Found some time finally to make some changes/upgrades to the bike. I was not very happy with the gearing choises I made before (a 46 chainring with a 14-24 freewheel) which turned out to be not that practical for the type of cycling I use this bike for. I had a 7sp Sachs Aris freewheel which I have converted to 5sp with 16-19-22-26-32 sprockets. This gives me a low of 39 GI and a high of 79 GI. The short cage Gippieme rear derailleur had to go, I've substituted it with a nice Suntour VGT Luxe that I recently bought locally. Those long cage derailleur of that era are not very common around here, by the way. The DT shifter has proved to be a bit akward for the upright riding position so that is also gone now. Instead of that, a nice Suntour thumb shifter is installed now.
I was looking for a nice front rack for this bike to give it more carrying options. I figured that the Pelago Commuter Front Rack in M size is just about perfect for me, not too small and not too big as eg. the VO Porteur Rack. Plus,
JaccoW has the same Pelago rack on one of his Koga Miyata bikes and I liked the look. So, I picked the rack from a local store in Rotterdam a week ago and now it's also installed
I also got a small Mijnen Pieper chromed frame pump which I am not very impressed with. I like the look and it fits the bike but it is almost useless wjen it comes to pumping up tires. I am leaving it for now but I'll see if I can get a better vintage looking frame pump.
I also gonna be putting lights on the bike and some extra bits so that's the next step for now.
Anyway, it was nice weather today so I went on a 45km ride to check everything . Here are some pictures.
Cycled over the Jan Linzelviaduct bridge in the Hague for the first time. The company I work for built it this year.