friction shifting question

rbutt88

Hi,

I'm rebuilding an older italian racer and i'm having trouble finding 126mm spaced wheels with a 7 speed freewheel. I'll be running the gears in friction and i've read that you can use any make freewheel with friction shifters. Is this true? If this is true will i run into problems combining a Campagnolo gran sport crankset with say, a shimano 7 speed freewheel?

Thanks in advance

Rich

Smokin Joe

With friction you can use anything with anything.

dru

is it true thou that campags shifters don't have a friction mode?

or is that just the modern 9/10 speed shifters?

crankycrank

Dru wrote:

is it true thou that campags shifters don't have a friction mode?

or is that just the modern 9/10 speed shifters?

Just the newer brake/shifters are "indexed" as the click shifters were originally named and don't have a friction mode. Indexing started with the old downtube shifters even before the brake/shifters were produced and Campag or Shimano or both (I can't remember, I'm getting old) made it possible to switch from index mode to friction if desired.

Monty Dog

For 7 speed, inter-compatability was never really a problem. As for 126mm wheels - plenty around on ebay. Cranksets are rarely drivetrain incompatible - unless you try fitting something older onto something new - it's usually making sure you use the right width of chain. Worth looking at Sheldon Brown's website for more info.

ride_whenever

steel frame?

if so respace the frame to 130mm, relatively easy to do depending on the steel obviously. Remember to check the dropout allignment post cold setting. Then you could run a freehub and have as many gears as you can eat.

The other option is to run it with a slightly smaller spacer (some hubs have a massive washer between the locknut and cone on the non-drive side) then re-dish the wheel. Safer option for the frame, but a fair bit more faff in my opinion.