OK, bear with me here. I know that, with post number one, I risk isolating myself as an out of touch, ageing roadie on an MTB forum, but since when were 6 speed cassettes relegated to the scrap heap?
Twenty five years ago, as a skint student, I slaved for what seemed like an age in a nappy factory during the holidays to save up for my dream bike (cue laughs) – a Raleigh 531c framed road bike, "hand built" in their lightweight unit. It was a revelation. It covered thousands of miles and dominated my youth. I trained obsessively and loved every second of riding it. I pandered to my youthful whims of fashion and added the "icing on the cake" by fitting a set of black, anodised Mavic MA40 rims and Shimano "Biopace", oval shaped chainrings on the front. In my head, it went faster after these modifications and climbing the Rhigos in south Wales, I was Robert Millar in the polka dot jersey (although that's as far as any similarity goes…).
Then due to a combination of the inevitable work commitments, health problems and the distraction of a pretty lady who was later to become my wife, my beautiful bike was put into "temporary retirement". Lovingly tended. Covered with a protective sheet and stored "indoors" (oh, yes – proper indoors, as in "house" – never too hot, never too cold with TRV set to "frost free") until the time was right. And so it came to be, a couple of months ago, that I announced to my wife that "the time is right". Time to unleash the beast (steady on) and hit the road once more. Time to hit the Rhigos…but not before a full service. Full Monty. Greased bearings, wheel truing, new cassette, chain, the lot. No expense spared. I even pondered getting "Chips Away" to rectify the solitary scratch (measured in microns) on the top tube. So, quicker than you could say "midlife crisis", I headed off to my favourite bike shop.
I should have suspected by the broad grins on the faces of the guys behind the counter that something was amiss.
"I want a FULL service, change any consumables, especially chain and cassette, but keep the gear ratios the same".
"Is that a 6 speed cassette?"
"Yes, feel free to change it. Titanium, even, if such a thing exists, but keep the ratios the same"
"You're joking! Can't get 6 speed cassettes any more. You've had it. Having said that, there's always someone on eBay who may be interested in buying something retro….or you could respray it and turn it into a singlespeeder"
Laugh? I nearly greased my stanchions. I was gutted. Still am. Whatever happened to all the beautiful italian bikes of the day? The first Peugeot carbon fibre frames that cost a bomb and were the last word in "exotic"? Are they all confined to landfill? Doesn't anyone enjoy these, like you would a vintage Aston? OK, I could probably get a "better" bike new, but I don't want that. I may be coveting a Cyndi Lauper in a world of Lady GaGas, but it seems crazy to throw it in a skip or relegate it to one gear (how does that work, unless your quadriceps can both generate the torque of a Chevy short block V8 and spin faster than a humming bird's wings?). So, young guns – enjoy your evo links and propedals while you can, because there's no going back to taste again.
It's all very sad.
[Digs a big hole and puts on tin hat]

do you drive an Austin Allegro?

I will be of pensionable age by the time I read this post, were I to try and read it. 😀

read it and agree with you
now stop mythering about some old shyte, and get some money spent on a proper nail………….. 8)

and the lesson is avoid your lbs, save a fortune and service (to a better quality no doubt) yourself.

Regina still make 6 speed freewheels, and SJS sell them.

I have a 2×6 speed Raleigh Banana, which the LBS bloke who apprenticed at a Carlton described as crap. Still, got me about as a student…

One of these do?

Rang a lot of bells with me. Wish I still had my old Kendell's hand built road bike. Then again, I wish I was 18 again with a full head of hair and the body mass of a racing snake. Oh well…

mitch, can you remember doug hartleys on dewsbury road.

Yes, at least I think so – bottom of Westgate, or am I thinking of somewhere else?

dewsbury road, near flanshaw library.
i got a carlton corsair racer from there in 1979.
fantastic bike.

