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My wife has an old (1980-ish vintage) Univega 27" 10 speed racing bike (men's model). It seems to have a 19" frame (center to top of seat tube), 30" standover, if I've measured it correctly. It has 27"x1.25" wheels with Suntour "Honor" derailleurs.

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Not familiar with the gruppo. Suntour's out fo business, though (sad: they made some really nice stuff).

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She still likes it and regards it as "good enough". She doesn't want me to even think about getting her a new bike.

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But it's got some problems. The most nagging one is that the bearings in the wheels are very rough and noisy. I've taken them apart, cleaned and lubed them with some high-quality grease, and tried to adjust the loading on them to minimize the roughness while keeping it tight enough so the wheel doesn't wobble, but I can't eliminate the roughness. The races and/or ball bearings are rough.

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No doubt.

First: I'd look at all the bearings: hubs, bottom bracket, and headset. Chances are, given the age of the bike, that all are shot. Under routine use (a few thousand miles a year -- which I haven't been doing of late ;-), I'll replace these every few years -- 2 - 5 dpeending on use. Headset will probably give you most life, hubs least.

Also realize that things wear together. You're probably going to be better off replacing the wheels entirely. Which means the freewheel. Which means the chain. Which means, if the front chainrings have enough wear, them too. Unless your cranks (the things the pedals are connected to, not us) are damaged, you don't need to replace them. You want to check closely for hairline fractures caused by hard cornering -- I've had same, and breaking cranks is not a pleasant experience, even for a woman.

This gets us to another slight problem though. You've just replaced the entire drivetrian on a 1980s era bike. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the bike as a whole, the biking industry has moved on. Among the things it's moved on to is index shifting and greatly increeased cluster packing. The problem here is that friction shifting and index shifting gear don't interact well. Index drivetrain components (freewheel, chain, and dereilleru) are oriented to having enough "slop" to keep the chain centered on a cog within a pretty tight range (dictated by the shifter indexing), but once that range is exceeded, the chain really wants to jump to the next higher or lower gear. As a result, shifting with index components but friction shifters is very jumpy.

It used to be possible to find components -- particularly freewheels and chains) which aren't specifically designed for index shifters. This is no longer the case. I spent most of the summer tryign to track down same through a local shop run by a conciencious and old-time cyclist. You may be able to find stuff through Rivendell, but you''re going to pay a serious premium for the favor -- and I'm talking 5-10 times over the now-conventional index stuff.

By the time you deal with all of this, you may well be better of getting a "new" bike. Not necessarially showroom new. If there's a local bike store or swap, you can frequently pick up a slightly used bike for a good bargain. I'm assuming your upgrade costs for the bike will run you $300 (very minimum) to $600. For that money, you can get someone's 2-3 year old bike that's no longer used, and for which you're going to have a far better time finding current componentry. Frankly I'd recommend going this route.

\r\nBike Nashbar (http://www.nashbar.com)\r\n

Mixed feelings. I'd pick a local "pro" shop, particularly if I don't know much about HW specifics, myself. Online / catalog ordering is good if you know precisely what you want, and can deal with the time to return stuff. Otherwise, a good shop is a real godsend. There's also Pacific Bicycles, IIRC, who run both a catalog and have outlets. Not as good as a good local shop, but better than Nashbar.

\r\nhas some closeout tubes and tires for the bike, but don't seem to have any 27" wheels. I assume that 700c wheels won't work because the brakes will be in the wrong place and the gear cassette likely won't fit either. Is that correct? While it would be nice to have more speeds and new shifters, I think it's silly to replace all that hardware on a bike that has such a heavy frame.\r\n

Figure out what your budget is. Come back to us. Don't think of this in terms of "wasting" or "throwing away" stuff. The wrong component mix will actually be worse (you've thrown away your money and may well ruin the parts in use).

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So I'm strongly considering getting her a different bike. I'd like to spend as little as possible - less than $350 (+ shipping) - so new bikes are out of the question - but want something of good quality.

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I've looked around ebay and have found some that look promising, but there are zillions to search through. I know that Cannondale is a good brand, and I've heard of Trek and Specialized, but particular models are a mystery. The bikes on ebay seem to go for 30-40% of list or so (unless they're really special).

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Any thoughts on what you would do in this situation? Can you recommend a good bike model? Is there a way that her wheels could be refurbished with new bearings? Can a 5 speed cassette be installed on a new, modern wheel? Can a set of 700c wheels replace 27" wheels without changing the brakes, etc.? Do you have a favorite store or site for bike parts? What would be a comparable size to her old one? 50 cm? 48 cm?

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Best bet is to go to a bike shop and look at the stock.

Price ranges for (new) bikes are generally: < $250: crap, usually indicates mass-market department store. $250 - $400: decent for light use. $400 - $600: Starter range for serious biking. $600 - $1000: A good mid-range bike. $1000 - $1500: Professional quality. $1500+: Glam. I'm looking at ~$1000 - $1200 for my next bike, and won't buy it until I can realistically look at getting in 100 - 300 miles a week again. Otherwise, what I've got will do. In your case, you can probably find what would have been a $600-800 bike several years ago selling within your range.

Bike componentry has gone very much high tech over the past twenty years. The point of diminishing returns (from a performance / durability standpoint) was reached long before the profit diminishing returns point was. The result is twofold: there's some very high-end stuff (which actually does provide some benefit), but which can only be had for exhorbitant amounts of money. And there's a lot of low-end shit masquerading as high-end shit. Unfortunately, good, but baseline quality components are hard to find. Rick Moen has a theory about [link|http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html|good customers making for good products], curiously enough titled "Moen's Law of Bicycles". He expresses a gripe I've had since the late 1980s. Hopefully the current economic retrenchment will drive some bad customers (and worse products) from the market.

For specific models: Cannondale's good, but aluminum (both my current bikes are Cannondale). For a small frame, the ride is often pretty harsh. Bianchi is what I'm looking at -- CrMo has a lot to say for it, including the fact that it's an alloy with a long track record and very good performance under stress (many alloys and composits fail spectacularly -- I've been on the receiving end of this myself). Generally, I'd look at a solid CrMo (chromium-molybdenum steel alloy) frame from a recognized vendor. Alloys, etc., are going to be at significantly higher cost, without benefits until you get well out of the range you're looking at. Avoid any form of suspension -- at $350 you simply can't buy good stuff.