8765fi

I have the 1990 bike, which I intend to "do up". - I have never done this before and I am not really a mechanic, but we all start somewhere and I thought it would give me confidence for something more exotic in the future.

Equipped with original parts triple chain set, 5 cog cassette SIS shifters, cantilever brakes. Propose the following

Change to 1x on the front, with 46T
QUESTION: I think I need to understand the bottom bracket to know what i can put through as a crank (shimano/sram etc) - will i need to find a suitable bottom bracket to fit?
Change Rear 10 speed cassette
QUESTION: this has only got 5 cogs on the back, i want to put a 10 speed 10-42 (if its possible). I think i will therefore need a 10 speed shifter, 10 speed derailleur, but what is most worrying is whether the free hub (if it is even that on the rear wheel) will accommodate a bigger cassette, when its only got 5 cogs on there now...

Canti brakes seem to be fairly easy to fit, was just going to upgrade the levers, cables and assembly take the crap ones that are on there off and replace.

Welcome any advice and also where to source parts from. Thanks everyone in advance!

Bill Kapaun

5 speed is probably NOT a free hub. If it was, it'd be Uni Glide and you'd still need a different FH.
Freewheel or Cassette?

maddog34

you need to measure the distance between the rear frame Dropouts.. it MUST be 135mm to accept an 8-9-10 sp. MTB Freehub type wheel assy.

you'll need a derailleur hanger that has threads to mount a modern rear derailleur.
https://www.sporti-shop.com/eng_pl_D...eel-6106_1.jpg

and you might want to consider upgrading some other bike... your Raleigh is not a very good choice to throw money at.

cyccommute 

You can do most anything you like on a bicycle but you should keep it within reason. The Raleigh you are talking about seems to be a platform that you really shouldn’t be dumping too much money into. It has a claw rear derailer hanger which is an indication of pretty low quality. Ride the crap out of the bike as it sits but don’t dump a lot of money into upgrades. There are lots and lots of higher quality bikes of the same or similar vintage that are more upgrade worthy.

jimc101

Any advice, don't, walk away from this bike, and get something half decent to start with.

Your working with what is effectively a BSO, Raleigh bikes in the 90's were bad, very bad, they had a range of good ones under the Dyna-tech (late 80's-early 90's) then M-Trax brands but if it was branded Raleigh, and esp an MTB, it was not good.

What your planning on doing is throw money (and it will be throwing a lot) at a gas pipe frame which will never be a nice ride, and will always be heavy no matter what components you put on it.

Bill Kapaun

The only reason anybody sold 5 speeds in 1990 was so they could jack up the prices of the 6 & 7 speeds.

KerryIrons

As others have noted, you'll spend way more on this proposed project than the bike is worth and the performance won't improve much as you try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. And the final product will be a kludge at best. Don't do it.

grumpus

That's a weird video - he shows all the crap plastic-on-steel components on a gas-pipe frame and then says it's better than something from Taiwan costing more. Raleigh UK was capable of building nice stuff but they made an awful lot of junk from the 1980s up until they shut down the Nottingham frame-building works. Take away the often fancy paint on the low-end models and you were left with something someone could build in his shed with a stick welder; broken frames weren't rare, but still public belief in Raleigh as a quality brand persisted.

maddog34

a quick way to determine if a frame is a decent one or not is the Rear dropouts... the Raleigh in question has the stamped steel dropouts, and No Derailleur hanger. there's a high probability that the Rear dropouts are also only 126mm apart, complicating any gear count upgrades... remember.. it's a FIVE speed.. i bet it's no more than 130mm (5 1/8") between the dropouts now...

a chrome moly tubed frame with cast dropouts in a vertical orientation would be a better frame... a removable derailleur hanger is a plus too.

i'd use the Raleigh as a learning tool, learning what's a good and bad part, buying the tools needed to do it right, then build some other bike with a nice frame into a resto-mod with some cool parts added.

Schweinhund

This ^ You can learn from that bike, But, it's not really a candidate for saving for future generations, more of a footnote in BSO history.