Hi, and how to avoid a series of dumb questions...

[contadino]

Hello you lot,

I've been lurking/leering over these boards for a few months now, having recently got back onto my bike with a vengeance. Over the years I've had a big heavy Giant, a couple of juicy Oranges, an awesome 2003 Kona Cinder Cone, and my current ride a 2005 Claud Butler Cape Wrath. I kicked a 30 year smoking habit about 18 months ago and it's made more difference to my enjoyment on a bike than any pair of forks or gadgetry ever could.

Anyway, I've been looking around for some sort of idiots guide to what works with what for brakes and gears. Can anyone recommend anything?

I've got three projects on the go. The first two are a bit gonzo - I got given a couple of heavy and pretty knackered Raleigh bikes - onto one I've put an eBike conversion kit as an experiment to see if the wife takes to it. The other I want to turn into something I can use for running errands - popping into town, maybe fitting a little trailer to it and making a few deliveries. The gears on it are proper knackered, but the rest seems salvageable,

The third is that whilst I love my Cape Wrath, I'm not too happy with the gears, and I'd like to investigate just having a single chainring and just 7 speeds on the back. Googling hasn't really come up with much, which could mean that it's a dumb-ass idea, but I'd like to know either way.

I'm in Italy, so my local bike shop only want to sell me stuff that is computer controlled and only works for 5 minutes, so I'm hoping that I can tap into your knowledge.

Thanks folks.

 

[contadino]

Struck lucky tonight. It's called a 1X setup. Details here..

http://oldglorymtb.com/how-to-build-mou ... 1x10-1x11/

Only snag now is how to do it using pre-2000 bits...

 

[widowmaker]

Welcome

I am doing the same sort of thing on my winter build, just not sure what size ring to go for to get the balance between climbing and downhills

 

[highlandsflyer]

You don't need to pedal steep downhills. The only thing to consider is a decently high gear for flat work and gentle downhills. Better to err on the side of decent climbing gears.

 

[PurleySquire]

I run a single chain ring and 7 speed for my commuter bike set up. From memory the chain ring is 42 teeth and the hub goes from 32 to 13 teeth. It is an obsolete Shimano Hyperglide "Megarange" cassette, with a big jump to the "Granny" 1st gear. It works well for me and gets me up the not so steep hills around London.
In my experience you still need the front dérailleur, but locked off, to stop the chain slipping off going over pot holes etc.

 

[xerxes]

I too have a single chainring up front and 7 speed cassette on the rear of my "shopping" bike. I put a 42 tooth chainring on the front which means that I mainly use the 18 tooth sprocket on the rear, which is the centre sprocket of the seven speed cassette, so the chainline is good for the most used sprocket and I have 3 higher and 3 lower gears. In theory, using a large-ish 18 tooth sprocket should also mean less wear than if I were mainly using a small 11 or 12 tooth sprocket. It's always those two or three smallest sprockets that are most used and wear out first on the cassettes on my other bikes.

I completely removed the front mech and I've never had any issues with the chain jumping off the front chainring, after all, bicycles only had a single chainring and no chain device for decades before double and triple chainsets appeared.

What a beauty. 42lbs, when the D lock is bungied on the rack, of claud butler, rack, locks and mudguards, makes my other two bikes feel really light.

 

[contadino]

That's pretty much bang on what I'm aiming for. So what's the rear mech on that, and what shifters?

 

[xerxes]

That's pretty much bang on what I'm aiming for. So what's the rear mech on that, and what shifters?

It's an old Shimano Tourney and a plastic 7 speed thumbshifter that I picked up on Ebay, both pretty cheap and nasty, but they work well enough for pootling about town. I often leave the bike locked up unattended, so cheap and nasty looking is a positive in that respect.

I paid £30.00 for the bike and spent another £100 or so on the rack, mudguards, a single chainset, new headset and bottom bracket, some new cables and better brakes - the original cantilevers squealed like a banshee and weren't very "stoppy", even with new brake shoes. I use a really beefy Kryptonite M 18 D lock together with a cable lock, so it's generally better locked up than some of the nicer bikes locked up nearby - so far, so good.

 

[contadino]

Sorry to pester you, but could you give me a pointer on your chainset? Did you mod a 3 chainring set, or buy a special one? Can you just strip two of the chainrings from a run of the mill chainset, or would that line up all wrong and throw the chain a lot?

 

[reanimation]

1x7 (or 8,9,10) you'll need a chainring with no shift friendly ramps on the teeth. This will stop chain falling off. mine did, ouch. ideally use a chainguide too or lock mech out in situ. or risk it. Single speed style fully toothed chainring is what you want. Teeth number wise, aim for what you usually use and usually the middle one. So road and not too hilly, maybe 42 +- off road or dead hilly same idea middle ring say 34
Now in the age of good quality 9 and 10 speed cassettes, they offer a lot of range, so depends on what you get on your 7 speed. Might be 12-28.
My old set up was 8 speed and 44t was fast and hard. This time looking at 8 speed (12-26) and maybe a 39t or triple...