Dawes Galaxy modification (more)

Robin Norton said:

A number of nice guys advised me on changing bars/ brakes and gear levers on my DG. It's with my
lbs at the moment. Question: they propose fitting an 8-speed changer to operate my 7-speed block
(inplace of my bar-end shifters). They assure me the two (both Shimano) will work perfectly. Can I
believe 'em??

Yes. As an example, Deore DX and XT 7 speed thumbshifters were really 8 speed - they had an extra
click - and could be used with a 7 or 8 speed block. The cable pull per sprocket didn't change and
the block was made 4mm wider for the extra sprocket.

"Robin Norton" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

A number of nice guys advised me on changing bars/ brakes and gear levers

on

Quoted message said:

my DG. It's with my lbs at the moment. Question: they propose fitting an 8-speed changer to
operate my 7-speed block (inplace of my bar-end shifters). They assure me the two (both Shimano)
will work perfectly. Can I believe 'em??

I fitted an RSX 7 speed rear mech and 8 speed DT shifter to my old road bike fitted with a Sachs screw-
on block and all was well. (Although budget kit they performed better than the more up-market but
older Campag Athena stuff they replaced). The rear mech is now doing sterling service on a roadised
mtb under control of a 7 speed rapidfire shifter so I'd be inclined to believe 'em.

They may not work. The genuine spacing of standard 7 spacing is different to 8 and I tried the
same thing a few years ago with an 8 speed gripshift and 7 speed shimano cassette and it would not
work reliably.

I have a yr 2000 model DG and my BIGGEST gripe with it, is the cr@ppy cantilever brake set up. My lbs told me not to put V-brakes on as they would be too powerful and could potentially rip the bosses off the frame. The best solution I have managed to come across has been by fitting Avid Shorty 6 calipers, which although not as good as either V-brakes or proper road brakes are a damn sight better than the cr@p the bike came with.

I have been toying with the idea of u[pgrading to STI levers for some time, but the beauty of the bar end shifters is that the front mech can be fine tuned giving a full range of gears, which with the huge range on the cassette I am doubtful I would get out of STI's.

I also replaced the wheels (which were originally allivio :o hubs with mavic T220?? rims) with a set of custom made wheels comprising of Hope hubs and Mavic T520 touring rims.

The saddle and seatpost (which were of shocking quality) were also ripped off and replaced with an Easton EA50 stem and Selle Italia Flite Genuine Gel.

I am slightly dissapointed that a bike costing so much comes with such poor quality components, although it runs quite nicely now. I also stripped the rack and mudguards off as they are not really necessary for the day rides I mostly do, although I am pretty sure they would go back on when (if 🙁) i ever get round to a full on cycling holiday.

The other compnents are an Lx front mech and deore rear mech & chainset.

Robin Norton said:

A number of nice guys advised me on changing bars/ brakes and gear levers on my DG. It's with my
lbs at the moment. Question: they propose fitting an 8-speed changer to operate my 7-speed block
(inplace of my bar-end shifters). They assure me the two (both Shimano) will work perfectly. Can I
believe 'em??

May work acceptably (I don't know) but just for raw information, 7sp spacing is 5.0mm, 8sp is 4.8mm.
That's the distance from centre of one sprocket to centre of next.

~PB

davebee said:

I have a yr 2000 model DG and my BIGGEST gripe with it, is the cr@ppy cantilever brake set up. My
lbs told me not to put V-brakes on as they would be too powerful and could potentially rip the
bosses off the frame. The best solution I have managed to come across has been by fitting Avid
Shorty 6 calipers, which although not as good as either V- brakes or proper road brakes are a damn
sight better than the cr@p the bike came with.

Try changing the pads. My cantis are fine - although you could probably fix the problem forever by
going to Maguras.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.demon.co.ukchapmancentral.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

"davebee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I have a yr 2000 model DG and my BIGGEST gripe with it, is the cr@ppy cantilever brake set up. My
lbs told me not to put V-brakes on as they would be too powerful and could potentially rip the
bosses off the frame. The best solution I have managed to come across has been by fitting Avid
Shorty 6 calipers, which although not as good as either V- brakes or proper road brakes are a damn
sight better than the cr@p the bike came with.

