Shimano Altus?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Gary Brower
All,

I have an old Univega Sportour 12-speed I'm thinking of
restoring (or at least bringing up to speed as a beater). It
has Shimano Altus derailleurs (both front and rear).

What kind of quality were those? And can the rear set
only be used on a 6 speed cassette, or could it go up to
an 8 speed?

Thanks!

Gary Brower

Altus is at the bottom of the Shimano totem pole. You have to upgrade quite a bit of stuff to turn it into 8 or 9 speed. By the time you pay for new wheels, tires, brake pads, cables, chain, derailleurs, shifters, a BB, and cranks/chainrings if neccesary; you could have gone out and picked up a new $300 bike with a lot less hassle, mess, and most likely expense. I'm all for reusing old bike parts but, sometimes on old cheapies it just isn't worth it. Look at the Kona Smoke or Raleigh 30, they both make nice cheap beater or town bikes.

Be Well,
Eric

Gary Brower said:

All,

I have an old Univega Sportour 12-speed I'm thinking of
restoring (or at least bringing up to speed as a beater).
It has Shimano Altus derailleurs (both front and rear).

What kind of quality were those? And can the rear set
only be used on a 6 speed cassette, or could it go up to
an 8 speed?

Thanks!

Gary Brower

I would wager that your Altus rear mech will work fine with
8 speeds. Nearly all Shimano mechs. are agnostic when it
comes to the number of sprockets they will work with. The
key is the shifters and cassette.You'll need to be able to
fit an 8 speed cassette and 8 speed shifters of some sort
(or use friction shifters). Will an eight speed cassette fit
on the hub ? Will the wheel still fit the frame ? An
alternative might be Sheldons 8 from 9 on 7 trick. I am
doing this to my 6 speed tourer. You get 8 speeds but with a
cassette that is narrower than a normal 8 speed cassette and
thus fits onto a 7 speed freehub body (which in my case
carried only 6). You need 9 speed shifters and a nine speed
chainof course.

Altus were low down the range, a nearly new Deore XT on ebay
here in the UK is not expensive though.

I had about an 1983 Panasonic dx-2000 with shimano altus. It
was about a $250 bike at the time. My first real road bike.
In terms of quailty it was 3rd down the line. D/A , 600 ,
altus. Comperable to a tiagra or sora group today.

The altus was a proving ground for a feature of the upcoming
indexed shifters. They were unique in that the lever would
move before the friction mechanism was engaged. This meant
that you could over-shift slightly to engage the next larger
gear. Then releas the lever and it would spring back
slightly, automatically centering the chain on the cog. This
was part of their "centeron" system. The other half was the
floating top pully on the rear mech.

It was a good system, simple and efficient. But
friction only. The front (friction) Bar-Con lever still
has this feature.

- - "May you have the wind at your back. And a really low
gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner geocities.comczcornerOpen ↗

Eric St. Mary <[email hidden]> wrote
in message

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I have an old Univega Sportour 12-speed I'm thinking
of restoring (or at least bringing up to speed as a
beater). It has Shimano Altus derailleurs (both front
and rear).

you could have gone out and

Quoted message said:

picked up a new $300 bike with a lot less hassle, mess,
and most likely expense. I'm all for reusing old bike
parts but, sometimes on old cheapies it just isn't worth
it. Look at the Kona Smoke or Raleigh 30, they both make
nice cheap beater or town bikes.

Be Well, Eric

This is a bit over the top. For a "beater" bike, some
friction shifters would be fine, and shift an eight speed
cassette. For that matter, a 6 speed freewheel offers all
you need around town. My Raleigh Grand Prix, with a new six
speed freewheel, Suntour downtube friction shifters,
upgraded with a decent front wheel and a decent saddle, does
not slow me down in the city. It actually works very well,
and fits me great. The only real functional difference
between it and my frou-frou Cannondale is the brifters vs.
downtubes, and a little weight.

The "replace, don't repair" attitude is sometimes neccessary
(old [censored] you can't upgrade), but you would be surprised how
little difference many bicycle advances make to actual
riding. AND, this is a beater/secondary bike. Upgrade maybe
the wheels and freewheel, replace the cables and pads, put
some new tape on the bars, and don't make more garbage.

Toby Whitfield.

[QUOTE][i]
This is a bit over the top. For a "beater" bike, some
friction shifters would be fine, and shift an eight speed
cassette. For that matter, a 6 speed freewheel offers all
you need around town. My Raleigh Grand Prix, with a new six
speed freewheel, Suntour downtube friction shifters,
upgraded with a decent front wheel and a decent saddle, does
not slow me down in the city. It actually works very well,
and fits me great. The only real functional difference
between it and my frou-frou Cannondale is the brifters vs.
downtubes, and a little weight.

