tamaso206

Robbie-- Nope. Can't say I'm personally invested in what polkadot does with his bike. I enjoy this thread because the examples, advice, opinions, and thoughts expressed here have provided a lot of interesting content and inspiration for me (and doubtless many others!) as I experiment building and riding great bikes on the (relative) cheap! Just trying to give back to this niche discussion of old frames w/ modern components in a way that I hope is interesting and helpful for others. I'll leave it at that, since photos are way more interesting that words and fine cycling weather seems to finally be arriving in my neck of the woods .
Cheers,
Tamaso

sumgy

FYI, my bars break the rule about having the lever tip parallel to the bottom of the drops.
I think what polkadot could do (if he wants to) is to roll the bars back just slightly.
The ends of my bars point to just above the brake caliper.

polkadot

Excellent piece of information, I'll keep my eyes open if I see cheap Nitto dropbars on sale! Many good comments already, thanks everybody!

This is also worth trying, cheers. It might solve the issue but still look good enough.

I did some tempo training on Tuesday and noted that riding fast from the hoods feels bit wobbly, especially if cycling while standing. I get a sensation of hoods flexing/moving under my arms when pushing hard. I already checked that the shifters are screwed in tighly. Could this be a feature of these narrower 25.4 bars or something wrong with my installation?

BTW, my tempo speed with the Crescent is surprisingly close to what I could get with my modern race bike. I find this amusing.

polkadot

Before putting everything together I tested the geometry on a trainer:

sumgy

What do you mean still look good enough?
I work on 1 rule.
It needs to be comfortable both in the drops and on the hoods and that I need to be able to get to my brakes both from on the hoods and in the drops.

I have plenty of stuff I dont like the look of in a bike set up but so long as those 2 rules downt get broken I guess it is AOK.

If Strava is anything to go by, I am far faster on my Concorde than on my CF bike.
I have come home from rides that I have done often to find that I have 25 new PB's.

tamaso206

Not sure exactly what you mean by "wobbly", but some amount of flex is certainly a natural thing if you are really putting a lot of upper body force into the bars when out of the saddle sprinting or even climbing in a high gear. Could be coming from the bars, stem, or both as long as the levers are attached properly. You should find that the same thing happens when you are riding that hard in the drops also. Quill stems may flex a bit more than threadless, and 25.4/26.0 bars a bit more than 31.8-- but, it's interesting to note those measurements are ONLY at the clamp area of the bar, and ALL drop bars are the same diameter on the ramps, hooks, and drops!

polkadot

I need to investigate this more, but I'm almost certain that when riding hard in the drops there isn't significant flexing.

a77impala

My '85 420 Trek with tri color sti 8 speed.
Trek calls this color Taupe.

YoKev

I spent the winter building this Ted Wojcik up. It was a project that I didn't know I needed until I saw it. After a half dozen or so test rides filled with tweaking and parts swapping, I am very pleased with the end result. Maybe a bit too modern for some, but it is steel, has 1" head tube, horizontal Columbus dropouts with adjuster screws, and had downtube shifters originally. It's sitting at 18lbs and a little change (with pedals). The only thing I'll be changing (eventually) is the bar tape and shifters to Campy 10-speed/jtek to get rid of the cable clutter.

-Reynolds 853 Ted Wojcik with Vicious Cycles repaint
-Thomson Elite stem/seatpost
-Fizik Aliante K'ium saddle
-Generic take off 31.8 handlebar
-Shimano 9-speed brifters
-DuraAce 7700 brakes
-105 rear derailleur
-Ultegra front derailleur
-Cook Brothers Racing E2 cranks with "Real" chain rings. 52/38. Crazy as it may sound, I'm pretty sure they're titanium.
-Origin 8 bottom bracket
-Chris King 1" threadless headset
-Alpha Q GS-10 carbon fork with carbon steerer
-DuraAce 7700 24-hole hubs with Velocity Escape tubular rims
-Continental Sprinter 22mm tubs

non-fixie 

^ Very nice!

Duane Behrens

american psycho 

1973 Bianchi Specialissima Pro number 204.

Italuminium

^diggin' that Bianchi. Definitely diggin' it.

YoKev

HOT! Damn dude, that's nice.

RobbieTunes

1986 De Rosa Professional. Fits. Courtesy of the man they call sloar.
Some may not prefer the FSA crank set or calipers, but the bike is all business and is a 2x week rider, minimum.
Otherwise, 10-sp Centaur, Ksyrium Elites, Fizik Arione (whatwolf), Exustar polished pedals, Panaracer Stradius Pro II tires.

RobbieTunes

Not STI or Ergo, but no where else to put 9-sp DT shifters, 1985 bike.
Made a change in the bike due to parts/other builds/thinning. I like it fine so far.
It won't be ridden as much as the De Rosa, but it's my climber.
DA hubs/cassette (12-32), RD, shifters, seatpost. A little Brooks class.

mechanicmatt

Both the De Rosa and the Merckx look great! Is that Brooks handlebar tape on the Merckx?

himespau 

beautiful

RobbieTunes

The shakedown ride went very well. A little RD noise, completely canceled by 2 clicks on the DT cable stop. Bars are too high, so they drop about 1/2" tomorrow. Otherwise, a good one. No problems. The Merckx goes 55 miles tomorrow.

puckett129

Hot. As always.

durak

Super nice thread!

A question on STI-shifters. I'm not familiar with them, but want to upgrade my bike with them. Bike's groupset is full dura-ace 7400/7402 8 speed, so from what I have learn't my choises are:
-original 7400 series STI
-any 9 speed shimano STI

How critical for the shifting smoothness is the quality of the STI? Obviously nicest for completeness would be the original ST-7400, but they aren't that easily available and go for stupid high prices for old used gear. Available new are Sora 3500, which I also could get way below street price right now in unused condition from a seller. For same price I could order Microshift R9 9 speed shimano compatible shifters from China. And then there is hunting for Ultegra, 105, Tiagra 9 speed shifters used.

The Sora's tempt me in being new and available right now, but would they hinder the shifting experience of derailleurs? Or maybe modern Sora already passed 7400 long time ago? They are also black in colour, which I'm not enthusiastic about. Microshift are silvery (link microSHIFT -The best control system), but them I know even less about.

Any thoughts appreciated!

shoota 

I don't think a new set of Soras will hinder your shifting performance but I think it would be worth finding a nice set some thing higher end.

RobbieTunes

I'm not aware of 8-sp DA being compatible with 9-sp non-DA, but I learn something every day.

If you really want compatibility, then 8-sp 7400 STI's are the way to go.

However, you can get about any 8-sp STI's (including Microshift) and just swap in a 6400 RD.
It would likely be cheaper in the long run. 6400 tricolor stuff is not that expensive, other than the STI shifters.
Selling the 8-sp DA DT shifters shouldn't be that hard...I'd be interested myself...having the RD and a set of hubs.

YoKev

Having owned a Sora shifter equipped bike at the same time as I owned a 7402 8-speed brifter bike, I can assure you that in my experience even 20+ year old DuraAce is far superior to Sora as far as shifting crispness is concerned. If you can get Sora to work with a 7400 or 7402 RD then good for ya, but it's worth your time to find an appropriate shifter if you are dead set on using that RD.

Personally, I would opt for a newer Shimano rd/shifter setup simply for the ease of finding a lightly used and affordable mini group.

Good luck with the build

Fred Smedley

Nine speed Shimano pulls the same cable as 8 speed DA. If he is interested in sticking with 8 cogs rear and swapping RD Campy 10 speed shifters are cheap (Europe mail order)and pull 2.8 mm as Shimano 8 shifters to go with your 6400 RD.