REbuild help

wannatour said:

I want wider tires on an old raleigh technium. It has been upgraded previously it has a shimano 7 speed 105 system The tires are 23mm and I want 28 or larger to make this bike my commuting in the rain bike. My questions are, Do ineed new brakes it has dual pivot 105 brakes can I make them wide enough. My shifter (sti) for the front is shot. A lbs tried replacing the cable but confirmed it was shot. Should I try to find a replacement or I have thought of going with bar ends. Any cheap ways to make the ride smoother? Thanks for any input

Different bicycles have different clearence with same components. Different 28 mm tires have different profiles.
You are going in the right direction for a smoother ride with wider tires. You might see if you can try someone's wheels that has the tires you are considering to see how they clear.
I would wait on changing your existing brakes until you get the other clearence issues resolved. The brake clearence may not be your limiting factor.
Bar end shifters are a good idea for commuting. If they quit indexing, you can fall back to friction shifting. They also are less expensive and allow you many choices in brake levers. Bar ends are easy to service. If you are troubled by knee clearence you can remove some of the end of the bars as the effectively add ~ 2 cm to the bar length.