Leftcoastlugs

Hi there... @bwillie88
I have the same frame that I plan on building up....I essentially want your setup...Do you mind sharing with me your 1x crankset setup....brake setup...along with the rims you are using with those 700x32....The bike looks great!
Thanks...
Adam

KWheth

@OP, I am considering the same update to my '72 GP, amongst some others. When I picked mine up from a local community shop there were quite a few small updates already made to some components while keeping the old flare there.

Has anyone attempted to add any Shimano 1055 components to the '72 frame, and if so, what were some of your lessons learned? I already have seen a front to rear cog nonalignment with the chain rubbing on the big ring while in the small up front, and the FD cable routing seems wrong as no amount of tension is getting the FD to move.

I'll love to share pics of the progress once I am beyond the new-guy trial period post limit.

Thanks!

bwilli88 

It is a half step double, 45x42 with 9 speed cassette 11-34. The brakes are the original weinmans
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79pmooney

If you decide to keep and use the Normandy hubs. be aware the rear is probably threaded for a French thread freewheel. If so -don't screw on an English one! It will screw on with difficulty and be ridable BUT it will strip the hub's threads, after which your fastest (and only) gear will be neutral. The hub will be ruined.

A brake change you might consider is going to Mafac Racers. Probably about the reach of the 750 and excellent brakes. Not "correct" for a Raleigh but my Competition has never complained. I don't know what availability and prices are now. The joke of 20 years ago is no longer true - want NOS Racers? $50 at yard sales; but you have to discard the attached Peugeot UO-8. Now people want those UO-8s. (I rode one into the ground and still wonder the attraction but maybe that's just me.) But those brakes - real stoppers with aluminum rims. (I suspect Peugeot put them on the steel rimmed UO-8s because they were one of the few that"could" stop the bike in the wet.)

And (too much information, I know) if you do get the Mafacs - try just putting on the front if your Weinmann works in back. Then run the rear brake cable housing continuously front the lever to the hanger above the brake. (You ask why?) Mafacs have a spongy feel. 4' of housing adds up to a fair amount compression (or sponge) when you stop hard. But full length cables also have two fewer rust/wear/kink points and you never scrape the paint with a clumsy grab to pick up the bike. If you run the rear full length and use the stiffer but less powerful Weinmann, you end up with the front and rear brakes feeling the same and having really balanced effectiveness. Yes, less happens when you apply the rear, but rear brakes are inherently poor stoppers and a lot of power just means lock-up and loss of control. Use my mix and you can slam on both for a panic stop and all that happens is that you stop really fast! And - you can modify both unused calipers, the Mafac front and Weinmann rear, to b the opposite and do the same thing to another bike. Go to an Ace Hardware or equivalent and get a quality metric bolt of the same diameter, length and threads as the other brake. I did this and my two winter/rain/city bikes both have Mafac front and Weinmann rear from the two brakesets.

My workhorse bikes are a 400 level Trek ~1983 and that Competition, 1973. The Trek is an evolution from the old UO-8. I replaced the frame after crashes with best immediately available. The Trek is frame number 5 for that bike. But your frame would serve those bikes nearly as well (and would have if I happened to own it 40 years ago).

As others said - welcome! Keep us posted on your choices.

Ben

bwilli88 

my Gazelle built Grand Prix had British threads on the Normandy hubs.