Oh good, I'm glad that I'm not the only one and thus coming off as a curmudgeon :-)
There probably isn't a whole hill of beans in difference between parts made in 2002 and those made in 2009, but between parts made in 1980 and parts made in this century, there is a huge difference :-) On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 12:17 AM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thill....@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi John: > As much as I may admire French aesthetics, my advice would be to sell > the French parts for some insane amount of money and buy something > made more recently by Shimano. I'm sure the French stuff is pretty to > look at and cool/vintage, but you'll drive yourself nuts trying to > make it work with modern parts on a modern frame. And since you want > to do multi-day rides far from home, you may appreciate the fabulous > advances in derailleur technology over the past 20 or 30 years. > > Funny, in researching the SLJ parts you mentioned, I came across a > blog that argues that the SLJ is "the best derailleur ever made". I > don't know how that blog author defines "best", but I'd eat my shoe if > it turned out that these French antiques shifted as well or stood up > to as much hard use/abuse as any of the current Shimano offerings. > > > > > > On Jan 10, 11:35 pm, John Ferguson <rfj1...@yahoo.com> wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> First time on here, and it's my first time building a bike from the >> frame up. I'm hoping someone here can help, as I'm a complete >> neophyte. I've been riding an older (cheap) French bike for the past >> 10 years and finally took the plunge and bought a Rivendell Saluki. >> Frame only, of course--I could have taken the easy way out and gotten >> a completed bike, but since I'm going to be traveling long distances >> on this bike, I figured I needed to build it myself so I know how >> everything goes together. >> >> I'm in the process of acquiring components; I think I have most >> everything figured out, except for the following: >> >> I have a Simplex SLJ5500 rear derailleur and an SLJ front derailleur >> from my old bike. However, I can't figure out with a high degree of >> confidence what an appropriate range would be for the chainwheels and >> the cassette/freewheel. Unfortunately I sold my old bike without >> counting teeth. >> >> I'm planning on taking very long rides, sometimes multi-day, and I'm >> hoping to enter some formal randonneur events this year. >> >> Anyone have advice for me? Anything would be appreciated; I've spent >> many hours trying to figure this out. >> >> Thanks! >> >> John > > > -- having a blood clot is a sticky situation --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---