I mentioned in July that the iffyness of the shifting on Allez was dissuading me from riding it much, which seemed a waste after the work to rebuild it. My fix was a 7 speed Shimano 105 indexed rear derailleur and shifter to replace the Suntour GPX parts. All of the parts had arrived and I finally got around to transplanting them this week.
The process was fairly straight forward. First remove the derailleur cable, carefully so it can be reused. Second break the chain and un-thread it from the RD, thank you quick-link and quick link tool for making this easy. Then I could remove the GPX parts, as I did for the shifter above.
Then it was on to installing the Shimano 105 bits and re running the derailleur cable. After I got the chain hooked back up the bike didn't want to shift to the smallest cog and I struggled a bit until I realized I was adjusting the wrong limit screw! (facepalm) Amazing how making the correct adjustment works wonders. I got it to shift to all 7 gears in the stand after that.
One nice thing is that the late 80s was the era of grey anodized parts so both the 105 and GPX groups look similar and certainly pass the 10 foot test. Nothing is standing out like a sore thumb and an obvious mismatch.
On my brief test ride I was able to shift up and down the cog with no indexing issues. Yeah!! I need to take it on some longer rides to be sure, but it appears my fix has worked to make this a dependable shifting bike.
Ride, Shift confidently. Smile. Repeat.
PS I might have a 7 speed 14-28t cog FW on order since the 105 RD can handle that many teeth. Shhhh
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