My girlfriend got a vintage Peugeot with original 5-speed cassette (2 front gears) and friction stem-shifters (with a flat bar). She's struggling with the shifting. I'm considering the following upgrades:
- Replace the stem shifters with 5-speed twist shifters. Would I need to also replace the rear derailer in that case?
- Replace only the rear derailer (and maybe the cables) and see if that makes it easy enough for her to learn friction shifting.
- Alternatively, I could go with new 6-speed parts: shifter and derailer. But would that mess up the shifting since the cassette is still 5-speed?
- Replace the front derailer as well, but not the front shifters. So I'd have twist (indexed) rear shifters and stem (friction) front shifters. Is there any reason that wouldn't work?
Which of these would you recommend? Are there any important things I should be aware of/look out for (I've not done a bike project like this before)?