Could I build my own modern Roaster, like a Retrovelo Paul? Possible? Stupid?
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Could I build my own modern Roaster, like a Retrovelo Paul? Possible? Stupid?
Hello C&Vers. I've been contemplating my first bike build. I've done much wrenching on a modest bike stable that I can keep in some as semblance of order, but I'd like to build up my own bike from scratch-ish now. I have a Chinese Phoenix roadster, a vague copy of a DL-1 I believe, that I love, but I could use something that is a teeny bit more refined, and maybe in the sub 50 lb range for when I encounter the odd hill.
I'm looking to put together a roaster style bike with some modern comforts to cruise around town, groceries, etc. Some hills in my area but not too bad. I was looking at the Retrovelo Paul (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...-opinions.html) for inspiration, maybe with some north road bars.
The general consensus seems to be that the Paul is an 80s mountain bike frame dressed up nicely. So can I procure an 80s mountain bike frame and just go from there? I'm looking to have drum brakes, dynamo, 7-8 speed IGH, fenders, racks, circle lock, north road bars, and loud bell.
Does anyone see any speed bumps to look out for? I feel pretty good about my general bike assembly/part procurement knowledge, but I'm a little hazy on the rear spacing/drive train/chain line situation. Are 80s mountain bikes likely to have 135mm spacing (which I believe is standard for IGHs and dynamos)?
I'm looking to put together a roaster style bike with some modern comforts to cruise around town, groceries, etc. Some hills in my area but not too bad. I was looking at the Retrovelo Paul (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...-opinions.html) for inspiration, maybe with some north road bars.
The general consensus seems to be that the Paul is an 80s mountain bike frame dressed up nicely. So can I procure an 80s mountain bike frame and just go from there? I'm looking to have drum brakes, dynamo, 7-8 speed IGH, fenders, racks, circle lock, north road bars, and loud bell.
Does anyone see any speed bumps to look out for? I feel pretty good about my general bike assembly/part procurement knowledge, but I'm a little hazy on the rear spacing/drive train/chain line situation. Are 80s mountain bikes likely to have 135mm spacing (which I believe is standard for IGHs and dynamos)?
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The rear drop outs on a mtb probably won't be optimal for an internally geared hub as it will most likely be a vertical rather than a horizontal dropout. Might be easier to go with a vintage touring bike with 700c wheels; or you could use something like this new albion privateer frame to do your build with, New Albion Privateer Frame.
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The earlier 80s mtbs have longer wheelbases, lazier angles and likely 126mm spacing. But more will be horizontal dropouts.
The later 80s mtbs will be shorter, 130mm spacing, and mostly vertical dropouts.
Early to mid 90s mtbs with be the most sporting with shorter chainstays, steeper angles, but long top tubes. Almost all are vertical dropouts.
An exception that I'm aware personally are 1992 Specialized Hardrocks and some Rockhoppers. These had horizontal dropouts, Tange tubing and good road manners.
But I think they were 130mm spacing. I can check if you need to know.
Other platforms: 700C hybrids, a few 650B wheeled mtbs offered by Raleigh and Schwinn in the mid 80s.
The later 80s mtbs will be shorter, 130mm spacing, and mostly vertical dropouts.
Early to mid 90s mtbs with be the most sporting with shorter chainstays, steeper angles, but long top tubes. Almost all are vertical dropouts.
An exception that I'm aware personally are 1992 Specialized Hardrocks and some Rockhoppers. These had horizontal dropouts, Tange tubing and good road manners.
But I think they were 130mm spacing. I can check if you need to know.
Other platforms: 700C hybrids, a few 650B wheeled mtbs offered by Raleigh and Schwinn in the mid 80s.
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The rear drop outs on a mtb probably won't be optimal for an internally geared hub as it will most likely be a vertical rather than a horizontal dropout. Might be easier to go with a vintage touring bike with 700c wheels; or you could use something like this new albion privateer frame to do your build with, New Albion Privateer Frame.
Good info on the dropouts. Thanks.
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The earlier 80s mtbs have longer wheelbases, lazier angles and likely 126mm spacing. But more will be horizontal dropouts.
The later 80s mtbs will be shorter, 130mm spacing, and mostly vertical dropouts.
Early to mid 90s mtbs with be the most sporting with shorter chainstays, steeper angles, but long top tubes. Almost all are vertical dropouts.
An exception that I'm aware personally are 1992 Specialized Hardrocks and some Rockhoppers. These had horizontal dropouts, Tange tubing and good road manners.
But I think they were 130mm spacing. I can check if you need to know.
