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Thanks Lamplight. I think his cassette was damaged as well as the back wheel. I know he said he has some other parts that he could give me, and some he could sell me. He has several bikes from my understanding, but he is thinking of giving the sport up due to the crash. I have to admit that the fact that a seasoned rider was involved in a accident scares me a little. I knew it would be intense road biking in my area. I think he said he has a carbon fiber fork that is left from the bike that he could sell me for cheap. I will ask him if he has another cassette that could possibly work with the 2300 brifters. I would really want to keep the stuff that the bike has on it already, but I just imagine that I would not be a fan of DT shifters, but maybe I will be surprised and like it.
To use the brifters, I think you'd need:
1. The brifters (obviously)
2. At least a new rear derailleur, and possibly front too. Though the original front might work, but I wouldn't count on it.
3. Rear wheel. This is because older bikes generally use freewheels which contain the ratcheting mechanism and thread onto the rear hub, while on newer bikes the ratcheting mechanism is part of the hub, and the cogs slide onto that and are held in place by a threaded lock ring. Another issue with this is that modern rear hubs are 130mm wide and old road bike hubs are 120-126, so the stays on the frame have to be bent slightly outward to accommodate a modern rear hub. It's not a big deal with a "newer old" bike where the rear spacing is 126mm (which is probably what that Centurion is), but more so with even older bikes with the old 120mm spacing.
4. Probably a new chain, though it couldn't hurt to replace that regardless. If the brifters are 8 speed, and 8 speed chain should work with old cogs, but an old chain (for 5-6 speed bikes) is usually too wide to work on 8+ speed cassettes. A chain for 6 speed Ultra freewheels might work with an 8 speed cassette, but really, if you replaced all those other parts the bike would deserve a new chain anyway.
In my experience, downtube shifters are quite awkward to use at first. If they're old friction shifters instead of the newer indexed shifters, the learning curve is even steeper. But after some practice you should be used to them before long. You may still not like them, but at least they won't feel as awkward as they do at first. I've used friction downtube shifters, indexed downtube shifters, bar end shifters (both indexed and friction), and brifters, and after all these years I've discovered that I prefer friction downtube shifters. I couldn't tell you why exactly, but they just work best for me and my riding style. In fact my favorite bike came with bar end shifters, and I converted it to friction downtube shifters!
Techniums were interesting frames; aluminum main tubes bonded to steel lugs and a steel rear triangle. I don't how they ride, but from what I've read they're fairly stiff but not as harsh as many all aluminum frames. That one does look pretty rough, like it's been neglected. It would probably be a perfectly fine bike, but we can see it will need bar tape, and almost certainly tires, a probably a chain and cables. The angle of the cable coming out of the rear derailleur is disconcerting. At best it's just the cable that's deformed at that point, but at worst the barrel adjuster on the derailleur could be broken. I can't quite make out what components it has, but they look like decent late 80s Shimano or Suntour stuff. It's too bad the seller didn't post some detail shots.
It also looks like the front quick release is in the "open" position, which tells me that whoever owns the bike doesn't know how to operate it properly. He or she may have tried to tighten the wheel in place by turning the quick release like a wrench, instead of pivoting the lever. And that's not a huge problem, except that the paint on the fork dropout may be nicely shredded if that happened. And that along with the clear neglect gives me the impression that the bike's been owned by someone who doesn't know much about bikes, and it makes me wonder if they've done anything else incorrectly to it. As long as none of the parts are actually damaged, this could be a good bike. But you could count on spending at least another $60-100 to get it to that point. Considering that, $200 seems pretty steep. In my opinion (for whatever that's worth), I'd say $100 would be a more reasonable price. The seller probably won't go that low, but personally I wouldn't pay more than that for a bike in that condition unless it was something pretty awesome. Like if those components were all Shimano Durace or Suntour Superbe (but they don't look like it).
I'm not entirely sure where the Suntour Alpha components rank in the hierarchy, but I believe there were decent entry level components. Good, but not expensive or high end. I think the Accushift system automatically overshifted the chain slightly, then returned to the exact position under the freewheel. This meant the rider didn't have to overshift. But apparently the upper jockey wheel on the derailleurs had very little side-to-side play, meaning the derailleur had to be adjusted very precisely. Whereas the Shimano derailleurs at the time had more play which would give you a little more leeway when setting up the derailleur.
Last edited by Lamplight; 06-23-2013 at 05:40 PM..
Wow that seat is low! That was a very ill-fitted bike to the rider. He would have to be really careful in getting off the saddle and probably had to stretch to reach the bars.
It's definitely a lower end bike, probably mid to late 80s. It's hard to tell for sure, but it looks like it's in decent shape. Probably has a smooth ride, but I wouldn't expect very high performance from it.
Aside from the plastic stem shifters, it actually doesn't sound half bad. It's definitely an entry level bike, but if the main frame tubes are chromoly it may be similar to a Schwinn Worldsport. These are by no means race bikes and I wouldn't even call them "high performance", but they probably ride comfortably and allow for some reasonably spirited riding. But the first thing we need to know about this one is, what size is it?
2. The Marseille was the model second from the bottom, but I'm not sure what Peugeot's bottom model was that year.
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That was a very ill-fitted bike to the rider. He would have to be really careful in getting off the saddle and probably had to stretch to reach the bars.
