# Bridgestone CB/3 Confusion, help



## CaravanEndeavor (Mar 2, 2010)

Hey just built up a CB/3 and its kinda ugly. random derailers, 26 inchers, thumbshifters, all outdated stuff. Want to build it up as its name states, a city bike/commuter. Im confused as to what size the drop outs are and what parts will fit on this frame. SHould i be looking at mountain bike parts or road parts? i dont think road cranks or parts will fit because of the chain stays. i just wanna build it up as anyone might build up a long haul trucker or cross check with fenders a rack on the front or back, thumb shifters, cantilever brakes and maybe 1x8 or 9 or 2x9 or 10 in the drivetrain.. Main commute will be about 5 miles t o school and then just for fun around town.. Push me in the right direction please with what i should be looking for.. THank you.


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

You'll have to measure the dropouts, it's likely 120 or 126mm from edge to edge, but could be 130. check out sheldon brown's website for all the info you'll need to figure this and many other questions out.

Current 8-10 spd mtb hubs are 135mm, while road 10 spd are 130mm. If it's got 126 spacing, a 130 hub will fit easily.
So, you're looking at getting new 26" wheelset, right? Road crankset really shouldn't be an issue, though it's possible with a really large chainring. Wide mtb slicks probably won't fit, but something 2" or less should. It may depend upon the year of your CB.

OK, finding time to edit this a bit & add more info whilst I think on it...

your thumbshifters will shift a 8-10 spd cassette on friction mode (assuming they're indexed), but it'll be finicky to get it just right in a 10spd cassette, since there's a relatively short throw between gears. I'd go with an 8spd cassette if you're set on keeping the thumbies. I haven't tried it with 9spd, so can't comment there. 
Hrm, what'd I miss?


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## CaravanEndeavor (Mar 2, 2010)

Yeah 26 inch wheels.. Its got 1.5 slicks on it right now which are perfect. I think its 126mm so ill just for some road hubs and rebuild them to 26s. You think road cranks will work on this?


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## Eiron (Sep 9, 2006)

Road cranks will definitely work, you just need to find the right length BB spindle to match the cranks. I have a '92 KHS Montana Comp mtn bike that I converted to a long distance commuter (42 mi r/t) with 1.5" slicks, drop bars with Dura Ace barends & a 2x7 road drivetrain. I lucked out & had a couple of old road cranksets that seated to the correct location (relative to the chainstays) on the original BB, so finding used cranks is one way to go. The barends are running in friction mode, & the '92 DX front der shifted the 39/52 rings well. After that, I swapped the original DX long cage rear der for a 105, just to quicken the shifts a bit.

I would guess the rear dropouts would be 130mm, but they might be 126 if the bike's early enough. You just want to check that nobody tried to use the wrong size hub & made the dropouts no longer parallel. I've had good luck rebuilding wider hubs with the next size shorter axles by simply removing washers & replacing fat locknuts with thinner ones. That usually lowers the spacing by at least 2mm, which makes the wheel easily fit the narrower dropouts.


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## CaravanEndeavor (Mar 2, 2010)

It had the original wheel on it when i got it. I just fit an old formula hub i had in there so its gotta be 130. Ill look for old road bike parts to throw on there and road hubs to lace up to some 26inch rims.. itll be a fun little project.


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## CaravanEndeavor (Mar 2, 2010)

Any ideas for drivetrain on this bad boy too? Wanting to spend around 200-250 for rear wheel, cassette, shifters, and derailleurs. Gonna have riser bars if that helps. Would mountain or road stuff be cheaper/work better? Push me in some sort of direction.


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

hmm, for city use, I'd go with a road crank (double 53/39ish), old stock or good condition used, road frt derailleur (or just go single ring up front & forget needing a front der... depends on the hills you may or may not have & cassette range & how simple you want to keep it). 
-8 or 9 speed cassette(11-28ish teeth) w/ inexpensive grip shift or thumbies (old shimano or suntour thumb shifters in friction mode will give you ability to run whatever cassette & are pretty cheap). I don't recall if shimano road & mtn cassettes have the same spacing between cogs, so just be aware if going with indexed shifters.
-Depending on what cassette range you've got, can't go wrong with pretty much any old shimano rear derailleur with proper cage length, I've got a stash of '90's XT & Ultegra that I picked up cheap on the 'bay that will last me a while for various projects.

-decent rear wheel w/ deore/105 hub. What rear spacing did you determine? you can pick up a decent wheelset for ~$100-150, especially if you're willing to do some final tensioning DIY.


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## CaravanEndeavor (Mar 2, 2010)

Someone else suggested a 1x____ drivetrain also and I think for simplicity/saving money, thats what im gonna do. Plus its way cleaner. I was going for that exact wheel set up, the spacing is 126 and the frame is alloy so I was going to just build a rear wheel now and upgrade the front later. I was gonna go tiagra or 105 to some 26'' rim I found. The biggest thing im looking for are the shifters. I could make my own basically with those mounts from VO, then buy downtube shifters and use those levers. Would cost about 60 bucks. Mountain or road cassette sound better? Im riding only on flats really


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## logbiter (Sep 14, 2005)

You could find some 90's era thumb shifters for cheaper (LBS maybe, classifieds on RBR/MTBR, or fleabay) than the VO/Paul's mounts with downtube shifters, though those are nice.

If you don't need the range of the mtb cassette, go road & short cage derailleur. I've built up a few 1 x 8 urban bikes on mtn frames.


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## bacoes (Mar 30, 2002)

Your frame is definately not alloy, it's steel and you can spread if you feel like it. Here's my commuter, based on an '89 MB5. I'd been running it as a wide double 43/24 with a 110 triple crankset. The spacing on mine is 130, but I flexed in a 135 wheel I picked up NOS. My preferred drivetrain is to use barcons to move a rapid-rise RD. I recently added a dynohub lighting setup and have been riding it on my new hilly 30mile roundtrip commute. With the front rack and dynamo lights, >40lbs.

early along


poor pic, but what it morphed into.


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