vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

Thanks for the idea, I will go with indexed first, but if I ever wanna go friction I will definitely give this one a shot. Maybe I'll downgrade to 8 speed sometime and it will come in handy. :)

I want a friction downtube shifter bike so bad, I might add some gears to the Koga only for this purpose. Have some 8 speed cassettes lying around that nobody wants to buy, so it's a perfect project for the far future I guess. Already know which shifters I want to use for this... But I guess it would be better to use an actually nice-looking vintage frame for this purpose?

Koga's going strong, been riding it a lot lately. Love the simplicity of a single speed, and it has the perfect gear ratio, really happy with it overall. Gonna remove those shift cable guides from the headset sometime soon.
Also, my spoke key should arrive any day now, which means I can fiddle around wheel truing finally. Both wheels are wobbly, gonna be a good experiment. Never done this before, might make things a lot worse than they are now, but I love a challenge.

1 Attachment

this looks great

Thanks!

In other news, parts for the Marin are arrving nicely, only waiting for the brake levers and the cassette spacer. The SunRace SLM96 thumbie is actually really well made, clicks are extremely tactile and satisfying, and it just looks great to be honest.

1 Attachment

Big day.

5 Attachments

Bodged (literally just plugged in) a barrel adjuster into the SLX rear derailleur. Works.
Not very satisfied with the thumbie though, last gear is extremely hard to get into, and it shifts back very easily. Will cut fresh cable housing to see if that solves the issue, but I feel it won't. Otherwise the shifting itself is adequate. Chainline is horrendeous, chain is straight in the 8-9th gears, but it works like this so I don't really mind.

These SRAM/Avid FR-5 brake levers feel absolutely amazing, braking power has increased by a ton, and the pair cost 12 euros, good deal.

Bike weighs 11.5 kilos, not bad I guess, with proper tyres I could go down to 11.
Only needs mudguards now.

Full pics hopefully tomorrow.

4 Attachments

I feel your pain with the SR shifter. In the end I put the lever from a bar end shifter on the body and use it in friction mode on my Krampus. You have to think about shifting a bit in advance but soon get used to it.

Can't wait for the full build pics, already looks fun

Ha, I really didn't think a thumbie can produce such problems. To be honest, I don't think I will ever need to use that last gear in the Netherlands anyways, but still, it bugs my mind... I might just give in and buy a Deore Rapidfire shifter in the end.
Or I have a pair of Shimano barcons I could try first. I like the idea of friction shifting actually.

Really hope the weather will let me snap some nice photos!

I’ve done the same as @harv4130 with some shims I downtube jobbies - I did have to file the spacer slightly to get it so sit nicely, but friction shifting is so good.

The good thing about a bar end shifter is it just slotted straight on, you even retain the friction/ index switch

Nice - I only had a spare set of DT shifters though, so had to make do.
I haven't tried the indexed position, as I have them mounted up-side down, so the indexed one controls the FD a lá rivendell

Weather's nice and I'm free today, snapping pics then I'll try to bodge up the friction shifter, wish me luck!

Here we go!

5 Attachments

And a few more.

3 Attachments

Very purposeful look!
Maybe a shorter stem so that you can move the saddle back a little? Would make it look a little more balanced #internetbikefit

Thanks! It is already quite back on the rails actually, vintage saddle design was sometimes strange. Keeping an eye open for a cheap C15, so it may look better.

It was probably designed for a setback seatpost originally

lovely stuff

good looking bike!

Cheers everyone!

And now I have friction shifting.
@si_mon628
Following your comment I took the shifter apart, got two tiny little bearings out, then fiddled for about an hour trying to put everything back together, but I succeeded! Thanks for the idea a ton! Gonna go out for a test ride asap.

Heads up, the disassembly wasn't quite easy, I managed to leave some permanent marks on the top cover, and I'm still not 100% sure if I re-assembled it correctly (the whole thing jumped apart after removing the cover plate), but it works without issues.

I like this bike very much

Ye very nice bike.

I quite often get tempted with these Marin 'hybrids' of that era on ebay. What tubing did the redwood come with?

Brilliant! Hope it works well for you. Annoyingly they won't pull enough cable for 10 spd, but 8/9 should be fine.