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Older Giant Cypress Pawn Shop Find

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Older Giant Cypress Pawn Shop Find

Old 09-30-22, 12:42 AM
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moth_baller
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Older Giant Cypress Pawn Shop Find

Picked up an older Giant Cypress (mid to late 2000s I think) for 45 bucks at the pawn shop. First bike since I got a drivers license over 20 years ago. Got it for getting back in shape.

Pretty happy with it since I got rideable and shifting decent. Put about 30 miles on it so far but it does need an overhaul.

first group of stuff that has to change are ditch the grip shifters, brake levers, new v brakes, handle bars and grips. As far as I can tell it's all stock. After my first ride the sidewalls on the tires went. I replaced them with some Mitas city and trek v84 700c x 40. I do like them a lot being a little wider than what came on the bike. Kenda somethings.

Could use some recommendations on new parts that are reasonably priced and good enough for my purposes.

Brakes it has old Tektro but they are a little jacked especially the front. Even bending the metal around I can't keep the cable attached unless I stay on pavement. Not much metal left to keep it attached to start with

Brake levers just whatever is better than the stock ones.

Grip shifters are terrible. Functional but I hate them. Figured I should go trigger shifters but don't know if that's the best route. Either way I want separate shifters not combo brake shifters.

handle bars are fine on the bike. Bottoms are pretty rusty. Just want basically whats on the bike already. I don't like drop bars. This is more for aesthetic reasons.

Grips just something practical but comfortable. I really dont use gloves.

It does need new cables and housings but i can figure that out on my own or if there's stuff that the whole kit with brakes/shifters then cool.
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Old 09-30-22, 07:16 AM
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Hello, and welcome!

For the brakes, I presume they're linear pull brakes (V-brakes). Shimano brakes would work fine, and are available fairly inexpensively. Look for model BR-T4000. Brake levers, should you replace them, should just be compatible with linear pull brakes. For trigger shifters, I'd recommend a pair of Shimano SL-M315, presuming you have a Shimano rear derailer. These are available in 3x7 and 3x8, and should match whatever your drivetrain currently is. More important than those things, however, are the cables and cable housings. The originals are probably pretty gummy.
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Old 09-30-22, 01:11 PM
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Originally Posted by hokiefyd
Hello, and welcome!

For the brakes, I presume they're linear pull brakes (V-brakes). Shimano brakes would work fine, and are available fairly inexpensively. Look for model BR-T4000. Brake levers, should you replace them, should just be compatible with linear pull brakes. For trigger shifters, I'd recommend a pair of Shimano SL-M315, presuming you have a Shimano rear derailer. These are available in 3x7 and 3x8, and should match whatever your drivetrain currently is. More important than those things, however, are the cables and cable housings. The originals are probably pretty gummy.

Yeah specs would probably be helpful ha. It's pretty much shimano drive train from what I can tell. 3x7 speed. Front derailleur is a ct-101. Rear is an Altus. Cassette is definitely shimano. Can't tell what the crank set but i assume shimano. left shifter (3x) is what's really giving me issues. The right shifter I got working perfect. Looking around it seems if I put a 8 speed cassette (it's about worn out) on, my options open up more. Not a lot of 7 speed options.

I did pull all the cables out and cleaned and lubed them. Made them a lot better and working fairly smooth but it needs new cables and housings.

i did see those brakes and shifterd but stuff is hard to tell if it's actually going to work.
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Old 10-01-22, 11:50 AM
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A bike of this vintage likely has a 7-speed freehub. You would need the longer 8/9/10-speed freehub to use an 8-speed cassette. There's one caveat to that, involving modifying a 9-speed cassette that would also require a 9-speed chain and shifter. There isn't a huge benefit to doing that, and you do have several 3x7 options that work well, which is what I'd recommend staying with.

With only a very few exceptions, any aftermarket linear pull brake will work well (they all mount to the bike the same way). And pretty much any brake lever designed for linear pull brakes will work well with them.
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Old 10-02-22, 03:04 AM
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Originally Posted by hokiefyd
A bike of this vintage likely has a 7-speed freehub. You would need the longer 8/9/10-speed freehub to use an 8-speed cassette. There's one caveat to that, involving modifying a 9-speed cassette that would also require a 9-speed chain and shifter. There isn't a huge benefit to doing that, and you do have several 3x7 options that work well, which is what I'd recommend staying with.

With only a very few exceptions, any aftermarket linear pull brake will work well (they all mount to the bike the same way). And pretty much any brake lever designed for linear pull brakes will work well with them.

Yeah I had the wheel off last night looking at it and figured out I don't have a cassette. Its definitely a free hub. So a new rim is in order down the road. The rear rim is a little nicked up to be fair.

Bike fits me well (no back ache!!) and i like the more I ride it so itll be worth it to me to build it out somewhat decent. I like to tinker.

I'll just start with the brakes, grips, and new set of bars for the time being. Worry about the shifters later. I still need to clean and lube the front derailleur to see if that improves the left shifter.
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Old 10-03-22, 05:14 AM
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Sounds good. Just a quite note about nomenclature -- a freehub supports the use of a cassette -- the freehub is the splined "spindle" onto which a cassette slides and contains the ratcheting mechanism allowing you to coast or spin the chain backwards. The sprockets and ratcheting mechansim are two different pieces.

It sounds like you have a freewheel instead...a freewheel has the ratcheting mechanism built into the sprocket cluster and threads onto the hub. In this case, the sprockets and ratcheting mechanism are one piece and you unthread it from the hub body. Though you can find these in higher sprocket counts (like 8 and 9 speeds), it's probably best to stick to 7 speeds for several reasons.

Good luck!
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Old 10-03-22, 08:43 PM
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Originally Posted by hokiefyd
Sounds good. Just a quite note about nomenclature -- a freehub supports the use of a cassette -- the freehub is the splined "spindle" onto which a cassette slides and contains the ratcheting mechanism allowing you to coast or spin the chain backwards. The sprockets and ratcheting mechansim are two different pieces.

It sounds like you have a freewheel instead...a freewheel has the ratcheting mechanism built into the sprocket cluster and threads onto the hub. In this case, the sprockets and ratcheting mechanism are one piece and you unthread it from the hub body. Though you can find these in higher sprocket counts (like 8 and 9 speeds), it's probably best to stick to 7 speeds for several reasons.

Good luck!

Yeah that's my bad. I meant free wheel. I do need to drill that in my head if I do replace the wheel so I don't stupidly order the wrong part.
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