HELP please: easiest way to lower gearing (and cheapest!)

[lemur]

Hi,

looking for a bit of advice having read many, often conflicting, bits of advice on this and other sites.

What I want is a way of getting some lower gearing as all the forests around me are bloody steep and I'm still in the process of getting fit and want a bit less pain.

What I have:
- 24/36/46 at the front
- 12-18 7-speed at the back
- 1992-3 XT derailleurs (short-cage at back)
- 7-speed XT thumbies with the "hidden 8th click"

I originally thought I'd be able to get an 8-speed cassette with a 32 cog on it but they seem a bit in short supply, and from the reading I've been doing, it looks like I've got capacity problems that I'm not going to get around because of the short-cage mech, although some people have said that Shimano are pretty conservative with their capacity figures.

So, any ideas on what's the best way to go? Stick with the original plan but hunt down a long-cage mech? I'm open to ideas, but I really, really want to keep my beloved thumb-shifters

Cheers in advance,
Kev

 

[Johnsqual]

Chain reaction cycles has a 12-28 7 speed cassette for £25.
You might also be able to try a 22 teeth granny ring.

That would save faffing about trying to get an 8 speed cassette
to work with a 7 speed shifter, and I can't imagine it would overstretch
your mech's capacity.

Johnny

 

[gtRTSdh]

Your biggest problem is that an 8sp cassette does not fit in place of a 7sp cassette unless there's a spacer behind your 7sp cassette already, although this seems unlikely going by the rest of your setup.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Re: HELP please: easiest way to lower gearing (and cheapest!

- 12-18 7-speed at the back

12-28?

 

[lemur]

Re: HELP please: easiest way to lower gearing (and cheapest!

- 12-18 7-speed at the back

12-28?

That'll be the one...

 

[lemur]

Your biggest problem is that an 8sp cassette does not fit in place of a 7sp cassette unless there's a spacer behind your 7sp cassette already, although this seems unlikely going by the rest of your setup.

Ahh. Thanks for this - that's something I didn't think off. There's no spacers in there so I'm stuck with 7 speed. No problem there.

Cheers,
Kev

 

[MiniNinjaRob]

I think SRAM do a 7sp cassette which goes up to 32. I have a HG70 cassette in the rare 14-32 size (or is it 34? Can't remember!) but they are hard to find.

 

[MiniNinjaRob]

Here it is! Only £13 too - bargain!

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mobi ... delID=6387

 

[MikeD]

SRAM 12-32 7spd at Chain Reaction: http://bit.ly/TJiYsw

BBB 12-32 7spd at Wiggle (bit more expensive): http://bit.ly/SivQYn

Those are big ranges for 7spd, so you get pretty massive jumps and might need a long-cage mech. Still a few Shimano HG50 13-30s around -- Amazon of all places: http://amzn.to/UHkXwl

Or switch to a newer chainset with a 22t inner ring.

 

[secret_squirrel]

I haven't verified it myself but one of the gearing gods Sheldon Brown says shimano mechs are very conservative so I would try before you write off your current mech.

I would also try the granny ring route - most of them are steel and have very low usage so you could get one here for a few quid or even karma.

Plus with even with my mechanical skills I can change a granny.