cassettes vs Freehub / general gearing

t4tomo

OK so I have an old mountain bike that is now mainly used as station hack bike and by my daughter who had now discovered she can fit it. Therefore its mainly ruuning on roads and a bit of light trail. I've put some more suitable tyres on for that use (Schwalbe landcruisers - really good compromise between on and off road btw)

However its top gear is 42-14 whch spins out pretty quick on road. its got an old style 7 speed freewheel rather tahn a cassette hub.

So here come the questions:

Can you get a 7 speed freewheel that goes down to a 12 tooth sprocket? i'm doubtful on this as its difficult to how a small sprocet would fit over the freewheel body

If thats a no what else can I do cheaply to get a higher top gear?
- I have a 7 speed 12-28 cassette, but that won't fit my hub.
- Buy a cheap rimbrake rear wheel with cassette freehub - does any hub fit any cassette, e.g. If I got one with an 8 speed cassette, I could simply switch cassettes I assume?
- obviously I could change front big chaingring for bigger one, but then I could run into front deraiileur problems (its a tripple up front) and might also need a longer chain.

cheers

Brad123

I'm busy doing my hybrid and it a 7 speed. Found this:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=38302
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... delID=6387
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=78992
Also a 8 speed want fit on a 7 speed hud.

Hope that helps
Brad

t4tomo

Brad123 wrote:

I'm busy doing my hybrid and it a 7 speed. Found this:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=38302
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... delID=6387
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=78992
Also a 8 speed want fit on a 7 speed hud.

Hope that helps
Brad

well first two liks don't, thye are just cassettes tat won't fit onto a freewheel.

Now third link may have potential - will a freehub body somehow fit onto a freewheel hub - I'm not sure _ I thought the two hubs were mutually exclusive. you eitehr had a hub designed for one or t'other???

Salsa

No you can't get a freewheel that goes to 12t, the lowest is 14t because of the size limits of the screw on freewheel.
Only option is a cassette wheel, you can use a 8/9/10 one with a 7 speed cassette if you put a 4.5mm spacer behind the 7 speed cassette.

jejv

How old is your daughter ? How fast does she go on it ?
Is she complaining about spinning out ?
Could just tell her to pedal faster.

Dunno what [size] tyres you have, but 42-14 should be about a 75" gear, good for 20mph+.

You can get a 13-28 freewheel - should be good for 20mph even at 80rpm.

Dunno how wide the dropouts are: I guess 130mm. Could be 126mm. Cheap 559 (26") cassette wheels will be for 135mm dropouts. If it's a steel frame, you can probably bodge it, but might end up fiddling with wheel dishing.

Had the same problem a few years ago. Stuck a 48-38-28 chainset on it. Cheap sun tour or shimano < £20, but need to check bb width. I had all the bits lying around anyway.

t4tomo

To be fair its mainly me complaining about running out of gears on the road, although she said it might be useful if she's following me downhill. She's 13.

It could do with a top gear of 90"+, I have that or higher on my other mountain bikes, which doesn't get used on the road much, which I guess is why I notice a diference on this one, which is used on roads moe. Just don't really want to used my best MTB or my retro steel one as a station hack.

A 13-28 freewheel will get me from 78" to 84" so thats a decent compromise I guess, I'd only checked CRC & Wiggle which only had 14-28. I see Evans do a 13-28 and 13-25 freewheel so that might be best option.

Its 135mm OLD, Alu frame, so will take a standard cheap wheel, which is why I thought it might be cheapest route to go.

cheers

jejv

t4tomo wrote:

To be fair its mainly me complaining about running out of gears on the road

Oh right. I should have paid more attention. Sorry.

UCI would have her on a 6.45m rollout( ~81") - 42x13 MTB with 32mm slicks. So in the ballpark for her, anyway.