Chris Kostman seeks ideas for building up his Woodrup, but says: "Note the bike does not have downtube shifter braze-ons. It just has a little tab beneath the downtube in that location, presumably to keep a bar-end shifter cable stop clamp from slipping down the downtube."
Chris, I've seen lots of these tabs, and have made a few myself.* They might have been used to stop bar-end shifter clamps from slipping, but I often saw them on bikes that were factory equipped with down-tube shifters. same goal, of course.
Now, for DT shifters, I've heard lots about the Simplex retros, for which you don't have the clamps. If you don't mind slightly homely, in my book nothing beats the late, fine-tooth, Suntour ratchets. Lots of us have extras. Harvey sachs mcLean va *I generally used a much-shortened "cut" or masonry nail, head and just a bit of shank. Looked nice, easily gotten, easily prettified.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I have what I think is a 1983 Woodrup Giro Touring frameset that I built up earlier this year as a fixed gear bike for open road riding. Now I've decided to set it up with gears.
I don't want to do a period-correct build-up, but I would be interested to know how most of these were set up when they were originally sold. That would be interesting to me, while also providing possible suggestions for which derailleurs, etc I'd put on it.
Matching NOS front and rear derailleur sets I currently have from that general area which I could install include Zeus, Galli, Superbe Pro, Cyclone MK-II, and Mavic SSC. I would probably not put Campy NR/SR on this bike.
Note the bike does not have downtube shifter braze-ons. It just has a little tab beneath the downtube in that location, presumably to keep a bar-end shifter cable stop clamp from slipping down the downtube. I don't really want to put bar-ends on this bike, although I use them on many of my others.
So, that brings up the downtube shifter-mounting issue. Does anybody have an appropriate clamp for mounting downtube shifters? If so, I have some Simplex retrofriction shifters I could use, but for which I have no clamp. (Or I could use the "endless band" shifters from Suntour, as requested in the post I just made.)
Thanks for your insights and suggestions! Reply on- or off-list, as you think appropriate.
Here's a slideshow of my Woodrup:
http://www.adventurecorps.com/
Regards
Chris Kostman
http://www.adventurecorps.com
Oak Park, CA, USA