Richard5158

I'm getting ready for my first Eroica ride in May and plan to ride my 1958 Olmo. It currently has a Regina 14-22 freewheel and I'm considering trying to fit in a freewheel with a larger sprocket, somewhere around a 24 -28 tooth. It has the original Campagnolo Gran Sport rear deraiileur and a Magistroni 52/47 crankset. I'd welcome any advice as to what freewheel would fit my bike and if I would need to lengthen the chain to accommodate the larger low gear. I'm a 71 year old rider and not having ridden the Piedras Blanca route I'm not sure if I'll be okay with the current set up or if I should consider making the ride a little easier with a lower geared freewheel. I appreciate any input.
Thanks,
Richard

FrejusFlyer

Hi Richard,
I'm using a 28 rear with my original early 60's Gran Sport RD, but it took a bit of work to make it happen. They'll run a 26 without a problem. Here's a video on what I had to do:

CliffordK

Having the 52/47 in front (5T difference) should make it easier to fit a larger rear freewheel.

I assume your crankset is a steel 3/6 bolt crankset. Is it possible to fit a smaller chainring than 47T?

obrentharris 

I had an Olmo of similar vintage with the gran sport derailleur. It did fine with a 26 tooth large cog and would shift into a 28 with a bit of grinding and complaining.
Brent

merziac

I strongly encourage you to get a setup that will get you down the road with the least amount of struggle, this ride is too much time, energy, effort and $$$ to not enjoy this as much as you can.

bikemig 

+ 1 on fitting smaller chainrings if that's possible with your cottered crank. It often is possible. That combined with a 14-26 freewheel will improve your climbing gears.

John E

I have the same cottered crankset on one of my Capo Siegers, Agrati brand, but very similar to Magistroni. The smallest inside ring you can use on the 3-6 bolt setup is a 45T, which fortunately mine came with (58-45 -- I kept the 45 and have a 49 to replace the 58).

I am encouraged to know that the GS can be pushed kicking and screaming to 28T with a half-step up front, because my plan is to do 49-45 / 14-17-20-24-28, with 14-16-19-22-26 as a fallback.

If you abandon the 3-to-6 adapters and mount the inner ring directly to the outer, you can go down as low as 36T for the inside ring, but that's a lot of chain wrap for the GS rear. If you can find it, something like 46-36 / 13-24, maybe 13-26, should work.

juvela

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gearing changes -

if the cycle's Magistroni chainset is a three-arm with six bolts affixing the inner chainwheel, either to the outer or to Y-adaptors the smallest inner which can be fitted is 43T

this size should be available as a T.A.

one thing people did back in the day to achieve greaater range was to fit a Juy/Simplex 303 arm to the Campag Gran Sport rear mech

the arm is period plausible for the cycle

this increases the chain wrap capacity of the gear ensemble


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JohnDThompson 

The Gran Sport derailleur should be able to handle a 28T sprocket ok. If you're not committed to keeping it "period correct," a modern freewheel with Hyperglide-profile teeth will give superior shifting performance over a period-correct freewheel at a fraction of the cost.

oneclick 

Does your rear mech mount on a claw?

If so would one of these this help:




If yes, pm me.

Bianchi84

I'm getting ready to do something similar to prepare for the NYC 5 Borough bike tour in May. The Verrazano bridge is a long climb. Going to try replacing Regina CX-S 23 tooth with a 26. I have Campagnolo NR rear derailleur and 53/42 rings. Hoping I don't need to add links to the chain as long as I remember to not cross gears.

oneclick 

He might also do this - with another set of bolts and spacers he can get down to 36:

sd5782 

I follow your thinking here. I put a Superbe crank on my Frejus that was 47-50 originally. Now you have me thinking on how to get that crank back on.

John E

Thank you for some great food for thought for my "keep it original-ish" 1960 Capo Sieger. (Its littermate, which I bought as a repainted frameset, is destined to be a restomod.)

Looking at my 45T ring, I am surprised I can go any smaller. Are you sure about the TA 6-bolt BCD being the same as that of the 3-piece Simplex "Y" adaptor set? I thought they differed by 5 mm (157 for mine vs 152 for TA Crit., per Sheldon Brown / BCD / crib sheet). That would account for the 45 vs 43 minimum tooth count.

This is another mostly-original Sieger, very similar to mine, but with the original knee-killing 52-48 / 14-22 gearing.

Richard5158

A sincere thank you to everyone that posted a response to my inquiry. I'm encouraged to see that I'm not the only one seeking to make the original 5 speed gears a bit more friendly to the knees of older riders such as myself. I think I'm going to try to find a 45 tooth inner chainring and in combination with a 14-26 freewheel. I feel this combination will be just enough to ride the Piedras Blancas route more comfortably

My '58 Professional Deluxe Olmo. Sorry for the unattractive setting.
this year.
One last question for those that are familiar with Olmos of this era: should I be looking for an Italian or English threaded freewheel for my '58? or are they interchangeable?
Thanks,
Richard

bikemig 

Beautiful bike. Very likely Italian threaded freewheel. You can thread an English threaded freewheel but at that point you do want to stick with English freewheels and not go back and forth. I threaded an English threaded freewheel on my 1960 Olmo Gran Sport (which is I believe one model below yours). I'm running the original 49/46 rings and a 14-26 freewheel. That will get me up the worst hills locally which are around 10% grades.

Richard5158

Thanks for your input and photos of your Olmo. I think with the 52/45 and 14-26 combination I'll be good for 5%-7% grades but I'm not strong enough for anything much steeper. I have my '84 Waterford Paramount with a Campagnolo triple for grades in that range, and even then it's a struggle but satisfying when I make it to the top. Thanks again for the tip on the freewheel thread type.

juvela

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Thanks so much for catching and putting right me error. Certainly do make a lot of them.

If the forum had standards for such things they would have banned me years ago.

Its great when they are noticed and put right so as not to misinform future readers.

Yes, Sutherland lists the T.A. Criterium as 152 and the Simplex as 157.


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Richard -

Thank you so much for sharing images of your Peppino, most handsome he is.

Wonderful that he is so all-original and without damage.

Assume you have entered him in the Peter Brueggeman registry -

Olmo Serial Number Dating Registry

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On to gearing -

One path you might wish to explore as an option would be to replace the chainset's Magistroni three-arm drive side crank arm with a Magistroni five-pin one. This would open a broad realm of gearing options as it accepts everything from a dentition of twenty-six to one of sixty.

The change would be national origin and period correct so would not compromise the cycle's vintage character.

You have likely found this already but will include it in case it helps other readers. There is a Magistroni information page hosted by Joel at blackbirds here -

Magistroni

The chainset section is here -

​​​​​​Magistroni - cranksets, chainwheels and cogs

Two examples -

here is a Magistroni five-pin set being worn by a Fiorelli Champion Model pista of 1956 -



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early sixties Cinelli Monza -

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All best wishes for the S-Y valley; am able to visit three or four times per year and very much enjoy it each time.

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