Allez Rear wheel

After a long wait, the spacer needed for the 7 speed cassette to mount on the 9 speed hub finally arrived and so I could play around a bit with the Allez.

Here the rear wheel as I got it on the Takara.

In addition to the Ultegra hub and Mavic Open Pro rim it has a rather massive 11-34t 9 speed Shimano cassette and that will not work with the short cage RD currently on the Allez.

With the right tools and a little persuasion the Cassette came right off.

With the cassette off I cleaned the hub a bit before moving on to the next step, appears that the 6600  series is from about 2008 so newer that I expected and will take up to a 10 speed cassette like the earlier 6500 Ultegra, not that I will need that but good to know.  Very solid feeling piece of tech.

The long awaited spacer is in place, it has notches on the back as some 7 speed cassettes have rivets that protrude a bit on the backside, according to RJ the bike guy, but the SunRace cassette is flush on the back so I didn't have that concern.  The main reason for the spacer is that without it the 7 speed cassette would wobble on a 9 speed hub due to excess space.

the 11-28t cassette 7 spd cassette in place and not looking nearly as massive as what it replaced.

With the cassette swap complete its ready for a test fit.  Velo base says that the Suntour GPX RD will only take a max of a 23t cog and still work in index mode, however BF members assure me they run 28t cogs in index mode and it works fine so we shall see.

The other end of the ruler is inside the dropout so you can see in 1989 the spacing wasn't quite 130 mm like modern 9 speed hubs, closer to 126 mm.

However. without much effort the 9 speed wheel with 7 speed cassette and spacer fit.  It even shifted in index mode to all 7 gears! But in the 28t cog there is clatter/grinding as the 28t cog, chain and derailleur jockey wheel are all very close together.  It did do the shift though, so perhaps with a b screw adjustment I would have enough room to quiet the clatter or I could drop down to a 25t large cog cassette. We'll see.  There are all sort of options for gearing but I want to ride the bike and see if I actually like it and how it fits and rides before I get crazy with making alot of gearing changes. (he can be taught! sorta)

There is a further consideration/complication (of course there is) the same guy who gave me the great deal on the Allez tipped me to a Suntour GPX wheelset up for sale on bike forums....

According to the spec sheet online for the 89 Allez the wheel-set is EXACTLY what came on the bike, 700c, Wobler gray anodized rims, SunTour GPX hubs, Freewheel rear hub.  And since its a FW I wouldn't have the oddball SunTour cassette to deal with.  I inquired with the seller and it would be $100 including shipping to get the wheel-set, which is a better deal than most of what I have seen on ebay for a comparable vintage wheel-set and none of those were an exact match to the bikes spec.

I have done nothing yet, the wheels have been for sale since June so I have time to think about it and might be able to haggle a bit.  I do already have a very nice wheel-set that appears to work and with any luck my cost for it will be very close to zero once the Takara sells.  If I did decide to buy the SunTour GPX stock wheels I could always sell the Mavic/Ultegra wheels and I think I could offset at least half the cost.  I am not a die hard for everything being stock but there is something about it that appeals to me for the Allez especially if I ever wanted to sell it.  Decisions.

It kinda looks like a bike now and I am hoping to get a brake or two cabled up so I can ride this bike to coffee as part of my vintage steel Coffeeneuring theme and I am just a bit curious to see how it feels/fits/rides.

EDIT:  After looking on CL for what Mavic rims with ultegra hubs are going for I broke down and ordered the stock FW hub wobler GPX wheels for the Allez.  I will cost me $90 all in and I think there is a very good chance I can sell the Mavic/ Ultegras for that amount or more so I with any luck a stock, catalog match wheelset should cost me close to zero when all is said and done.   

Ride. Overthink it. Smile. Repeat.