Not sure ton – I remember two shops in Wakefield, the one at the bottom of Westgate, and one (and this must be about thirty years ago near the Bullring, they sold mopeds as well as bikes, and the owner was interesting, to say the least). I bought a Puch roadbike from him when I was 16 – loved it.

I'm not seeing any benefit from adding more gears, apart from my lovely 34 tooth rear sprocket (I'm very lazy). Seven was enough.

Last year of shimano 6s was 1988 IIRC

bet the frame still rides better than most.

Thanks for the links, Tron and TJ. I'm going to check them out.

Where are you Tinners? I may be able to help you out?….

I was in a similar boat with my beloved hand built 26" Harry Quinn (from the original shop in Liverpool). That bike had seen me through too much to put it on a skip or sell it to some barbarian on ebay.

So what did I do? I hear you ask, well I took it to Bob Jackson in Leeds and got them to do a full refurb. Re-spaced the rear drop outs to accept modern hubs, new Rosso Red enamel and my cycling history was back to as good as new.

Now all I have to do is loose 3 stone and get some new legs and I can ride it again.

Don't worry, eBay and SJS will solve your problems.

Don't bother with that lbs though.

Enjoy your comeback.

Old bikes are crap simple as that. The new stuffs a million times better.
I got my old Gios back in August 2009 after selling it in 1993. To be fair it looked lovely, but the kit though hardly used was pants.
Gear shifts! think Sherman tank from top gear to reverse without a clutch. Brakes well you wouldn't be allowed to call them that now. 40cm? bars too narrow. The one redeeming feature was the frame though heavy was a joy over rough lanes. So all the shiny Campag went on Retrobike or LFG&SS and I've kept the frame.
And BTW MA40s were grey.
Oh and I used to be Sean Kelly.

OK, you guys are getting cassettes mixed up with freewheels. 6 speed shimano cassettes have a top sprocket that threads on and holds the rest of the cassette on, think the hubs were 600ex. However shimano also made a few years later a budget groupset with 6 speed freehub with a lockring like used on modern cassettes.
There are some cassettes on fleabay but only from the states with silly money.
SJS sold out some years ago now, bear in mind these were discontinued as spares about 15 years ago!
Have you tried a new chain on it yet? You may find it will be ok.

Here you go, taken just after getting it back. It still had Benotto clear tape on the bars when I collected it, but that with the tyres had perished.

I've kept the frame and aquired 1" Ahead polished alloy forks. The frame will go back to either Gios blue or Mercier pink. And I'll be bunging low range Shimano on it for training.

Pay a visit to http://www.retrobike.co.uk/ for all things retro, road and MTB

Thanks for your advice.
Ziggy – You're absolutely right. The hubs are 600ex (as is the rest of the transmission). TBH, the teeth on the block at the back (13-21T) "look" OK (although I can vouch for the fact that it's covered many 1000s of miles) and it's not skipping yet, but the chain is well worn according to my chain wear tool. As you say, prob worth changing the chain and see how it goes.
I'm sure that a new bike would be much better but (as some of the guys who have commented already will know) it feels sooo right and fits like a glove. I don't want to try anything else. That said, I've heard that Shimano stopped selling "Biopace" chainrings because of knee injuries, so maybe look at that first!

I just bought a new bike with a 6spd so I bl00dy hope so! (it's a cheap folding jobby)

Tinners

which LBS did you go to??

the valley one??

I'm in Aberdare if you want to ride knobbly tired bikes too??

Bunch of us go out night riding twice a week usually up Meardy or Rhigos mountain roads up to Skyline sort of area for example

email in profile if you want to join us

I refurbed an 80's Raleigh once and ended up rebuilding it with a respaced and redished 130mm Shimano 7 speed cassette hub, having said that 7 speed cassettes are thin on the ground now in road ratio choices.