Other platforms: 700C hybrids, a few 650B wheeled mtbs offered by Raleigh and Schwinn in the mid 80s.
The later 80s mtbs will be shorter, 130mm spacing, and mostly vertical dropouts.
Early to mid 90s mtbs with be the most sporting with shorter chainstays, steeper angles, but long top tubes. Almost all are vertical dropouts.
An exception that I'm aware personally are 1992 Specialized Hardrocks and some Rockhoppers. These had horizontal dropouts, Tange tubing and good road manners.
But I think they were 130mm spacing. I can check if you need to know.
Other platforms: 700C hybrids, a few 650B wheeled mtbs offered by Raleigh and Schwinn in the mid 80s.
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Do check out our vintage mtb thread and vintage mtb drop bar conversion thread. Some were converted to swept back bar configurations for comfort.
You'll also see examples by model and year to decide on a mtb for your project, if you still plan on a mtb frame.
You'll also see examples by model and year to decide on a mtb for your project, if you still plan on a mtb frame.
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I've always thought that a Miyata Trailblazer or Ridgerunner would make a good conversion…the higher end ones from the late-80s to early-90's have their splined triple butted tubing which is great stuff.
I've been down this road a few times with the IGH, drum brakes, etc.. its fun. Look into the Shimano FHR700 rear hub. Its a drum brake with a freehub. I love mine. Also don't rule out Coaster brake IGH's. Coaster brakes aren't just for kids. I commuted on a Nexus 7speed IGH with a coaster brake for many moons and loved it. I got an SRAM iMotion9 with a coaster brake to replace it (haven't done that yet). I'd post some pics but Picasa is down. Sturmey Archer front drum hubs are great, you can get em with dynamos too, they're awesome. Bear in mind that drum brakes are heavier and its more of a pain in the ass to change a tire or fix a flat (if you are the tube replacing type) but if you don't mind that, they work great, don't get affected by water and look cool.
I'd suggest looking into some bars besides North Roads. The Nitto Albatross or Dove, the Velo Orange Montmartre or Left Bank are all nice townie bars.
I've been down this road a few times with the IGH, drum brakes, etc.. its fun. Look into the Shimano FHR700 rear hub. Its a drum brake with a freehub. I love mine. Also don't rule out Coaster brake IGH's. Coaster brakes aren't just for kids. I commuted on a Nexus 7speed IGH with a coaster brake for many moons and loved it. I got an SRAM iMotion9 with a coaster brake to replace it (haven't done that yet). I'd post some pics but Picasa is down. Sturmey Archer front drum hubs are great, you can get em with dynamos too, they're awesome. Bear in mind that drum brakes are heavier and its more of a pain in the ass to change a tire or fix a flat (if you are the tube replacing type) but if you don't mind that, they work great, don't get affected by water and look cool.
I'd suggest looking into some bars besides North Roads. The Nitto Albatross or Dove, the Velo Orange Montmartre or Left Bank are all nice townie bars.
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~>~
It was assumed that fixed gear, a Sturmey Archer IGH or derailleurs would be fitted at some point in the service life. Mine has sported all three over the last 40 years, currently both an AW hub & Cyclo 3-cog w/ NR derailleur.
-Bandera
Last edited by Bandera; 05-24-14 at 08:41 AM.
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I've always thought that a Miyata Trailblazer or Ridgerunner would make a good conversion…the higher end ones from the late-80s to early-90's have their splined triple butted tubing which is great stuff.
I've been down this road a few times with the IGH, drum brakes, etc.. its fun. Look into the Shimano FHR700 rear hub. Its a drum brake with a freehub. I love mine. Also don't rule out Coaster brake IGH's. Coaster brakes aren't just for kids. I commuted on a Nexus 7speed IGH with a coaster brake for many moons and loved it. I got an SRAM iMotion9 with a coaster brake to replace it (haven't done that yet). I'd post some pics but Picasa is down. Sturmey Archer front drum hubs are great, you can get em with dynamos too, they're awesome. Bear in mind that drum brakes are heavier and its more of a pain in the ass to change a tire or fix a flat (if you are the tube replacing type) but if you don't mind that, they work great, don't get affected by water and look cool.
I'd suggest looking into some bars besides North Roads. The Nitto Albatross or Dove, the Velo Orange Montmartre or Left Bank are all nice townie bars.
