Cycling UK Forum

tatanab wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 12:02pm

biker38109 wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 11:55am Which of these 5 on offer should I get?

One one takes a modern hub width of 130mm, the Swinnerton.

Oh good shout, I thought someone here mentioned the other day that all frames made after 1990 did when I told them that my British Eagle had 135mm. Oh yea, I see the specs in the description now.

Also not strictly essential as I would plan for sticking with 7 speed 34t on the back and use a modern crankset upfront with the 22t 3x here: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/chainsets/s ... 22t-170mm/.

Though that would be nice to have the choice of modern hub all other things being equal.

Ah, looking at the oft referenced Sheldon, on frame spacing customs it seems 130mm is standard for road bikes so that swinnerton would be a road frame then? It was said earlier in the thread road bike frame should be avoided if wanting to make the bike off-road worthy due to possible issues with spacing for off-road tyres I guess and/or other stuff? Would that be an issue with this particular frame?

My Eagle has 1.5 road tyre up front and 2.1 off road tyre on the back and those thicknesses seem plenty fine. Would that thickness fit on such a frame?

Specs:

FRAME Seat tube Top tube Tubing Rear OLN

Swinnerton 22in/56cm 211/2in/55cm 531 130mm

Which of these 5 on offer should I get?

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/%C2 ... ed.483588/

Are they all good makes and is there much in it? If all the same I would choose a darker colour unless any standout more than others for build quality. Worth £50?

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/ear ... 18.483846/

This one looks like it has a nice small chainring. Only £120.

Seems plenty to choose from over there and I could probably pick up something for under £200.

Those guys seem to love what they are doing too so not like buying off some gumtree ad.

How about one/any of these: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/%C2 ... ed.483588/

Good frames?

I am enjoying the idea of a self-build now. Plus I can salvage most of the parts from the British Eagle and transfer across as quite a lot of that is new (at the time) bought parts to replace on the Eagle.

Is the 68mm bottom bracket still the same size standard used today meaning I could put in the crankset mentioned earlier in the thread with no issues?

Nearholmer wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 9:52am The challenge with road frames will be tyre width.

Even modern ones don’t have a great deal of room, and many old ones are distinctly narrow, maybe not even accommodating 32mm.

I would suggest that you will need something in the order of 40mm for the off-road bits, possibly heading towards 50mm. Others will possibly say that 32mm is enough, but having tried it I’d say that it’s a bit limiting on the off-road front.

It all tends to take you back towards 1990s MTB frames or, something that seems to be harder to find, 1990s steel hybrid frames with unicrown forks (nice because they fit 700C wheels).

Or, just swallow the “cred” reservations, and buy a modern hybrid!

You are responsible for first fanning the flames of self consciousness of bike ownership with your comments about Voodoo being a Halfords only brand so you have blood on your hands. Before that I was like Adam in the garden of eden never having tasted the apple.

I am reading a lot of bikies, more enthusiastic than me, saying they own Boardman (even a Voodoo mentioned too) and very happy with them so maybe much ado about nothing? https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/thoug ... 154/page-3

nirakaro wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 10:31am What size would you want? Something like this for example? -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196557468927 ... R-SLi82sZA

Not sure what is best for me but I am about 5' 10" and historically I think 26 wheels, can't remember frame sizes.

toontra wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 9:56am If it hasn't been mentioned already Retrobike is the place to be looking for vintage MTB & road bikes - https://www.retrobike.co.uk/forums/

Yes I did link it earlier in, if not this thread, another thread mentioning it looked like a good resource. Actually that would be a good shout to sign up there and ask recommendations for my project. Might get less derision at 'asking useless questions' as they seem into that type of discussion.

Nearholmer wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 9:52am The challenge with road frames will be tyre width.

Even modern ones don’t have a great deal of room, and many old ones are distinctly narrow, maybe not even accommodating 32mm.

I would suggest that you will need something in the order of 40mm for the off-road bits, possibly heading towards 50mm. Others will possibly say that 32mm is enough, but having tried it I’d say that it’s a bit limiting on the off-road front.

It all tends to take you back towards 1990s MTB frames or, something that seems to be harder to find, 1990s steel hybrid frames with unicrown forks (nice because they fit 700C wheels).

Or, just swallow the “cred” reservations, and buy a modern hybrid!

The more I refine it down the more I am kicking myself for giving away that bike when I did my last move as this is exactly the type of frame I would want for this project!

Funny thing is I remembered it wasn't even a gift, but it was being sent to the tip along with a trailer full of other bikes from a 2nd hand bike shop where they would just throw away some perfectly good bikes if there was just one thing which they felt was not worth their time working on it.

I had spent days humming and ahhhing about whether I would take it or not and eventually reluctantly took it. Never thought it was of any value until the couple of comments it was a good frame though barely acknowledged it and now over a year or later the value of it has shot up in my mind!

I had just donated it to the bike charity without a second thought as I could not think of myself riding again for a long time.

Perceived value is a funny thing.

Anyway water under the bridge. I shall start the hunt again for 90s mtb frame!

Cowsham wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 7:57am I'd avoid front suspension if possible it's too heavy and a pain for fitting a front rack which you'll need for touring.