Here's one on ebay

edit: be very wary when removing the old cassette, they get brittle with age and are usually tight as hell which usually requires some hammering sadly

extra edit: shimano stoppeed biopace because it was shit, nothing more or less 😀

Thanks, valleydaddy. I went to an LBS just outside Cardiff – who to be fair are better known for their MTBs – but I sought their opinion because they've done some work on my mountain bike and I was impressed with their helpful approach and workmanship (and my original post is very much a tongue in cheek account of the encounter).
Thanks for the offer of joining a ride – I may well take you up on the offer, but need to get fitter first after some pretty hefty surgery. I'll keep an eye on MTB Wales.

What is the difference between beauty and nostalgia?

I mean really, a bike is a purely functional item. It exists to be ridden, so consequently form IS function. If bikes had never been invented, and some sculptor came up with one, no-one'd put it on a plinth and admire it. Now, there are beautiful bikes, but only when viewed within the context of a riding machine. Otherwise it's meaningless.

try Taff cycles over in Merthyr usually good for roadie stuff.

old style type LBS if you haven't been there before.

dont always post Aberdare rides on mtbwales as usually short notice or late starts as most of us have kids. so email me and I'll let you know when we're out and about, we are not a pacey bunch yet but working on it 😉

hope to catch you soon

Tinners have Pm'd you via MTB-Wales 😉

OK, you guys are getting cassettes mixed up with freewheels.

Oh yeah. I just assumed that anything 6 speed had a freewheel – didn't realise that Freehubs / Cassettes had been around that long! There are still some 7 speed cassettes around if you look on CRC etc. There are also some New Old Stock (NOS) 6 speed cassettes on Ebay.

Well 7 speed was going out of fashion when I started riding in the mid 90s…

To be honest, I'd say keep the frame and fork + finishing kit, but get it respaced to a 130mm back end (dead easy if it's steel and 126mm OLN) and fit new wheels and groupset. Without getting too existential, the frame is the "soul" of the bike, so it will still feel the same, but you'll get up to date performance out of it. Sure, you might be able to find the old bits now, but you're always going to be fighting an increasingly battle to keep it working, and will have to upgrade to modern bits at some point.

STI/Ergo is an absolute revelation if you're used to downtube shifters, and everything is just lighter and (for the most part) better now. 10spd cassette will give you a bigger range, but still with smaller gaps between ratios (remember you're not as young/fit as you once were!). Dual pivot brakes actually work too.

105 group with open pro/105/DTComp wheels should be spot on, and not too bank breaking.

Go here http://www.retrobike.co.uk

Heres my retro Fondriest SLX with Shimano 600… 7 speed..

flip
What's going on with the Rourke, is it built yet?

@ JonEdwards

Was it you that took the steel Mercx to the Alps.

This is all too modern for me, my last road bike was a 10 speed – thats 5 on the back and 2 on the front…

Yeah and 42/52 how did we ever get up hills?

Yeah and 42/52 how did we ever get up hills?

By eating coal and a lot of drugs…. 😉

Jean Bobet talks about a day in the Tour when the Ventoux (from Bedoin) featured, and decided to ensure his bike had an "easy" gear for the climb – 42×24..!

I've still got 6 speed on my old Raleigh Scorpio road bike which i got in around 1987. I had it refurbed in London in around 2002 and got new parts no problem (including new cassette/freewheel) but i guess that was a few years ago now.

Have not ridden it since though as i ended up just getting a new bike instead. It lives in the shed now as i never have the heart to throw away my old bikes and it's not worth selling. 6 speed is very robust though and is enough gearing for most of my local rides. I'm just not so keen on the downtube shifters these days after getting used to the brake/shifter combos.

I'd have thought any decent LBS would be able to source 6 speed parts but i guess i'm wrong. SJS must do something, they seem to stock everything.

@ JonEdwards

Was it you that took the steel Mercx to the Alps.

Nope. I've got a 2003ish Santa Cruz Roadster, and I've (not yet) been daft enough to try taking a road bike to the Alps. Not when there's chairlifts for the ups, and singletrack for the downs…