Cycling UK Forum

I want to change the friction gear levers on my old Raleigh and fancy having combined gear and brake levers. Anybody got any thoughts? Are they hard to fit/maintain? What are the best ones? Should I upgrade the front and rear mech and will I have to change my Weinmann centre pulls? Any advice welcome.

Ta Richard

It depends on how good the frame is or if it has sentimental value.
My bike was a surprise 40th birthday present so it got done.
I will send you a PM as I have only just finished paying out on 3 bikes so still know of some bargans.

richards wrote:I want to change the friction gear levers on my old Raleigh and fancy having combined gear and brake levers. Anybody got any thoughts? Are they hard to fit/maintain? What are the best ones? Should I upgrade the front and rear mech and will I have to change my Weinmann centre pulls? Any advice welcome.

Ta Richard

You've said that your Raleigh has friction levers and Weinmann centre pulls: it appears not to be in the first flush of youth. How many gears / ratios do you have on the rear block and what make of gear mechanism is fitted? I'm guessing that it's either 5, 6 or 7, given the other equipment quoted. Sheldon Brown- http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/shifters.html#brifters appears to have combined levers available for 7 speed (Shimano) and above. You will need to make sure that your rear mechanism is compatible with the levers, or change to one that is.

The price of combined levers is rather high - is it worth it for an older bike? Another option you might consider is to buy a pair of Shimano Ultegra 8 speed bar end shifters. I use these on their friction setting on an old Holdsworth frame with a Shimano XT rear mechanism and 6 speed block - it works very well and wasn't too dear. You may still be able to get the Ultegra bar end shifter in the UK, e.g. Spa Cycles.

It's a SRAM rear mech. I don't know which one. The front mech is a Huret (do they still exist?). 8 gears. I'd be OK with changing the mechs if it isn't to expensive. The frame is an old Raleigh clubman (531 main frame) but it suits me for getting round London and the occasional trip out. It's light and handles well but doesn't look nickable so suits the terrrain and I'd like to upgrade the bits.

If the rear end is a Shimano clone 8 speed then it will index directly with Campag 10 speed ergopowers and a Shimano rear mech. Whether the SRAM one will work is debatable as some of them have Shimano compatibility & some don't. To save money you need to be aware that Campag changed the design in 2007 - the new ones have an indexed front shift for all the cheaper groups, only the expensive Chorus & Record are still non index micro ratchet at the front (L/H lever). So you look for old stock 2,006 Veloce or Centaur Ergos
Good luck!

a relatively cheap solution might be to use 8 speed Shimano Sora which are STI and available very cheaply on ebay . I have a set on one of my bikes and love the way the actual brake lever also operates the gears. You should be able to get them for less than £75.00 with cables and mine work fine with a cheap 8 speed Campy cassette and front & rear mechs

The clever bit about using Campag 10 Ergos is you can easily upgrade. Assuming a cassette hub and having bought a new mech about now, a 9 speed cassette just needs a slight alteration to the cable fastening www.hubbub.com and you can go 10 speed with a Shiftmate - Google for JTEK Engineering. (Done both, 9 & 10 speed systems work at least as well as a groupset system).

you must have shares in them b****y shiftmates lol

I believe the OP has an old frame with doubless 120mm or 126mm dropouts. Not sure how you would propose getting a 9 speed cassette on his existing rear wheel and into the dropouts ?

Great to have all this help and suggestions. Peanut, you're right. 8 speed is as far as I can go without being violent to the (old) frame and I'm happy with that many anyway. Couple of questions - Does it matter what cassette I use and why? Does the front mech matter (no-one seems to have mentioned it)? Could I fit the Sora (say) and just see if it works with the Sram then change the Sram if need be? How difficult will fitting be?

the simple answer is I have no personal experience with sram

but I do have an 8 speed bike with cheap chorus 8speed cassette and front and rear mechs which work faultlessly with an 8 speed Sora STi lever set.
I cannot fault it.

Modern STI /ergo are remarkable tolerant of mixing and matching.

My personal belief is that most people have problems with their setup not because of the mixed equipment but rather due to not setting up their stuff properly due to lack of care or knowledge.

The front mech for instance needs to be just 1-2 mm of the front large chain wheel and parallel to the chain wheel very precisely. I set this without the chain fitted so I can push the front mech through its travel with my fingers whilst adjusting. I then fit the chain and turn the bike upside down spin the cranks and operate the gear/brake levers adjusting the front and rear gear travel whilst spinning the cranks by hand.

Works a treat and once everything is running smoothly without clatter , buzz or clicks etc then I rarely need to re-adjust out on the road. One day I'll get a stand

I'd say get the Sora they are brilliant

Just a quiquie to say thanks to everyone for your advice and offers of help. I finally got round to fitting a Sora on the front brake/rear mech (not often you need to change chain wheel in London) and it works fine, brakes and gears. Thanks again.

If you upgraded from downtube levers can you tell me what you put where the levers were to hold the cable outers that go up to the STI units?
I have the other bits but have not figured this bit out yet.

Getting a 135mm hub into an old 531 frame isn't a problem. All you need is a length of threaded bar, two nuts and some strong washers. Measure the tracking by running a length of twine from dropout to dropout via the headtube.
The cable anchors for braze on downtube fittings are available from most decent shops - both Campag & Shimano make them and they have built in barrel adjusters.

My down tube levers are band-on, do the cable stops with barrel adjusters fit onto the remains of the band-on after the levers are removed?

meic. So far I cheated. When I finally did the job it was Sunday, the LBS was shut and I,d forgotten just that. S I tightened up the old lever now not in use so it won't move and used that as a stop (I'm still using the friction lever for the front mech), This can only be temporary and the cable anchors PW speaks of appear to be widely available on the net. Still, it makes the bike look bit more of an old wreck, which in London is a Good Thing.