I collect French parts but do not have any on my bikes currently. Some day I might try and make a classic French rando with some. That is a project far on the back burner though.
As the others have pointed out, old French parts even in good shape can be fussy when paired with modern components. The basic shape of bicycle components may be the same, but there are enough differences to make getting them to work together a chore. (now if you are using all antique components - that is a different story) While Riv has some good Shimano stuff, for the front derailer anyway, in my opinion the swell little Campagnolo triple der Riv sells is as good as anything you can get for what the OP says he is trying to do. Competitively priced too. On Jan 11, 6:06 am, Angus <angusle...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > John, > > Welcome aboard and you have my admiration for diving into the bicycle > assembly business. It should certainly accomplish your goal of > knowing how everything on your bicycle goes together. Much easier to > fix something in the middle of no-where when you are the mechanic that > assembled it. > > I have tried, and in some cases succeeded, in making older French > parts work on my Rivendells. I do agree with Jim, more modern > components are much less of a hastle. For example, I have Simplex and > Huret front derailleurs that work fine for a double chainring set up- > but do not have the range to handle a tripple (tripples were less > common back in the day). A Huret Duo-Par rear derailleur used on a > horizontal dropout is fine, used with verticle dropouts - the rear > wheel is virtually impossible to remove without removing the > derailleur...DOH! > > The other issue is that some of the French components use different > dimensions (headsets...) or threads. I have a lovely old Huret > shifter that has a courser thread on the shifter retaining bolt (will > not thread into my bikes shifter bosses). > > Angus > > On Jan 10, 11:35 pm, John Ferguson <rfj1...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > First time on here, and it's my first time building a bike from the > > frame up. I'm hoping someone here can help, as I'm a complete > > neophyte. I've been riding an older (cheap) French bike for the past > > 10 years and finally took the plunge and bought a Rivendell Saluki. > > Frame only, of course--I could have taken the easy way out and gotten > > a completed bike, but since I'm going to be traveling long distances > > on this bike, I figured I needed to build it myself so I know how > > everything goes together. > > > I'm in the process of acquiring components; I think I have most > > everything figured out, except for the following: > > > I have a Simplex SLJ5500 rear derailleur and an SLJ front derailleur > > from my old bike. However, I can't figure out with a high degree of > > confidence what an appropriate range would be for the chainwheels and > > the cassette/freewheel. Unfortunately I sold my old bike without > > counting teeth. > > > I'm planning on taking very long rides, sometimes multi-day, and I'm > > hoping to enter some formal randonneur events this year. > > > Anyone have advice for me? Anything would be appreciated; I've spent > > many hours trying to figure this out. > > > Thanks! > > > John --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
