexander87]

That's a sweet looking build. Probably a little more than what I'm looking to do currently. I'd like to try to get this thing up and running as inexpensively as possible. That means I'll probably be keeping the brakes, leaving the frame as is for now, and trying to reuse as much of the bearing parts as possible. The cups and spindle are in good shape and the headset is pretty decent as well. I'll probably continue to run the 27" rims until I can scrape some cash together and find a deal on some 700c wheels. Eventually, though, I do plan to strip it down and get it powder coated. Also, will most likely go the SS route if possible. Although, I'm somewhat unsure how I might do that if I'm sticking with the original cottered crank. Any tips?

[balexander87]

Update time Picked up a set of 27" wheels off craigslist. They look almost identical to the ones that came on the bike, just with rims in better shape. Should roll nice once I get the bearings re-packed.

Right now, I'm leaning towards just putting it back together with the original parts and worry about upgrading bottom bracket + crank later. I just want to get it rolling!

[balexander87]

Anyone have some suggestions for some cheap but decent 700c wheels? I'm going to put her back together with the 27" wheels for now and take my time to find a decent set of 700c wheels that, while hopefully inexpensive, won't get out of true every time I ride it.

[JeffOYB]

I'd say anything goes! My bro found some knobby 27-ers to turn his 80's tourbike into a CX bike. I've been riding a 1982 Trek tourbike and a '76 Nishiki tourbike. I've just been using any old knobbies on any old 700c's. Both my bikes were originally 27's. But I also found some CX sewups and glued em to some old freebie sewup wheels I had. No quality or size checking or brake adjusting on any of these! So there's 3 different tourbikes turned into CX bikes. I initially didn't change a thing on mine. I raced with the narrow old bars with suicide brakes. No prob! But I had wider bars in my old parts box and installed those. Everybody thinks my bikes weigh 40lbs and they hoot'n'holler but they weigh 25 lbs. I still feel the weight but I'm lovin' em. I haven't ridden a modern CX bike but I hear that my bike is a smooth ride. I know that I *REALLY* like riding my sewups! 25psi of cush and grip.

[bockrona]

I've never ridden cyclocross, and don't know how much abuse it entails as far as bumps and jumps, so maybe this post is irrelevant. But I have 2 Schwinns from about '80, a LeTour and a World Sport, both are steel, and neither are chromoly. I use them for city riding as they have flat pedals and kickstands. Good for riding to tailgates, music fests, and the bar, etc.

I managed to bend one of the forks pretty badly with just some small jumps off curbs and bunny hops and such. Maybe that was a fluke, but I keep the wheels on the ground now. Given their weight, I had assumed they were strong like tanks, either I was wrong, or that fork had issues to begin with.

[balexander87]

Yeah. Probably wouldn't stand up to too much abuse. I'm more interested in making it into a dirt road bike and use it for buzzing around town. Would be nice to be able to cut across grass or sand without too much worry.