Raleigh Capri(1980s) help
05-07-14, 05:28 PM
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Raleigh Capri(1980s) help
I just bought a Raleigh Capri bike from the 1980s I think. It was made in Taiwan. Anyway a big problem I'm having is that I decided to do a little cleaning up of the bike like cleaning the chain and the drivetrain and lubricating the parts. Well one thing led to another and I took the thing apart so much and can't put it back together. The rear tire is off. The big thing is I think it's the rear derailleur that I disassembled to clean and cant figure out how it goes back on. It's a Shimano Tourney but is really old and doesn't look like the new Shimano Tourney I see on amazon. Also the chain I couldn't get off. I was looking for a master link one but couldnt find it. It also looks like the metal cables are kind of rusty and stiff and may be a good idea to replace those. I've been looking around for videos to help me out but I feel like I have ancient equipment and none of the stuff the videos show looks like what I have. Can I get a new rear derailleur or do I need one and a new chain? Or are there videos that show step by step? Or should I just take it to the bike shop and ask them to put back together? I wanted to get a cheap bike first so that I could learn on it before getting an expensive bike. I didn't realize bicycles were this complicated when I started taking it apart.
06-09-14, 12:17 AM
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Bikes: 2010 Torker T-300, with drop bars. A vintage lugged Mercier 12 speed. A repainted, rebuilt 1986 Raleigh Pursuit road bike. 1988 Panasonic DX3000 is my fave new ride
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A few years ago I completely stripped, rebuilt & repainted a Raleigh Pursuit of similar vintage. I believe the 80s Capri was the bottom offering with most basic tubing and components. Some would say that means it's not worth the fuss, but the way I see it you can learn to tinker on it without worry of messing up something expensive or difficult to replace. I've got five or six rebuilds behind me, and though others on the forum have lots more, I do have a few tips besides Thumpic's advice to post good pictures of what you're talking about on the forums.
When trying a new procedure, take pictures at every step of the way for your own benefit, so you remember how the derailleur is going to look with the chain running through it when it comes back together again. If the springs are still lively the pulleys will be snapped back and seem odd even if it's right. I got disoriented here once myself and went to a crowded bike rack to take pictures of OTHER people's derailleurs to make mine look like theirs. I don't know if you have a workstand or if you are working on the bike upside down, resting on the handlebars and saddle. I usually do it upside down, so I take my pictures of it that way at every step so it looks right. I use my iphone for this since it's practical, doesn't need high res as long as it's in focus.
Most basic, plain-jane derailleurs are pretty interchangeable. I think your Capri was probably a 6 speed freewheel, so the basic entry derailleurs from either Shimano or Sram will work just great. I bought a Tiagra a few years ago that works great with an old 6 speed freewheel. There is no need to match the Tourney name, and the Tourney line might not even be the best for your frame anymore, since product lines change a lot over 25 years. The fact that your bike and components are old makes things much easier, not harder. Even though most instructional videos won't match your experience, the things you need to do on this bike are far simpler than things that require videos. Your Capri probably came with friction shifting, which is easier to set up than a modern indexing system. You have basic levers, not integrated brifters. Since it's not really an integrated system you can mix and match all you want and it will work great if you know how to friction shift properly. On one of my bikes I have Suntour shifters, Shimano derailleur, and Suntour freewheel. Another has Huret shifters, Stronglight crank, Shimano derailleur, and Shimano freewheel on Pelissier hub. The beauty of friction shifting is that almost nothing is truly incompatible as long as it physically fits on the frame. I could swap my Shimano derailleurs with one of my spare Suntour, or late Simplex, and it would not radically change the way things function, just little bit rougher or smoother sometimes maybe.
You say you couldn't get the chain off without a master link. Do you have a chain tool? This is an extremely useful thing to have, as it allows you to push out a chain rivet the old fashioned way. The newest 10 & 11 speed chains don't play well with old fashioned chain tools that work on 6,7,8 speed chains, but that's not your problem, that's a "new bike people" problem.
Better to have a beefier, cheaper, longer lasting chain.
You say that the rear "tire" is off. Lots of people are imprecise with their terminology, and this makes it harder to help in forums. The rear tire is just the rubber bit that encloses an innertube and makes contact with the pavement. Did you mean the whole rear wheel has been removed from the dropouts, or did you just mean you have a flat rear tire and can't figure how to remove the wheel to change it? We don't know if your wheels use quick release levers or bolted axles.
To better learn the names of the parts you're worried about, and to learn a lot of the procedures to fix them, I can't do better than reccomending Sheldon Brown's website. He's been gone a few years now, but his old shop keeps the website up. No videos, but there are good descriptions with pictures, and he covers '70s and '80s and 90s tech pretty well. It's a little tricky to navigate the site, but worth the effort.
When trying a new procedure, take pictures at every step of the way for your own benefit, so you remember how the derailleur is going to look with the chain running through it when it comes back together again. If the springs are still lively the pulleys will be snapped back and seem odd even if it's right. I got disoriented here once myself and went to a crowded bike rack to take pictures of OTHER people's derailleurs to make mine look like theirs. I don't know if you have a workstand or if you are working on the bike upside down, resting on the handlebars and saddle. I usually do it upside down, so I take my pictures of it that way at every step so it looks right. I use my iphone for this since it's practical, doesn't need high res as long as it's in focus.
Most basic, plain-jane derailleurs are pretty interchangeable. I think your Capri was probably a 6 speed freewheel, so the basic entry derailleurs from either Shimano or Sram will work just great. I bought a Tiagra a few years ago that works great with an old 6 speed freewheel. There is no need to match the Tourney name, and the Tourney line might not even be the best for your frame anymore, since product lines change a lot over 25 years. The fact that your bike and components are old makes things much easier, not harder. Even though most instructional videos won't match your experience, the things you need to do on this bike are far simpler than things that require videos. Your Capri probably came with friction shifting, which is easier to set up than a modern indexing system. You have basic levers, not integrated brifters. Since it's not really an integrated system you can mix and match all you want and it will work great if you know how to friction shift properly. On one of my bikes I have Suntour shifters, Shimano derailleur, and Suntour freewheel. Another has Huret shifters, Stronglight crank, Shimano derailleur, and Shimano freewheel on Pelissier hub. The beauty of friction shifting is that almost nothing is truly incompatible as long as it physically fits on the frame. I could swap my Shimano derailleurs with one of my spare Suntour, or late Simplex, and it would not radically change the way things function, just little bit rougher or smoother sometimes maybe.
You say you couldn't get the chain off without a master link. Do you have a chain tool? This is an extremely useful thing to have, as it allows you to push out a chain rivet the old fashioned way. The newest 10 & 11 speed chains don't play well with old fashioned chain tools that work on 6,7,8 speed chains, but that's not your problem, that's a "new bike people" problem.
Better to have a beefier, cheaper, longer lasting chain. You say that the rear "tire" is off. Lots of people are imprecise with their terminology, and this makes it harder to help in forums. The rear tire is just the rubber bit that encloses an innertube and makes contact with the pavement. Did you mean the whole rear wheel has been removed from the dropouts, or did you just mean you have a flat rear tire and can't figure how to remove the wheel to change it? We don't know if your wheels use quick release levers or bolted axles.
To better learn the names of the parts you're worried about, and to learn a lot of the procedures to fix them, I can't do better than reccomending Sheldon Brown's website. He's been gone a few years now, but his old shop keeps the website up. No videos, but there are good descriptions with pictures, and he covers '70s and '80s and 90s tech pretty well. It's a little tricky to navigate the site, but worth the effort.