The "replace, don't repair" attitude is sometimes neccessary
(old [censored] you can't upgrade), but you would be surprised how
little difference many bicycle advances make to actual
riding. AND, this is a beater/secondary bike. Upgrade maybe
the wheels and freewheel, replace the cables and pads, put
some new tape on the bars, and don't make more garbage.

Toby Whitfield. [/B][/QUOTE]

I agree that a minimal amount of stuff may need to be corrected before the bike is ready to go but, in my experience this leads to continuous repair and replacement on older cheaper bikes.

The biggest PITA I have had was an old early 90's Trek MTB that was orginally Altus. I kept it around a bike to loan people who didn't have one so they could ride around town. They only people who ever rode it were two girlfriends, who didn't abuse bikes like teenagers. I picked the bike up for $20 and all it need was tubes, cables, and a chain. It lasted about a year until the brake pivots became sloppy; so I put on a set of Avis Shorties and AD3 levers (it didn't *need* the levers). A month later the rims were wearing thin and the bearings were gone. So new wheels, a freewheel, and BB were installed. A month later the Rear Deraullier had became super sloppy and the chainrings were gone. So a new rear mech, and crankset (a cheap shimano crankset was cheaper than buying the rings). A week later the shifters gave out so they have to be replaced. It cost a bit over $300 for everything and it was not fancy stuff. So, after the tires wore to the threads again, and it was time for an overhaul (bearings, pads, cables, chain), I said the hell with it, as the crappy front and rear mech, and shifters were once again getting sloppy, and bought a new bike for my wife.

Be Well,
Eric

To all who responded,

Thanks! All of your comments helped keep my efforts in
perspective.

Gary

On 3/22/04 10:35 AM, in article
[email hidden], "Gary Brower"

Quoted message said:

All,

I have an old Univega Sportour 12-speed I'm thinking of
restoring (or at least bringing up to speed as a beater).
It has Shimano Altus derailleurs (both front and rear).

What kind of quality were those? And can the rear set
only be used on a 6 speed cassette, or could it go up to
an 8 speed?

Thanks!

Gary Brower

Quoted message said:

replaced. It cost a bit over $300 for everything and it
was not fancy stuff. So, after the tires wore to the
threads again, and it was time

To get that much wear and tear on a bike ridden by
girlfriends, it must have had a lot of miles. How many would
you estimate?

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

ZeeExSixAre said:

Quoted message said:

replaced. It cost a bit over $300 for everything and it
was not fancy stuff. So, after the tires wore to the
threads again, and it was time

To get that much wear and tear on a bike ridden by
girlfriends, it must have had a lot of miles. How many
would you estimate?

Please be more polite. Perhaps you could use a more discreet
phrase, rather than saying his girlfriends had a lot of
miles on them.

BTW, I don't think "well ridden" would qualify.

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 18:35:17 GMT, Gary Brower <[email hidden]> may

have said:

All,

I have an old Univega Sportour 12-speed I'm thinking of
restoring (or at least bringing up to speed as a beater).
It has Shimano Altus derailleurs (both front and rear).

What kind of quality were those? And can the rear set
only be used on a 6 speed cassette, or could it go up to
an 8 speed?

Altus was and is price-leader stuff. Not all the way at the
bottom of the barrell, necessarily, but competing with stuff
that is. I've upped a 6-speed Altus rear der to duty in a
7-speed system without difficulty, but I've never tried
going to 8 with one that was on a 6 to begin with. It might
work. As gear goes, it's not great, but not awful either.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Trg

BZeeExSixAre said:

Quoted message said:

replaced. It cost a bit over $300 for everything and it
was not fancy stuff. So, after the tires wore to the
threads again, and it was time

To get that much wear and tear on a bike ridden by
girlfriends, it must have had a lot of miles. How many
would you estimate?

[/B]

It was a used as a primary means of transportation. So, daily commuting, shopping, plus week trips, and quite few trail miles. I don't know the exact mileage but, about 20 miles a day for a weekday and an average of 50-60 for a weekend. That comes out to a little over 8000 miles a year. I have no clue how much mileage was on it prior so, who knows how much mileage it was before everything fell apart. BTW this is the only bike I had to replace a headset on from use, not abuse.

Be Well,
Eric

The mileage of the women didn't really effect it much they were both light-weight