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| Almost there, with new seat. |
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| Some more detail of the |
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| new gearing setup with orange 3d printed cable guide. |
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| The first seat I put on was pretty manky. |
Last Saturday during my volunteer work at Wecycle, a gentleman came and donated a small framed racing bike in good condition. The shed was quite full and an executive decision was made to recycle this bike for parts. After the brakes, handlebars, quill stem, seat post, seat and wheels had been removed, I jumped in and asked if I could take the rest home as the frame looked quite good.
As the bike came to me without handlebars, I felt free to change it however I liked, and chose bars from a town bike. These are completely different to race bars with the hand grips at least 20cm above the racing bike drop position. But unlike the racing bike bars which prioritize speed, with these bars the bike could actually be quite comfortable to ride. Along with the wider handlebars came a better brake position, and also the need for a better gear position. There are some bolt on kits available for adapting downtube shifters to shifters on handlebars, and a local shop is selling them for a good price.
But I realised that adapters weren't necessary, as a gear cable outer can easily start at the top of the existing shift lever. I only modified the right hand shifting mech, as this control is for the rear derailleur, which is activated far more often than the front derailleur. So suffer slightly if you have to change gears at the front with the left hand control!
There's not much of the new gear change cable sticking into the downtube shifter, so to secure it I designed and 3d printed a cable guide which fits neatly into the lugged frame. The cable guide and cable outer are lashed to the frame with cable ties. Although a few cable ties on their own would have done the job, I think this looks a bit more elegant and says "don't touch!".
The bike's finished now, it rides quite nicely, and on Saturday I'll see if it gets the thumbs up from my fellow volunteers.
Regards Steve Nurse
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