I put V brakes on mine and have failed to rip the bosses off in the Alps or the Pyrenees.

Ken.

davebee said:

I have a yr 2000 model DG and my BIGGEST gripe with it, is the cr@ppy cantilever brake set up. My
lbs told me not to put V-brakes on as they would be too powerful and could potentially rip the
bosses off the frame. The best solution I have managed to come across has been by fitting Avid
Shorty 6 calipers, which although not as good as either V- brakes or proper road brakes are a damn
sight better than the cr@p the bike came with.

I have a 2000 Dawes Super G.[1] and I agree the cantis that came with the bike have more in common
with soft brown stuff that they do with brakes. I too have upgraded with Avid Shorties but I am
having problems with squeeling - yes I have toed them in etc. Thanks to this group I have just tried
using kool stop salmons and these only squeel at low speed - so that is am improvement. But over all
the Avids are a whole world better that the originals.

Quoted message said:

I have been toying with the idea of u[pgrading to STI levers for some time, but the beauty of the
bar end shifters is that the front mech can be fine tuned giving a full range of gears, which with
the huge range on the cassette I am doubtful I would get out of STI's.

Mine came with Shimano 105 STI and the left hand has 4 positions: small changing, low middle chain
ring, high middle chain ring and large chain ring - if you see what I mean. So I would not worry too
much about triming the front cage with STIs.

Quoted message said:

I am slightly dissapointed that a bike costing so much comes with such poor quality components,
although it runs

The Galaxy came with the same cantis as a hybrid I bought in 1994 for £150 so I would agree that
during that vintage some of the components were a little naff. However I have noticed that the
latest Supper Gs are fitted with techtro cantis which I think will be an improvement.

John T.

[1] bought second hand this summer. Remove the singers of Spam before replying

John Tomlinson said:

davebee said:

I have been toying with the idea of u[pgrading to STI levers for some time, but the beauty of the
bar end shifters is that the front mech can be fine tuned giving a full range of gears, which
with the huge range on the cassette I am doubtful I would get out of STI's.

Quoted message said:

Mine came with Shimano 105 STI and the left hand has 4 positions: small changing, low middle chain
ring, high middle chain ring and large chain ring - if you see what I mean. So I would not worry
too much about triming the front cage with STIs.

Or use Campag stuff, which seems to have a "tunable" front shifter. However, there may be other
expenses/negatives about swapping to Campag which would need checking before spending money.

- Nigel

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John Tomlinson said:

davebee said:

I have a yr 2000 model DG and my BIGGEST gripe with it, is the cr@ppy cantilever brake set up. My
lbs told me not to put V-brakes on as they would be too powerful and could potentially rip the
bosses off the frame. The best solution I have managed to come across has been by fitting Avid
Shorty 6 calipers, which although not as good as either V- brakes or proper road brakes are a damn
sight better than the cr@p the bike came with.

I have a 2000 Dawes Super G.[1] and I agree the cantis that came with the bike have more in common
with soft brown stuff that they do with brakes. I too have upgraded with Avid Shorties but I am
having problems with squeeling - yes I have toed them in etc. Thanks to this group I have just
tried using kool stop salmons and these only squeel at low speed - so that is am improvement. But
over all the Avids are a whole world better that the originals.

Quoted message said:

I have been toying with the idea of u[pgrading to STI levers for some time, but the beauty of the
bar end shifters is that the front mech can be fine tuned giving a full range of gears, which with
the huge range on the cassette I am doubtful I would get out of STI's.

Mine came with Shimano 105 STI and the left hand has 4 positions: small changing, low middle chain
ring, high middle chain ring and large chain ring - if you see what I mean. So I would not worry
too much about triming the front cage with STIs.

Quoted message said:

I am slightly dissapointed that a bike costing so much comes with such poor quality components,
although it runs

The Galaxy came with the same cantis as a hybrid I bought in 1994 for £150 so I would agree that
during that vintage some of the components were a little naff. However I have noticed that the
latest Supper Gs are fitted with techtro cantis which I think will be an improvement.

FWIW: I bought a Dawes Galaxy last year - which I believe was a 2002 model. It came with Avid Shorty
4 brakes. I'm not impressed with them, but that may be down to the blocks that came with them.

