Chainring/Sprocket Replacement Question
sam_m
Posts: 61
Hoping some of you chaps can offer some advice, as I'm new to road biking and would like some opinions without pestering the guys at my local shop.
I picked up an old Carrera road bike the other week off eBay and got my shop to give it a service and whatnot, and everything's not too bad so far. The chainring, sprocket and chain appear to be the original kit supplied with the bike, and so are pretty worn and will need replacing at some point - the idea with this bike has been to keep the cost down to see how I got on with a road bike, and as it turns out I'm riding it pretty much every day whether to nip down the road or to go out for a couple of hours, so it could do with replacing sooner rather than later.
Anyway, here are a couple of questions I have:
1) Roughly what can I expect to pay to replace the chainrings and sprockets? (Talking the cheapest stuff that's not complete junk) I'll need to replace the bottom bracket too as the bearings are pretty shot. Presumably I can keep the existing cranks?
2) I could use a few lower gears but without losing the higher gears. I think it's 9/10 speed that I have at the moment - what restricts how many gears I can run? Will the shifters restrict this at all? (I can't afford the replace the whole lot).
And please add anything else you think might be useful for a beginner. In the meantime, I'll have a good browse through this section.
Cheers in advance!
I picked up an old Carrera road bike the other week off eBay and got my shop to give it a service and whatnot, and everything's not too bad so far. The chainring, sprocket and chain appear to be the original kit supplied with the bike, and so are pretty worn and will need replacing at some point - the idea with this bike has been to keep the cost down to see how I got on with a road bike, and as it turns out I'm riding it pretty much every day whether to nip down the road or to go out for a couple of hours, so it could do with replacing sooner rather than later.
Anyway, here are a couple of questions I have:
1) Roughly what can I expect to pay to replace the chainrings and sprockets? (Talking the cheapest stuff that's not complete junk) I'll need to replace the bottom bracket too as the bearings are pretty shot. Presumably I can keep the existing cranks?
2) I could use a few lower gears but without losing the higher gears. I think it's 9/10 speed that I have at the moment - what restricts how many gears I can run? Will the shifters restrict this at all? (I can't afford the replace the whole lot).
And please add anything else you think might be useful for a beginner. In the meantime, I'll have a good browse through this section.
Cheers in advance!
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Comments
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Expect to pay from £15 for a chain, about £25-30 for a cassette if you shop around. Your LBS will probably charge you £15-20 to fit or for similar money, you could buy the tools to DIY.
There's plenty of other posts on 'lower gears' -suggest you read those first
With a well-maintained drivetrain, you should only need to replace a chainring for every 3-4 chains - keeping it clean and correctly lubed is the key. Obviously, depends on the condition of your current chain, cassette and chainrings - suggest you get a chain-checker tool - about a fiver - which allows you to monitor chain wear and replace it as required.Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..0
