Dawes Galaxy 1986

[stephenjubb]

I am thinking of buying a 1986 dawes galaxy. does anyone know if they can be upgraded to accept (as my Raleigh Royal fully kitted out without panniers weighs 21kg!!)

1 - Tripe Chain Ring,
2 - 8 Speed Cassette at back of back
3 - take standard pannier racks front and back
4 - Cantilever Brakes
5 - New 700c wheels

Do they come with 700c wheels?

Any help is appreciated.

[thirdcrank]

Nothing is impossible, but out of your list, the only one that would be easy would be fitting pannier racks.

Taking the others in order: if it has a double, then a triple chainring would need a complete new chainset although you could probably keep the LH crank if you wre not bothered about matching cranks. Im guessing this is at the most seven speed, in which case you would need to widen the rear triangle (see Sheldon Brown or search on here fopr cold setting.) If it has caliper brakes, cantis could be fitted but you would need the mountings to be brazed on. That would mean a respray. I don't know about the wheels but I remember seeing one in a shop in the mid-1980s and recommending it to somebody and that had 27 x 1 1/4. The 1980s were when the changes took place.

You are looking at spending a lot of £££ on what is essentially an old bike.

[stephenjubb]

These are the details, price 140 o.n.o

Dawes Galaxy 1986

23.5 " frame,
Suntour 18 speed gears (presumably then a 3 x 6);
Reynolds 531

picture below, is it worth 100 pound?

http://www.instructors4u.com/dawes.jpg

[531colin]

From the picture, it has double chainwheel and sidepulls. I don't think its even a tourer. It's worth £25 but only to a student to take to university so they don't get their good bike nicked.

[phil parker]

It is worth £100, if you are prepared to ride it as it is. It can be easily upgraded, but if you have to start buying all the parts new it can get expensive.

I once had a Dawes Galaxy from about 1986 and if memory serves me well the distance at the rear dropouts was 120mm. If you want to fit 8/9/10-speed you will need to widen this to 130mm, which I have done on numerous 531 frames using a car scissor jack and a long straight edge to measure the rear triangle and adjust to get within a millimetre of true. (however, I also use a rear dropout hanger alignment tool in addition). Of course once you upgrade the number of gears you will need to upgrade the rear mech and probably the rest of the gear-set depending upon the set up you want. The wheels will be 27 inch, but fitting 700c should not be a problem if you have enough adjustment left on the reach of the brake pads. It won't take canti brakes without additional braze-ons nor a front rack, but should take a rear rack as standard. To upgrade to a triple you will need a new bottom bracket and front mech.

The cost of all the upgrades would probably be more expensive than trying to source a more modern Galaxy, unless you can do all the work yourself and source the components cheaply. However, as it stands, it is worth the (bartering) price of £100, but needs work to turn it into the triple-geared full tourer you're looking for!!

[thirdcrank]

I think you need to put the Dawes Galaxy thing into perspective. Dawes have been making a nice range of decent bikes called Galaxy for something like 35 years (+/- 5 years) They have varied, sometimes quite dramatically from year to year and the only common factor is that they have been nice bikes called Dawes Galaxy. It's worth noting that Dawes made complete bikes when this was unusual in the UK for anything decent (building your own from components save purchase tax up to the 1970's) These are not classic, collectable bikes that are worth renovating just for the joy of owning a classic lightweight.

Once you start looking to upgrade, it can be a bottomless pit for your £££. That's even more so if you have to pay somebody to do it. As an example, Ellis Briggs - chosen because they publish a price list - want £32 to fit a set of canti bosses - with a respray on top of that.

http://www.ellisbriggscycles.co.uk/renovations.php

It's hard to see from the pic, but that does look like a double clanger rather than a triple. I can't help feeling that that looks bigger than 23 1/2" If a seller is making errors with the description - and I'm only guessing from the pic - they may really have not much idea. How well something has been maintained is not easy to tell from a general shot but look at the valve in the back wheel. The rear lamp bracket is positioned so the lamp would point at the floor. Both easily rectified but it makes you wonder about the general state of the bike.

