Educate me: Keith Anderson frame & Campy 7 speed

[msl819]

Originally Posted by skiezo

Im loving the dual colored/different shades of green.

Agreed

[Ralph]

Most 7 and 8 speed freewheels and cassettes were 5 MM center to center on the cog. Cog thickness and space between were sometimes different, but as long as they were 5 mm center to center on cog...was fine. So Sachs, Most Shimano, 7 and 8 Campy, Sunrace, and perhaps a few others will all work with the same shifter and rear derailleur....if it has enough travel. Whether the rear is spread for 8 (130 MM) and has room, is another matter. I know I shifted successfully a bunch of Sachs 7 speed freewheels (had a cog board with about all the cogs) with 8 speed campy Ergo shifters (one shift blocked off), with a rear that was spread less than 130 MM, but had room for 7. Love that frame.

[Kontact]

Campy indexing in that era had several problems, but that doesn't mean Chorus will shift badly on index. Unlike C-Record, Chorus is pretty well designed as an index derailleur (as was Croce D'Aune and Athena).

The Chorus derailleur can be adjusted for one of two slopes in its parallelogram - one for up to 27T low cogs, the other for up to 32T. Max capacity for the shallow slope was 31 and 33 for the steep setting. To change the slope from A to B you need to change the Syncro Insert from Green to Black.

Should you choose to get some lower gearing, current Shimano and Sunrace 7 speed freewheels will shift better than anything available in the 1980s.

You may also get some improvement in shifting by using SIS housing, which Campy didn't use back then.

The other thing that seems to help with Syncro II shifting is playing with the shifter tension on the D-ring. Some folks like more tension to muffle the clicks, others liked having less tension so the overshift was more pronounced.

You can switch to friction shifting by going to high gear and then pulling the knurled ring out and rotating it 90°, followed by tightening the D-ring. My Athena shifting has always been so reliable that I only did this once in 28 years.


But please don't strip off any of these wonderful components. They can work very well and are a pleasure to own. That bike is gorgeous.

[josephr]

Originally Posted by EricEstlund

Keith was originally and Indiana guy. He also built bikes in Utah and Oregon. He's since moved on from the bike industry, but he was a talented builder and world class painter.

oh man...that's terrible news...I guess the Rogue Cycles thing wasn't quite what he wanted to be??? All I know was he did an awesome job on a restoration/repaint! Maybe we need gather in southern Oregon for an intervention (or a retirement party)?

[mcallen]

Originally Posted by oliver1850

Great find Matt. I'd leave it pretty much as is. If you want wider range gearing, that derailleur in B position will handle up to a 32 large cog. If you have a cassette hub the cogs will be hard to find but if it has a freewheel finding one won't be hard. You can file down 9 speed cogs to fit the C7/C8 freehub. You can buy individual Miche 9 speed cogs up to 29 teeth. If 26 is large enough, keep your eye on ebay for a Campagnolo 8 speed 13-26 cassette. They still turn up new occasionally.

I do think I will leave it set up like this, if for no other reason than no one on the Sunday group ride could believe I was riding steel ("How can you climb hills on that thing?").

It is a freehub, currently a Regina 11-23 or thereabouts. Looks like there are lots of options for 7 speed freehubs available, especially with this derailleur.

I'll need to figure out how to set up the rear shifting better. I ended up with some ghost shifting.

[mcallen]

Originally Posted by Kontact

Campy indexing in that era had several problems, but that doesn't mean Chorus will shift badly on index. Unlike C-Record, Chorus is pretty well designed as an index derailleur (as was Croce D'Aune and Athena).

The Chorus derailleur can be adjusted for one of two slopes in its parallelogram - one for up to 27T low cogs, the other for up to 32T. Max capacity for the shallow slope was 31 and 33 for the steep setting. To change the slope from A to B you need to change the Syncro Insert from Green to Black.

Should you choose to get some lower gearing, current Shimano and Sunrace 7 speed freewheels will shift better than anything available in the 1980s.

You may also get some improvement in shifting by using SIS housing, which Campy didn't use back then.

The other thing that seems to help with Syncro II shifting is playing with the shifter tension on the D-ring. Some folks like more tension to muffle the clicks, others liked having less tension so the overshift was more pronounced.

You can switch to friction shifting by going to high gear and then pulling the knurled ring out and rotating it 90°, followed by tightening the D-ring. My Athena shifting has always been so reliable that I only did this once in 28 years.


But please don't strip off any of these wonderful components. They can work very well and are a pleasure to own. That bike is gorgeous.

Thanks for the technical and aesthetic advice. I plan to follow both.

[dddd]

If it's 7-speed, then I will assume it has a freewheel.

I've used 7s Sunrace freewheels with Synchro II levers and it worked really well even for hilly/sporting riding once I put on a 9s Shimano chain. They offer a 13-25t and 13-28t in 7s versions and 13-32t in an 8s version iir.
Note that A and B derailer settings require different indexing rings as the actuation ratio changes.

[Kontact]

Originally Posted by mcallen

I'll need to figure out how to set up the rear shifting better. I ended up with some ghost shifting.

That's generally BB cable guide friction. Sometimes lube will fix it, increased tension on the shifter D-ring or using housing liner under the BB.

[crankles]

Originally Posted by Kontact

You can switch to friction shifting by going to high gear and then pulling the knurled ring out and rotating it 90°, followed by tightening the D-ring.


But please don't strip off any of these wonderful components. They can work very well and are a pleasure to own. That bike is gorgeous.

This...I had first gen c-record. Worst indexing ever. Over a summer, I think Campy USA sent me three different internal indexing cogs. Go friction and run whatever 7sp cogs your heart desires.

In addition, you scored quite the nice frame. I was living in Indy at the time Keith was building and working at BGI. He was/is meticulous and I enjoyed his sense of humor. You've all seen this beauty, right. https://www.flickr.com/photos/27880623@N05/4445878271/

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by crankles

This...I had first gen c-record. Worst indexing ever. Over a summer, I think Campy USA sent me three different internal indexing cogs. Go friction and run whatever 7sp cogs your heart desires.

In addition, you scored quite the nice frame. I was living in Indy at the time Keith was building and working at BGI. He was/is meticulous and I enjoyed his sense of humor. You've all seen this beauty, right. https://www.flickr.com/photos/27880623@N05/4445878271/

Not being a slant parallogram rear der like Athena, A-B Chorus or CDA, it wasn't really designed for index/click shifting. BUT, like a lot of things of this era, they were beautiful(CDA rear der!!), had lots of 'flexibility'(inserts/speeds/freewheels, etc), but compared to shimano of the era, didn't work nearly as well..why they dumped all this stuff in the early 90s when ERGO was introduced.

Valentino actually thought 'enthusiasts' would still use friction/C-Record and click shifting was the stuff of cyclo-tourists and 'nurses'..he was wrong...

[pbarry]

Great find! What a gem!

Iirc, Sun Tour Ultra-7 freewheels did not have even spacing between all of the cogs, making index shifting problematic.