I’m working on a retro road bike build. I have an old shimano 600 arabesque group set, including the rear derailleur, that I’ll want to use with modern wheel and cassette (rather than a screw on freewheel).
What I’m struggling to work out the maximum cassette I can get away with.
Seems that originally the groupset had a 6 speed freewheel – but over time cassettes and chains have got thinner so I’m assuming that with friction shifters I may be able to use it on a great speed cassette and the main limitation would be cog size.

Basically – how do I work out how wide and how large a cassette can an old derailleur handle?

Any pointers?

http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/Shimano_600_derailleur_6100.html

(click the arrows to scroll to your particular model)

cheers for that – I’d spent some time on that site but somehow managed to miss the piece that said my mech could take a max of 32 teeth, so that’s a step forward.

Guess my question now is how wide is an 80’s standard 6 speed screw-on freewheel compared to a modern cassette?
I think I should be relatively safe with a 7 or 8 speed hyperglide cassette. Only one way to find out anyway…

cheers