That is exactly what has led me back to looking at 2nd hand vintage frames as I read more and more that rigid bikes are best for hill climbing, which is what I want the bike to specialize in, plus I am not fussed about suspension, not being able to afford anything decent for the price point nor really wanting them anyway, less to go wrong and related. I want a dedicated hill climber so I am thinking now rigid frame, probably road frame since I will be riding on roads most of the time and diy the drivetrain for very low gearing.

toontra wrote: ↑18 Aug 2024, 8:55am

nirakaro wrote: ↑17 Aug 2024, 8:22pm Sounds like the OP might be well suited with something like my favourite bike, which started out as an early-nineties steel no-sus Specialized Hardrock.

That's exactly the basis of my "do-it-all" bike. A '92 Orange Clockwork frame with rigid forks, 48-38-28 up front (but could easily be swapped to 44-34-24, etc) and 11-34 cassette. Massive clearance for tyres & mudguards and mounts for rack. The only thing missing for proper off-road stuff is disc-brake mounts but as it's a steel frame I could always get some brazed on. (as it is I have another bike for that).

This is my commuter, my workhorse and also my tourer. It's been all over the world and unladen is actually great fun to ride. Decent 26" rim-brake wheels are getting hard to find these days though. Luckily I found a spare set on Ebay and have them fitted with slicks for training in Tenerife.

What are respected second hand 90s frames I should look out for? I notice many are out of bounds due to being considered 'halfords bikes' (the boardman mentioned above sounded great but then looked up online and people on forums saying it does not have good street cred) or equivalent by the cycling high council.

Seems the lowest of the low is the BSO, then Halford's bike, which may or may not be a BSO. At what price bracket do you get to where people no longer chastise your bike choice?

freiston wrote: ↑17 Aug 2024, 10:47pm I think that the OP could save himself a lot of bother and get to his goal relatively easily (and probably cheaply) by taking up Cugel on his offer in this post.

In all probability, this will be as near to his goal as dammit and it'll give him the opportunity to learn what he wants/needs for any future plans and learn about bikes at his leisure.

I totally missed that post in all the flurry of posting! Will read it now. Thanks for the heads up. I had started rereading the thread from the beginning but then would get sidetracked by either new replies or 1 of the other 30 odd tabs I would have open.

At the cursory glance that is looking great!

EDIT: Oh...I looked up the name Boardman for brand of bikes and see it gets a lot of stick for being another Halfords brand: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/thoug ... kes.275154

I don't want a bike where other cyclists will snigger when I have gone past. Well of course my british eagle is the apotheosis of this but I didn't pay hardly any money for this and is clearly a pub bike so I am kind of flaunting that I don't care in this case! For one I actually paid money for I want that to also buy me status within the biking fraternity.

A retro 90s fixer upper should garner more currency in this respect no?

nirakaro wrote: ↑17 Aug 2024, 8:22pm Sounds like the OP might be well suited with something like my favourite bike, which started out as an early-nineties steel no-sus Specialized Hardrock. With patience they can get something like that on eBay for under a hundred quid, leaving plenty to spend on upgrading/customising (over time, I’ve changed everything but the frame). It’s now got drop bars and a 9x3 drive train with a bottom gear of 22/36, which I think is about 16 gear inches, and lets me creep fully loaded up Alpine passes at about 3.5mph. I’m wondering (old legs) if I might be able to get that even a bit lower…

Now we're talking, that sound right up my alley!

freiston wrote: ↑17 Aug 2024, 5:25pm You can't change the rings - either if you want a different tooth count or you need to replace a worn or damaged ring - you will need to replace the whole chainset instead. You would be a lot better off, imho, getting the Spa touring triple XD-2 currently at £41. If you really want a 2x, you could still only use the middle and inner ring - and, if you want, remove/replace the outer ring with a chainguard ring.

Well the bcd is 74, so only reason I would get one where you could change the chainrings is for 64 bcd to allow down to the smallest of 20 even! Or could that one take 64 bcds somehow?

Otherwise it seems better to just spend 30 and it would surely last a few years at which point I could buy another, different one.

Ah here we go. 64mm one for 54: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/chainsets/s ... 22t-170mm/

Nicer design to the shimano one as well I think. More slimline and sleek. So no-one has confirmed this yet...would that work on an old bikeframe? Will it fit in the hole where the current crank is?

531colin wrote: ↑17 Aug 2024, 4:52pm Altus chainset has steel chainrings, probably riveted rather than bolted, probably spare rings not available

What is your point here? The rings are already in place so why look for others?

freiston wrote: ↑17 Aug 2024, 4:06pm Believe me, you don't need a 20T or 22T chainring. You don't need a 14" or 15" bottom gear. 18"-20" should be plenty low enough.

If you're starting from scratch, you can get the Spa sub-compact with 24T chainring (I have one with 24/38 on my Spa Rove with 50-622 tyres - more common is 24/40). Remember that smaller wheels and tyres = smaller rolling circumference = lower gear for a given tooth combo.

A 24T chainring with a cassette with 34T or 36T will give you a proper low gear. My touring bike has a 26/36/48 triple with 11-34T 9 speed cassette - I'm not a strong cyclist and I find that low enough for fully loaded touring. The touring bike has 32-622 tyres and is more of a tarmac machine. The Rove is more suited to off-road stuff.

A gear calculator gives the following for those two bikes:

Screenshot from 2024-08-17 16-06-00.png

https://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=DER ... 4&UF2=2170

Yes just found this: https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p33 ... cral-Rings

From a blogpost comment. Will those work on an old mtb frame/7 speed freewheel drivetrain?

I just saw this 3x chainset for half the price of their super compacts and even goes 2t lower than their smallest at 22t inner ring; only 39.50: https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p47 ... 87-8spd%29

Even cheaper on tredz at £27.99!!!