As discussed of late in these pages, Dear Reader, I’m at a minor turning point with the road bike. It’s over two decades old and has not been treated very well, it heat cycles in the garage and I haven’t been good about keeping it clean. It is starting to break down.
In no particular order I’ve had the original front wheel spoke nipples disintegrate and the Ergopower shifters get a little wonky. The original rear wheel was sidelined for several years, rebuilt about a year ago and the hub just broke. That’s the stock equipment failing.
It is a moment to consider restoration and repair versus buying a new bike.
For reference an up to date carbon framed Orbea with Shimano 105 mechanical is $3,600. Similar for a 105 equipped Specialized Tarmac 6 Sport. A carbon Wilier Garda with Campagnolo Chorus is about $5,500. Sadly, Planet X is apparently going through some sort of bankruptcy process in the UK. They offer(d) Chorus builds on at least three different frames, two carbon and one titanium, at the $3,500 price point. I may regret not snapping one up when they were still in business. Some places still do custom builds, Adrenaline lists theirs at $2,900 for Chorus, their carbon frames start around $1,800.
At the moment I’m more at the point of restoring this run-down bike’s function than really upgrading it. The only rear wheel I have at the moment has a ding in the rim, it will eventually need replacing. I do have a rim that I could use but…that would leave me running the original front hub. Potentially in the high stress environment of the group ride that possibly initiated the rear hub failure. So I decided to try the Campy Calima wheels for $250. No doubt this is the start of throwing too much into this bike….
This is definitely a budget wheelset even if it does say Campagnolo on it. Still, it looks sturdy, which is what I want. The front weighs 890 grams and the rear 1,145 grams, with skewers, for a 2,035 gram total weight. The ones I took off are 870 grams front and 985 grams rear, 1,855 gram total weight. Doing the math the new wheels have a 0.4 pound weight penalty, most of it in the rear. I will admit the radial 9 spokes on the non-drive side of the rear has me a bit nervous. I ran a radial front that I built myself on a mountain bike years ago and it was fine, so I’m less concerned about this front wheel. The cassette and tires mounted up with no drama. Ok. Wheel situation handled.
The Ergopower shifters are working, if less than perfectly. It is kind of annoying however, especially since my repair job only worked partially. Am I still impoverished enough to have to put up with that? I happen to have some replacement shifters but I guess this would be the decision point if I did not have them. But since I do have a set handy, I spent some time taking off the original road bike shifters and replacing them with the Chorus ones that had been on the cross bike for years, before being replaced with Centaur 11 speed ones. I had even ordered up new cables so everything was going great until I started disconnecting the front derailleur cable.
Gaaaah. Broken arm on the derailleur! I just rode this bike a few days ago and now it fails? Well, as with the hub far better to break in the garage than on the road. Luckily Ergo levers will shift just about any front derailleur. So I slapped on a Tiagra one the I had on a little used kids bike that I haven’t managed to sell yet. Should hold me until I find something at a reasonable price.
I suppose the second broken aluminum bit should give me the motivation to check the bike over more closely before rides. And prepare me for more unexpected failure. Maybe it would be wise to be more proactive? The seatpost is new but the stem and bars are very old, bars probably original and the stem likely arrived in the first flurry of adjustments of fit. The brakes are the same vintage and groupset as the front derailleur and hub that just broke. I’m using a series appropriate set of 170 mm cranks I bought used off eBay to replace my 172.5 mm stock ones. They looked to be in less well used condition but who knows.
Those concerns aside, the replacement Chorus shifters are indeed in better functional shape than the ones I took off. My cross bike was purchased in 2002 and got less use over the years, so this is unsurprising.
One upgrade, i.e. changing a perfectly functional part, I made was to replace the 42 t small chainring with a 39 t, the smallest that will fit on this bike’s old school crankset. This one is a Miche ($50 with tax and shipping), and apparently it is designed to be the middle of a triple, see the little chain lifting rivets and “special triple” label? Regardless, it fit perfectly and seems to work fine. I’m sure the extra gear ratio will come in handy. Particularly when I am toiling up the Torrey Pines climb after a group ride.
And yeah, the bike is probably worth incremental upgrades beyond this.To a certain point. The first goal would be new shifters, assuming these spares will eventually lose function. I’d want Chorus level, because of the multi-shift thumb lever that Campy changed to single shift per push for the Centaur level. Probably the current 12 speed ones are too expensive but a prior generation 11 speed would be workable. Actually the 11 sp look nearly impossible to find and prices don’t seem to be any cheaper than 12 speed shifters ($250ish) anyway. A new derailleur ($200) of course, a cassette ($200 aykmrn?) and chain ($50). Aaand now we’re into serious money. The brakes work fine so if there is a second upgrade goal, it would be in search of wider gear range. By changing to a semi-compact crank scheme such as the Campy 52/36 or even 50/34 combination crankset. For $200 or so. Yeesh.
This is not sounding like a super good plan. $1,000 to $1,500 for this limited modernization? That’s a quarter of a new bike.
Sun Dappled Forest 
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