JimO303

My first post here, so please bear with me. I'm putting together a bike to fit the needs of a 70 yr old rider, me. Also as a covid isolation exercise. I'm putting parts on a 1982 Raleigh International frame, mostly vintage Suntour. I'm running a 7-speed freewheel with a Suntour Cyclone GT long cage on the rear. My crankset fits my vision as strictly a comfort bike, 42-32-20. My issue is that both front derailleurs I've thrown at it have tailpieces that hit the chain stay. My bb width is 68mm, which could be part of the problem. I've heavily researched an FD that might solve my problem and arrived at a candidate, the IRD Alpina D. I'd appreciate input here. Thanks!

cb400bill

Thread moved from Introductions to Classic & Vintage.

AeroGut

Have you looked at mountain bike triple derailleurs? They are designed for smaller chainrings, and assuming that you are using friction shifting, the difference between mountain and road doesn’t matter.

22-32-42 was a fairly common mountain bike triple crank combo when mountain bikers were still using triples.

fietsbob

Need the MTB FD from that era too & Probably a friction shift lever..
Compact MTB Triple..

clubman 

I have the same size rings on a hybrid gravel grinder and had the same problem. As AeroGut suggests a mountain FD, like this old Shimano LX 300 might do it. I have little to no clearance but it shifts well. I cheated the gear a couple of mils higher than I normally would. I think the devil's in the frame geometry details. There's a number of older double FD's that also might do the trick...think Suntour. Good luck.

dedhed

Is this an option?

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...hey-works.html

nlerner

The Shimano CX 70 gets a lot of love from the compact gearing crowd.

merrman

I have a nishiki international with a triple crankset and going from 50 down to 28 teeth. Which i think would be a similar range. It's got a suntour mountech front derailleur. It has some room to spare on both ends of the adjustment. Thats a sugino gt crank on mine. Is it possible that the 20 tooth cog is just to small to clear or is it strictly a range thing.

79pmooney

The old SunTour FDs had a bolt with bushing across the bottom of the cage. I bet you could remove that bolt, cut the cage back to clear, drill and install a longer bolt with a red-Loktited nut and a longer bushing or stack of small washers. (Longer bolt because the outer cage does a "Z" at the bottom that you are cutting off. Since you are doing this from scratch you can use any nut and bolt you choose. #4 American would work just fine. Like the original in metric if you want but hardly required, Those threads may be finer that an easy search turns up.)

I never tired that but I have removed the bolt, replaced it with shorter and a smaller stack of washers to improve shifting (at the expense of chain rub) many times.

JimO303

[QUOTE=clubman;21601514]I have the same size rings on a hybrid gravel grinder and had the same problem. As AeroGut suggests a mountain FD, like this old Shimano LX 300 might do it. I have little to no clearance but it shifts well. I cheated the gear a couple of mils higher than I normally would. I think the devil's in the frame geometry details. There's a number of older double FD's that also might do the trick...think Suntour. Good luck.


I was hoping to pull all my parts together with Suntour components. My options on the FD seem to be leaning elsewhere, though. Today I ran across a Shimano Deore FD-M611 that possibly takes care of all my issues. It mentions it has an 18t capacity, however, and my set will be 22t. I'm wondering if I can overcome that by using friction shifting. Thoughts?

JimO303

The cx 70 appears to be a double, I'm afraid.

thumpism 

Here's a Mountech with a 22/34/45 on my Cimarron. It's pretty close to the chainstay and might have to be closer for a 20/32/42. I might have some Shimanos for a compact front that would provide more clearance.

clubman 

Friction or indexed shouldn't make any difference. I had Rapidfires working well on mine until I went to drop bars and bar-cons.

GeezyRider 

Any 3 speed FD with a low mount that pulls in the right direction should work for you.

79pmooney

Thank you for posting a pic of a derailleur that demonstrates my point earlier. You could cut this derailleur cage at the bottom ~1/2" shorter/higher and re-drill for the bolt and bushing. I'd go to a bolt with a round head rather than trying to countersink material that thin and hard. A touch longer and use a red-Locktighted nut. (US #4 would work nicely. You might need to fashion a new bushing, Stacks of small washers work well, just a bit of a PITA to install.

thumpism 

^ What 79pmooney says is certainly an option if you have a derailleur to experiment with. The handywork need not be flawless; it only has to work. A little time spent with a hacksaw and drill might pay off. Just as my crank mod turned out okay but looks a little tacky, such a derailleur mod could do the job.