Paint and build a front racked town bike

@midlife, I've made enquiries, but they appear to be rarer than a very rare thing now. Going to try some of those block extenders.

OK, so the forks I spent so long painting are out because the steerer is not sufficient. Some cheap chromed ones will stand in for now.

But the build throws another spanner in the works, or... the indexing actually.

Everything I read says that Shimano rear derailleur pull ratios did not change between 6 and 10 speed. But my beautiful 6207 does not work with the Shimano compatible thumb shifters I got. It moves almost two cogs for each clock and exhausts the cassette in the 6th position (well, the latter follows from the former because maths).

This is pretty upsetting, because it is beautiful and was supposed to be a key piece of the groupset, complimenting the cranks. Bums.

Tried a DA 7700 series RD, and lo and behold, things work.

Did a little more digging. The 6207 is listed on velobase as friction only. So it appears to be (just one model) before indexing was introduced in the first place, and as such is not subject to statements like "all 6 through 9 speed Shimano indexing is compatible".

The DA 7700 was in the parts bin, and it doesn't look bad, but it's not going to clear the 34 tooth cog I bought to offset the 52/42 up front when carrying loads up hills. The 6207 I got is the long cage version, which I was super chuffed to find. As far as I can tell, if the 7700 even had a long cage version, it wasn't made in enough numbers to reach ebay today.

So, options:

• Friction shift. I'm guessing friction shifting 9 speeds is a bit of a faff. They're getting quite close together. Oh, and the shifter I bought doesn't have a friction mode.
  
• Get a 600 SIS indexed (e.g. 6208) RD. They aren't as pretty, and long cages seems v rare.
  
• Get a 28 tooth cassette, keep the 7700. Might be the best bet. Sucks though, cos everything else beneath the handlebars is 600 series, and looks lovely matchy.
  
  

On the plus side, very happy with how things are looking (bad photo, saddle temporary).

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Man. Even with chrome forks it looks great.

You're very kind!

Just took it on a (ten minute) test ride, has come together nicely. Dropped the stem, leveled the saddle. Risers feel weird, but in a good way. Riding position is very upright, very comfortable. A nice counterpoint to the drops on my other bikes.

I'll probably have to saw the bars off some, wide bars make me feel unstable (counterintuitive, but perhaps it's the constant worry of clipping something!)

How wide are the bars?
It looks like your stem is pretty short, which might make it feel more twitchy.
I'd say the shorter the stem, the wider your bars need to be to feel stable.
Especially on a road bike.

The bars are 48cm, I think. The stem is short, but not super short (90 or 100mm at a guess).

But I ride on the centre of my drops on a similar sized frame (w suicide levers) only using 30cm or less of width in that position and am perfectly happy.

I'm just weird, I like narrow. I have fairly narrow shoulders and take a 40cm drop bar on my racer.

I'm not even sure that I am unstable on the wide bars, or perhaps I just over correct given the massive difference in leverage. Either way, I don't really feel in control if they're wide, I feel like I'm trying to steer a boat!

The fear of not fitting through a gap is real. I've internalised the width of my other bars, so these ones worry me when I pass wing mirrors etc.

I've ridden with 80cm bars, so I wouldn't consider 48cm wide.
It took me while to adjust to those really wide handlebars. So I'd ride some more and try to get a proper feel for them, before you change your mind.

Hahaha, bare in mind that this is for commuting! I won't cut them just yet though, because I might be pleased with the extra leverage once the high front rack is on and loaded

This is a super fresh bike man, meticulously well painted and finished! Looks great.

Well, it's been rideable for about 8 weeks now and I've been commuting on it on dry days (so, maybe 10 total?)

Really happy with it, it really chills out the commute. I feel no compulsion to increase my pace when overtaken. On this bike, my pace is what it is and I'm happy with it. Never quite felt that on a racer - always feel the need to move with the pack (read: whoever's fastest, regardless of their broken self-preservation instincts.)

Today I got a bit of time to cut two and a half inches off the bars and polish off the logos. Also said a very sad goodbye to the 32c tyres. It wasn't til I took them off that I realised how much they were adding to the look of the build. But I've been able to ride it about one day a week because of the weather, so switched down to 25c in preparation for 35mm metal mudguards arriving. There's sadly no way 45mm would fit the forks, and the rear has the width but would be touch and go beneath the brake stay.

On the plus side, the cockpit feels massively more svelte and I should be able to wheel it through the front door of the house pre-coffee without such a mal-coordinated drama.

Oh, and half-cages are great for this kind of riding. Feel lux, but in any shoes and with no emergency stop complications!

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Still to do:

• Wald basket. Super practical, and budget dictates that the pricier front racks are left alone. Should be plenty for my commuting / shopping needs
  
• Guards. Metal, pref chrome. This is why I can't afford a fancy rack ;)
  
• Switch the cassette for an ~11-32. The two lowest cogs are not accessible to the derailleur. I can switch with my other winter bike which has a longer cage and smaller cassette, but need a new chain for it first.
  
• Brown grips. I've decided I quite like the tan saddle with the aqua blue, so black grips need to go.
  
  

Oh, and thanks again to @Colonel_of_Truth for suggesting these drop brake shoe dooberries, so pleased to keep the 600ex brakes together on it! They seem to have very little flex as far as I can tell, would recommend if you ever find you have the reach at the front but not the back.

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Nice. Can recommend highly a Wald for the front, love mine. Great to find something that means you can keep the same brakes as well.

This is turning out lovely. Great ride so far!

Is it possible to swap out the long cage from the 6207 onto the DA mech? I don’t actually own any shimano so have no experience but I’ve swapped cages on Campy mechs a few times with no issues as it’s held together with one bolt. Just a thought!

Sweet ride btw

Thanks @getoutofbed. They don't really look compatible, there is a serious generational gap, different sized jockey wheels and general shape. Interesting idea though, if they were a bit more similar.

Finally got the mudguards on! Only three trips out to the shops for more fixing hardware. Should have planned ahead a little better, but I didn't really know what was going to be required til I took a proper stab.

Rear could be tucked a little better, and actually it is now, because first day out witg them some attention-lite dope rolled in to the back of me, bending a stay and meaning everything had to be re-adjusted! All good again now.

I was really surprised how easily they gobbled up the available clearance. I got 40mm guards hoping to go back to 30 or 32c tyres, but there's absolutely no way. I had to bend the guard closed to go between the chainstay (could cut it off, but want the protection) and the nut under the fork crown is only a hair's breadth away from the tyre at 25c.

Really pleased with how they look!

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Lovely read. Has the paint kept up?

Generally yes, but it's definitely not what I'd call robust. I was a bit rushed doing the rear of the frame because the weather was closing in. It's been locked up outside a bit, and this came from sharing a Sheffield stand with someone careless:

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