installing a front derailleur

hello, i have a roadbike with a rear derailleur and 7 speed cassette (shimano 105 set) but no front
derailleur. it's a decent--not fantastic, but decent--bike, and i was wondering if it would be
possible and/or reasonable price and effort wise to install a front derailleur. (part of the reason
is that this summer i intend to go riding around in a fairly mountainous region and my knees are
aleady in less than ideal shape.) the bike, unfortunately, does not seem to have the usual front
derailleur cable stops, so i assume i'd have to have those brazed on. in addition, i assume i'd need
the following: new front derailleur, new chainring(s), new chain, shifter, derailleur cable. as is
probably obvious, i don't know a whole lot about bikes but thought that, if it's not too expensive
to acquire these parts and if i can do most of the labor (other than brazing on those cable stops),
it might be a good way to learn some stuff. thoughts on the feasibility/ recommendability of this
idea? thanks! --vincent.

 

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> the bike, unfortunately, does not seem to have the usual front derailleur cable stops, so i assume
> i'd have to have those brazed on.
>
I upgraded an old bike a while ago which did not have stops. I had them brazed on, but threw away an
old cable guide that bolted onto the bottom of the seat tube. I'll bet you could still find one
somewhere. It worked fine and you could avoid having to paint the bike.

There's a picture of something similar on Alex Wetmore's site at:

http://www.phred.org/~alex/pictures/bikes/trekroad/bb1.jpg

Rick

 

"vincent chiao" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> hello, i have a roadbike with a rear derailleur and 7
speed cassette
> (shimano 105 set) but no front derailleur. it's a
decent--not fantastic, but
> decent--bike, and i was wondering if it would be possible
and/or reasonable
> price and effort wise to install a front derailleur. (part
of the reason is
> that this summer i intend to go riding around in a fairly
mountainous region
> and my knees are aleady in less than ideal shape.) the bike, unfortunately, does not seem to have
> the usual
front derailleur
> cable stops, so i assume i'd have to have those brazed on.
in addition, i
> assume i'd need the following: new front derailleur, new
chainring(s), new
> chain, shifter, derailleur cable. as is probably obvious, i don't know a whole lot about
bikes but thought
> that, if it's not too expensive to acquire these parts and
if i can do most
> of the labor (other than brazing on those cable stops), it
might be a good
> way to learn some stuff. thoughts on the feasibility/
recommendability of
> this idea? thanks! --vincent.
>
>

You don't state what type of shifter(s) you have now, and how the rear dérailleur cable is
currently routed

Rather than brazing on stuff, which will probably not be cost effective, and will ruin the paint,
why not consider clamp-on stops and cable guides? If you're going to use handlebar or stem mounted
shifters, you can use a simple, non adjustable downtube double stop - see
http://www.bikepartsusa.com/product_info.phtml?p=01-77983

or you can modify a downtube shifter mount to take adjustable cable stops.

You can also get a clamp-on cable stop/guide for the bottom of the downtube - see
http://www.bikepartsusa.com/product_info.phtml?p=01-77985

I have in my junk box some old SunTour versions of these clamps if you don't want to pay three
dollars and ninety-eight cents for new ones - grin...