So, as detailed in the previous post my eBay Winter Bike project had had a pretty strong start. My bargain 1990’s Dawes Galaxy had been treated to a complete drivetrain refresh for less than the cost of a contemporary rear cassette, and I’d even found some less offensive bar tape to replace the very retro 90’s pinkish spangled horror the bike came with.

What I quickly realised however was that modern integrated shifters/brake levers have completely changed the way I ride a road bike with drop handlebars. Not having to take my delicate hands off the bars or brake hoods to change gear has become so ingrained into my muscle memory that suddenly having to completely remove one or the other hand to reach down and twiddle the bar-end shifters on the Galaxy felt downright dangerous 😬

I can already hear hoards of indignant riders of a certain age snorting into their post ride Horlicks and spluttering about still being able to corner at 20mph on a wet road while simultaneously snicking through the gears with their trusty downtube shifters as I type. Well I probably could have too once upon a time as well, but I’m happy to admit those days are gone (if in fact they ever really existed outside my rose tinted memories). I’m telling you, going back 20 years in shifting technology really hammers home what a huge leap forward the integrated shifters we all take for granted now were at the time and still are today.

Despite the wobbly dangerfest that swapping sprockets had at least temporarily become I’d probably through a mixture of misplaced pride and financial tight fistedness have stuck with the barend shifters if it hadn’t been for the other downside I was finding with the retro bike experience, riding on the über skinny and minimally padded Saccon branded brake lever hoods was bloody uncomfortable. Yes age may have turned me into a softy, but seeing as I spend probably 80% of the average road ride pottling along on the brake hoods comfort is important and these things were killing my hands.

Back to eBay once more then (there seems to be a pattern emerging here), and for a very reasonable sum a lightly used pair of Shimano Tourney 2nd generation STI shifters where sitting on my workbench. Not a very flashy choice but the only ones I could find that would work with my 7 speed transmission. Should be a simple swap right? Well unfortunately no, not really. You see try as I might I just could not get either the front or rear mechs to index properly. Eventually after several frustrating evening fettling sessions in my garage I was forced to admit that this particular mishmash of disparate parts were not going to play nicely together. The amount of cable the shifters were pulling was just not enough to make the shift consistent at either end. Back to eBay yet again for some Tourney front and rear mechs?

NO! Defeat was not so easily mine. Pulled from the far depths of behind my workbench was my plastic crate of ‘Bits that might be useful one day’ Under a thick layer of spiders webs and sawdust was a little treasure trove of pieces of long dead bicycles. Some of this stuff I’ve had so long I should really donate it to a museum ….. need a set of first gen Ritchey Red SpUD pedals anyone? Purple anodised V brake booster? I’m your man!

Anyway I’m digressing again. A quick search turned up no less than 4 front mechs of various vintages and configurations. Further investigation narrowed the choice down to the most likely candidate with a clamp on band skinny enough to fit the Dawes down tube and a slightly longer bottom pull swing arm which to my professional bike bodgers eye looked like it might do the trick. I only had one rear mech that would stand any chance of working with the 7 speed Galaxy, and that was a brand new (10 years ago) Shimano Acera item which for reasons long forgotten had never made it onto a bike, in fact I really have no clue as to why or what I’d bought it for in the first place. The last of my stock of new shift cable inners long with some vivid blue outer cable housing that had also been purchased in some distant shop sale for reasons unknown completed the setup, and after some more fiddling with the front mech height and the various barrel adjusters semi-acceptable gear changing was restored. It’s still not perfect, and that Biopace chainset makes adjusting the front mech height and swing a bit of a compromise, but it all works.

A new saddle to replace the huge but rock hard item that had come with the bike completed what had turned into far more work than I’d originally envisaged, and the ‘after’ picture can now be revealed to compare to the last posts ‘as bought’ image:

So how does it ride I hear you cry? Not a clue. The week I finished fettling the gears we had for the UK a pretty heavy fall of snow which made riding outside pretty much impossible, then as soon as it had melted we re-entered a national lockdown due to the spiralling Covid numbers. Till things are back under control its a strict diet of Zwift for me, yes – I know I’m allowed outside to ride for an hour, but since I’m lucky enough to have a decent indoor setup and I might as well make full use of the Zwift subscription and not risk adding to the pressure on the NHS if I should run out of talent and fall off.

Don’t get me wrong it’s incredibly frustrating, but its a personal decision I’ve made, as soon as things change I’ll let you know if the hours of fiddling were worth it. Stay safe out there wherever you all are.