--
Paul Lydon Winster, Derbyshire, UK --> Remove the 'DELETE' in email address to reply <--

I have been running the Shorty 6's for coming up to 2 years now, and have had to contend with squealing from the front wheel. Have also considered replacing the front fork and then putting on road brakes at the front. (could also put an Ahead stem on which would improve the fit)

I have just put shimano xt calipers on a cheap(ish) mtb, so might swap the xt calipers and the avids at some stage. What products do Magura make that could be of use. (I have never used any of their products and know naff all about them)

On the Dawes I think that I am using XT brake pads which I would say are pretty good quality. Havent stopped the squealing though :-(

any other suggestions welcomed...

dave

"davebee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I have been running the Shorty 6's for coming up to 2 years now, and have had to contend with
squealing from the front wheel. Have also considered replacing the front fork and then putting on
road brakes at the front. (could also put an Ahead stem on which would improve the fit)

I have just put shimano xt calipers on a cheap(ish) mtb, so might swap the xt calipers and the
avids at some stage. What products do Magura make that could be of use. (I have never used any of
their products and know naff all about them)

Magura HS66 brakes - their hydraulic ones for drop bars. I heartily recommend them for tandems. Far
less tedious to adjust than cable brakes, virtually maintenance free, and they work very well. The
three reasons why I don't have them on my solo bikes are cost, lack of compatibility with sti/ergo
and I don't really need them - the cable brakes are good enough.

I remember seeing a super galaxy fitted with them in the bike shop in about 1990.

BTW your LBS is talking [censored]. There is a reason not to fit Vs on a drop bar bike, but it's nothing
to do with ripping the bosses off - it's that drop bar levers don't pull enough cable. Various fixes
exist for this - dia-compe 287V levers, and the travel agent (a pulley device) are quite popular.
The former is incompatible with STI/ergo, if you go for the latter keep an eye on your cables. See
back issues of the CTC mag for details.

It is possible to make cantis work as well as Vs btw. Appropriate pad choice and cable geometry are
key. See sheldon brown for geometry tips. (although the low profile cantis are a [censored] start and the
avids are probably better).

Interesting that you started with a standard Galaxy and did some significant upgrades - would a
super or even ultra galaxy have been a better starting point? (did they make the ultra then?)

cheers, clive

Not a bad idea about the hydraulic brakes.

The ultra Galaxy didnt exist at the time, and I figured that there wasn't much difference in the frame. Sure, the S G has a double butted frame but the weight saving that has when a tourer is fully loaded is minimal.

The SG comes with slightly better gruppo, but the wheelset was only slightly better (deore hubs instead of alivio) and I wanted to put a Hope set on, as they are simply awesome.

In hindsight I should maybe have done more research, but it does the job, and each time a component brakes I just gradually upgrade!

Quoted message said:

The ultra Galaxy didnt exist at the time, and I figured that there wasn't much difference in the
frame. Sure, the S G has a double butted frame but the weight saving that has when a tourer is
fully loaded is minimal.

Isn't the super galaxy frame the same as the galaxy? (was when I got mine). Actually at the moment
the normal galaxy seems a more sensible package than the super. (mostly no STI).

cheers, clive

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Anonymous
> The ultra Galaxy didnt exist at the time, and I figured that there wasn't much difference in the

Quoted message said:

frame. Sure, the S G has a double butted frame but the weight saving that has when a tourer is
fully loaded is minimal.

Isn't the super galaxy frame the same as the galaxy? (was when I got mine). Actually at the moment
the normal galaxy seems a more sensible package than the super. (mostly no STI).

cheers, clive

I like the idea of STI, but I have gotten to quite like the bar end shifters, and I don't see the point of shelling out £170 for good STI's when what I have works perfectly well and is actually from a higher gruppo! (the bar ends are DA)

"davebee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I like the idea of STI, but I have gotten to quite like the bar end shifters, and I don't see the
point of shelling out £170 for good STI's when what I have works perfectly well and is actually
from a higher gruppo! (the bar ends are DA)

And the DA shifters are identical to the older ultegra ones except they're 9spd rather than 8 or 7
and have a prettier box - shimano only make one sort of bar end shifter, so it doesn't really matter
what groupset it's in!

cheers, clive