There have been many developments to bikes in the last couple of decades - clipless pedals and threadless steeres are two you have not talked about upgrading. A bike from that period is on the wrong side of a lot of developments. No problem if you are happy - as plenty are - with a bike of that vintage but I think there would be better places to spend your hard-earned dosh than modernising that bike. IMO.

[stephenjubb]

I'm after a lighter tourer with a quill stem. On the Royal I had to fit two adapters to get the handlebars to the correct height as in picture below

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/attac ... 1243200696

With ahead people have said it is important to get a correctly measured frame and I wouldn't have had to bodge like in the above picture.

Personally I preferred quill stems over ahead, not only would I have not had any issue with adding extra handlebars stems, the bike would have been lighter, less complicated and cheaper.

I personally can't see much advantage of ahead except they are inherently stronger than quill stems.

[cycleruk]

To pick up on TC's point
The seat tube is the same dimension as a wheel. So if the wheels are 27" then so is the seat tube.
Definitely looks bigger than 23.5"

[thirdcrank]

I wouldn't get into a debate about the merits of different types of headset / stem. I was just making the point that this is one more area that has developed since that bke was made. (I have several quills - but no parchment )

[stephenjubb]

wouldn't really want to get into a debate about Stems, dislike ahead, like quill. But don't have enough knowledge on this area to debate it so no worries starting one there!!

[robgul]

Here's my 2p based on your original shopping list .... to keep cost within reality you would need to dispense with the canti-brake idea (fit Alhonga long-drop dual pivots - about £25 from Spa Cycles) - new triple and 700 wheels perfectly possible - but not more than a 7 speed cassette IMHO (why do you need more gears - it's the ratios that matter)

I've rebuilt about 5 Galaxies ranging from 1975 to about 1989 - my favourite and "No1 Tourer" is a 1975 - with triple on the front, 7 on the back, bar-end changers, 700 wheels, dual pivot brakes, front and rear racks. Simple. There's a pic at www.beewee.org.uk in the Bicycles/Machines 1 section.

As for price of the bike you are looking at ... I would expect to pay about £75 for what is in effect a quality steel frame and some bits ... but I would also recycle the stuff being replaced into other projects.

Cost to "upgrade" as described would probably be in the £250-300 range max. That's your call for an investment of around £400 max for a bike you are happy with - but bear in mind it's not new .....

Rob

PS - As you may detect, I like old bikes

[Secret Sam]

I've got a similar dilemma - old bike old bits but mine were worn out so have replaced them over time

Frame has same clearance issues BUT I didn't have a problem getting modern ROAD spec wheels to fit (130mm spaced) - touring wheels are 5mm more so more of an issue. My frame was 126mm spaced, roughly same era as this one.

The brakes look like Weinmann 730 side pulls, common back then - but unusual for a Galaxy, which tended to have centre pulls as new. The 730s had massive drops ie distance between brake bolt and pad, so the Alhongas mentioned above (and fitted to my bike) sound like a good solution. Also, Argos recommended Tektro R556s (c.£35 a set) if you want something nicer.

Re-gears, etc: it's quite easy to get a new compact chainset (34-50) for around £35, you'll need a BB if the old one's shot mind. With a decent spread at the back, why fit a triple?

Otherwise, bike in the picture looks OK to my eyes - don't think it's been ridden much.

[anniesboy]

Are you sure its 23.5" I ask because some 20+ years ago I had a Galaxy which was around 25" this had 27" wheels with cantis.
I'm about 6foot2 and it was really too big for me.
If I were you I would really want be sure the size was right ,and then consider other things.

[Freddie]

Consider this, from another posting:

If you want to be comfortable, you need the largest frame you can fit (contrary to any advice you might get in a bike shop). For a horizontal top tubed frame about a fist worth of seatpost (9cm) usually ensures good fit for any non-competitive purposes, you can work out the relative frame size on a sloping frame by running a tape measure horizontal from top of head tube to seat tube.