I've been down this road a few times with the IGH, drum brakes, etc.. its fun. Look into the Shimano FHR700 rear hub. Its a drum brake with a freehub. I love mine. Also don't rule out Coaster brake IGH's. Coaster brakes aren't just for kids. I commuted on a Nexus 7speed IGH with a coaster brake for many moons and loved it. I got an SRAM iMotion9 with a coaster brake to replace it (haven't done that yet). I'd post some pics but Picasa is down. Sturmey Archer front drum hubs are great, you can get em with dynamos too, they're awesome. Bear in mind that drum brakes are heavier and its more of a pain in the ass to change a tire or fix a flat (if you are the tube replacing type) but if you don't mind that, they work great, don't get affected by water and look cool.
I'd suggest looking into some bars besides North Roads. The Nitto Albatross or Dove, the Velo Orange Montmartre or Left Bank are all nice townie bars.
I'm not too worried about weight, I'm pretty sure that whatever I end up with will be lighter than a double top tube Chinese roadster made from what appears to be pipe.
Good tip on the tire changing. I'm down with patching and taking my chances. Currently the Phoneix (chinese roadster) is a nightmare if you have to change a flat. What with a center kick stand, big rack, fenders, etc..
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This is the correct way to approach this project. Old mtb's are heavy and over built for your stated purpose. Plus is you need to change the bike back to a road bike for riding or future sale, you will have that option. I would look for a bike that had mounts for fenders and a rack.
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Great looking bike. I like the kickstand. The road bike looks great, what size tires are you running? I'm thinking of running some pretty fat ones to soak up the bumps, so I was thinking I wouldn't have the clearance on a road bike. I've got a go-fast road bike for maximum punishment already, so this is more the caddy, I hope.
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Sweet. I have an old international frame with a slight frame defect. Hmm... might be doable if I can do a little brazing. I had a complete international that I sold, it was so complete I couldn't bear to change it to something else.
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Great looking bike. I like the kickstand. The road bike looks great, what size tires are you running? I'm thinking of running some pretty fat ones to soak up the bumps, so I was thinking I wouldn't have the clearance on a road bike. I've got a go-fast road bike for maximum punishment already, so this is more the caddy, I hope.
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picasa is back up,
This is what became of my '73 World Voyageur creamcicle. Its an xtracycle now... Bars are VO Left Bank with Tektro inverse levers. The Front hub is a modern Sturmey XFD drum brake hub, rear hub you can't see but is one of those Shimano FHR-700. Shimano calls that a Roller Brake instead of a drum brake. Its been a super reliable setup for me, the Inverse levers work fine with the drum brakes.
many of those parts used to live on this Varsity I tarted up for grocery runs.
This is the commuter i mentioned earlier with the coaster brake Nexus 7 IGH. I think the look of this was really clean. No brake levers, no calipers...if you didn't know better you could mistake it for a brakeless fixie.
I mean look at that nice clean cockpit.
Brake performance was always adequate but eventually I added a front caliper brake because i felt like it. Also some fenders and commuter gear
Here's a slightly different application of front Drum/ and the Shimano FHR700 - I really like the look of this but the whole setup was ultimately too heavy to be the kind of bike I wanted to ride frequently.
here's a closer look at that FHR700 -
This is what became of my '73 World Voyageur creamcicle. Its an xtracycle now... Bars are VO Left Bank with Tektro inverse levers. The Front hub is a modern Sturmey XFD drum brake hub, rear hub you can't see but is one of those Shimano FHR-700. Shimano calls that a Roller Brake instead of a drum brake. Its been a super reliable setup for me, the Inverse levers work fine with the drum brakes.
many of those parts used to live on this Varsity I tarted up for grocery runs.
This is the commuter i mentioned earlier with the coaster brake Nexus 7 IGH. I think the look of this was really clean. No brake levers, no calipers...if you didn't know better you could mistake it for a brakeless fixie.
I mean look at that nice clean cockpit.
Brake performance was always adequate but eventually I added a front caliper brake because i felt like it. Also some fenders and commuter gear
Here's a slightly different application of front Drum/ and the Shimano FHR700 - I really like the look of this but the whole setup was ultimately too heavy to be the kind of bike I wanted to ride frequently.
here's a closer look at that FHR700 -
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Last edited by Zaphod Beeblebrox; 05-24-14 at 10:28 AM.
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Weird. I couldn't see these last two pictures till I hit Reply With Quote. Then they showed up in the reply box.
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picasa is back up,
This is what became of my '73 World Voyageur creamcicle. Its an xtracycle now... Bars are VO Left Bank with Tektro inverse levers. The Front hub is a modern Sturmey XFD drum brake hub, rear hub you can't see but is one of those Shimano FHR-700. Shimano calls that a Roller Brake instead of a drum brake. Its been a super reliable setup for me, the Inverse levers work fine with the drum brakes.
many of those parts used to live on this Varsity I tarted up for grocery runs.
