Monday 9 December 2013

Double The Gears!



Unfortunately, my experiences with the brake levers were not entirely successful. I like to ride on the hoods, which wasn't the fashion back in the days of so-called non-aero levers. They're just not comfortable on the hands or wrists over a period of time. They had to go.


But the bars are nice, so I've kept them and fitted the plain Tektro brake levers that I had left over from my Cross Check (which had bar end shifters).



The gear levers are unchanged - stem mounted friction shifters.


Over the summer I also began to think about extending the 5-speed gear range. I kept an eye on Ebay until I spotted a double crankset of exactly the same make, model/range and vintage as the original crankset: Simplex S001 T, Prestige, 1970s era, made in France. 


A matching set of shift levers were included. This all came from a seller in Hungary who seems to have a lot of Puch bicycle and parts come through his hands -- I suppose not surprising considering Puch was for a long time a well-established bicycle manufacturer in neighbouring Austria.


We encountered a few surprises and setbacks in fitting the new crankset --

A crack in the housing!  Jubilee Clip to the rescue.

But it seems to work --


And as of today, Lorelei is officially a 10-speed!


I took her out for a couple of short spins in the wintry sunshine and am really pleased with how smooth the shifting is.

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