(Previously posted to one of the Roadie forums, which appear to be dead, so some bits don't make too much sense in the context of STW).

I've got an old Raleigh, which I've used on and off for commuting duties. It's one of the old "Banana" team replicas, which isn't a high quality frame (it's flexy, but fairly light), but I've had a few freebie parts here and there to upgrade it a little.

I'd like to upgrade it a little more. I don't want to spend a great deal of money on it, I just want it to be in slightly better fettle – it's basically going to be used for occasional pootles when I haven't got the inclination to sort out the mountain bike.

So far, my begged & borrowed upgrades consist of a pair of dual pivot brakes, an old mavic front wheel (to replace the steel rimmed original wheel!), a campag double and a pair of tyres (had to pay for those unfortunately).

So, first things first, it's got very, very long gearing. I don't know what the current trend is on road bikes, but it's got a 42/53 on the front and the rear cassette is very close range- looks like 15-20something (6 speed). The mechs are both Sachs-Huret's finest pressed tin (rear mech mounted on one of those odd hangers that you get on cheap bikes), and the shifters are Shimano downtubes.

What I'd like to do is shorten the gearing a little, and maybe switch to some kind of non-downtube shifter. And all as cheaply as possible. I'm not too worried about indexed gears.

So, what are my options? Again, my hopes are of doing this without spending too much and the end result not looking too stupid for words .

I could obviously achieve shorter gearing by sticking a megarange freewheel and a Tourney rear mech on, but I'm not sure that I could live with how stupid that would look.

Can I fit modern mechs with downtube shifters or will the return spring pressure be too high for it to stay in gear?

If I can't find a cheap set of bar end shifters, can I fit old MTB thumb shifters on the bar tops (being as they're free on any number of dumped mid nineties 18/21 speed MTBs)?

Can I make an MTB freewheel (ie, 14-28) work with any road / touring mech? Or should I put theological considerations to one side and stick an old Deore mech on?

It will be a freewheel wheel, I don't think you will get a new freewheel, so you'll need a new wheel, cassette and chain.

Modern mechs should be fine.

As for shifters, bar-ends are the cheapest option and you'll need to run them on friction (stis cost a ton and indexing won't work with your derailleurs). Thumbies are 22.1mm while your bars will be 23.8 – you may get to bodge them on.

Unless you are able to get gifted a lot of stuff, it's not going to be cheap, and you'll still have a pretty **** bike TBH, I'd look on ebay instead.

There are loads and loads of 6 and 7 speed freewheels knocking about on cheap bikes. I don't think it'll be a big problem for me to lay my hands on one.

I reckon cheap steel clamp thumbies will be easily bodgeable, bar ends are fairly dear second hand. That said, I can live with downtube shifters if need be. The key thing to get some range in the gearing so I can actually get up the hills around here!

Ah, OK, so you had your answers before asking.

I've had a google this morning, but it's useful to know if what looks like it should work, will actually work in the real world. Or if there's a completely different way of solving the problem.

If you can wait I might have an entire 6-speed drivetrain somewhere your welcome to.

38-52 biopace with exage 600 (80's ultegra) bits.

Does it have a proper mech hanger as well? If not I'd considder selling it on LFGSS and buying something similar but better speced. You might be lucky and get £80-£100 (which IMO is ridiculous, I felt robbed buying an old 80's bike with the exage 600 on it for £20 in 2004 before the fixie boom, but there you go).

Nope, it's got one of those horrible mech hangers. The hallmark of cheap bikes everywhere…

I'm not in London, so LFGSS may be out, but jesus wept, there's one on ebay's completed listings that went for £117! I paid £20 for mine. The jerseys are selling for good money too, and the bloke who sold me mine offered me one as a freeby, but I though "Who on earth wants a 20 year old bike jersey?".

I may well whip the nice Campag cranks off, stick the Raleigh "custom" ones back on and get it photographed. Get rid of that and the folder and I'd have enough money for a reasonable second hand bike or a bottom of the range decathlon.

http://www.raleighbikes.com/