This is the commuter i mentioned earlier with the coaster brake Nexus 7 IGH. I think the look of this was really clean. No brake levers, no calipers...if you didn't know better you could mistake it for a brakeless fixie.
I mean look at that nice clean cockpit.
Brake performance was always adequate but eventually I added a front caliper brake because i felt like it. Also some fenders and commuter gear
Here's a slightly different application of front Drum/ and the Shimano FHR700 - I really like the look of this but the whole setup was ultimately too heavy to be the kind of bike I wanted to ride frequently.
here's a closer look at that FHR700 -
This is what became of my '73 World Voyageur creamcicle. Its an xtracycle now... Bars are VO Left Bank with Tektro inverse levers. The Front hub is a modern Sturmey XFD drum brake hub, rear hub you can't see but is one of those Shimano FHR-700. Shimano calls that a Roller Brake instead of a drum brake. Its been a super reliable setup for me, the Inverse levers work fine with the drum brakes.
many of those parts used to live on this Varsity I tarted up for grocery runs.
This is the commuter i mentioned earlier with the coaster brake Nexus 7 IGH. I think the look of this was really clean. No brake levers, no calipers...if you didn't know better you could mistake it for a brakeless fixie.
I mean look at that nice clean cockpit.
Brake performance was always adequate but eventually I added a front caliper brake because i felt like it. Also some fenders and commuter gear
Here's a slightly different application of front Drum/ and the Shimano FHR700 - I really like the look of this but the whole setup was ultimately too heavy to be the kind of bike I wanted to ride frequently.
here's a closer look at that FHR700 -
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its actually orange. Orange goes faster ;-)
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FH-R700 a 7 speed or can it be made into a 8 speed?
Do you know if the FH-R700 hub is for a 7 speed cassette? I have an 8 speed setup. If it is a for a 7-speed, can it be transplanted to receive an 8-speed set up?
Thanks!
Thanks!
picasa is back up,
This is what became of my '73 World Voyageur creamcicle. Its an xtracycle now... Bars are VO Left Bank with Tektro inverse levers. The Front hub is a modern Sturmey XFD drum brake hub, rear hub you can't see but is one of those Shimano FHR-700. Shimano calls that a Roller Brake instead of a drum brake. Its been a super reliable setup for me, the Inverse levers work fine with the drum brakes.
many of those parts used to live on this Varsity I tarted up for grocery runs.
This is the commuter i mentioned earlier with the coaster brake Nexus 7 IGH. I think the look of this was really clean. No brake levers, no calipers...if you didn't know better you could mistake it for a brakeless fixie.
I mean look at that nice clean cockpit.
Brake performance was always adequate but eventually I added a front caliper brake because i felt like it. Also some fenders and commuter gear
Here's a slightly different application of front Drum/ and the Shimano FHR700 - I really like the look of this but the whole setup was ultimately too heavy to be the kind of bike I wanted to ride frequently.
here's a closer look at that FHR700 -
This is what became of my '73 World Voyageur creamcicle. Its an xtracycle now... Bars are VO Left Bank with Tektro inverse levers. The Front hub is a modern Sturmey XFD drum brake hub, rear hub you can't see but is one of those Shimano FHR-700. Shimano calls that a Roller Brake instead of a drum brake. Its been a super reliable setup for me, the Inverse levers work fine with the drum brakes.
many of those parts used to live on this Varsity I tarted up for grocery runs.
This is the commuter i mentioned earlier with the coaster brake Nexus 7 IGH. I think the look of this was really clean. No brake levers, no calipers...if you didn't know better you could mistake it for a brakeless fixie.
I mean look at that nice clean cockpit.
Brake performance was always adequate but eventually I added a front caliper brake because i felt like it. Also some fenders and commuter gear
Here's a slightly different application of front Drum/ and the Shimano FHR700 - I really like the look of this but the whole setup was ultimately too heavy to be the kind of bike I wanted to ride frequently.
here's a closer look at that FHR700 -
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The FHR700 hubs are meant for 7 speed. If you wanna put 8 or 9 on you probably are gonna have to swap out the freehub body.
those are all Old road frames.
those are all Old road frames.
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I'd go with the suggestions to use an older English Road Frame. Livelier geometry, they can handle large tires with fenders and will be significantly lighter than an old MTB.
Check out this Tread for lots of ideas from our Brothers & Sisters https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...tml?highlight=