7 speed ratios vs. 9/10 speed options???

[Kupa]

Both my road bikes run 7 speed freewheels, 12-20 on each with a 39/53 up front. Current gears are 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20. I have a bunch of other freewheels and a variety of other gears so I can set-up a variety of rear blocks, but the 12-20 just feels so smooth.

I can muscle up some steep (8-10%) and long (5-8 mile) local climbs just fine in the 39/18 or 20, but my cadence drops down as you'd expect.

I've been thinking on some of the long climbs, that running a 23 or even a 25 would sure ease the pain and give me more spin, but the only way I could add in those teeth on a 7 speed freewheel would be to surrender my mid-high range smooth gearing, the more radical choice would be to switch to a 9/10 speed cassette set-up.

To switch, I'll need to have a local frame guy stretch my steel frames' rear spacing from 126 to 130, and then I'd build up a couple of new rear cassette wheels. I'd plan on trying to stick with my friction shifting Shimano bar ends controlling the Mavic rear derailleur, and the old Campy Chorus rear- I prefer friction to index- less stress for me, quieter, and just what I'm used to... I guess it is tough to teach an old dog a new trick

The meat of my question- those of you with 9/10 speed rears, riding hard in flats, rolling hills or small mountainous areas-

1. Do you find yourself in your 39/23 or 25 that often?

2. Did any of you switch from older 7 speed set-ups in the past, to a 9 or 10?

3. What were your observations after the switch?

4. And the weird question- anyone ever successfully control a 9/10 speed with friction shifters?

Thanks for any and all advice.

 

[ant evans]

I have 10 speeds (11-23, 12-25) and I use them all. Can't do hills at present because of bad knees... that's what the 25 is for.

With 10 speeds, a typical gear change is a cadence change of around 5rpm, which is about as big a change as I want while trying to train myself to spin at 90rpm.

With 10 speeds, you'd be changing gear more often. I wouldn't want to have my hands off the bars that often.

That said, I envy anyone with such a simple, indestructible setup. Rather than ruin the purity of the thing, I'd try to replace the whole bike, and keep the 10 speed as the gods intended.

 

[MidBunchLurker]

I switched from 7-sp (12-23 & 53/42) about a year ago. New setup is 9-sp (12-23 & 53/42). The biggest difference is racing, that's when you get to do lots of shifting on those gears in the middle.

For the hills I find 42-23 to be adequate, but that all depends on the size of your hills (and the strength of your legs ).

I switched from down-tube (friction) shifters to STI at the same time so I can't comment on running friction with 9 or 10 speed, but I wouldn't expect any problems. I'm about to convert my MTB to 9sp as well, and I'm still going to use my friction thumb-shifters there - they work, why change??

 

[Kupa]

ant evans,

You may be onto something reagrding just keeping the old bikes as they are. Good suggestion.

MidBunchLurker

Thanks for your observations. I think that a 23 would be fine for any of the hills and small mountains we're surrounded by out here. Getting smoothly up to that 23 is my biggest concern. I really dig single teeth jumps in the rear.

I'm going to experiment with a 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23 and see if that feels like a decent trade-off. I might lose some top-end, but the majority of the big speeds out here come from steep descents where no matter what you run, you're spinning like crazy.

Cheers,

Steve Cooper

 

[MidBunchLurker]

Something else that might be a consideration is the amount of travel in your rear derailleur. Check that it will handle the extra few mm's that it needs to.

The other side effect I forgot to mention is slightly reduced performance when shifting chainrings. The 9 or 10-sp chains are narrower, and the newer front ders and cranksets are designed to accomodate this. With a little bit of fiddling you should be able to get acceptable performance with your existing kit though...

 

[freek]

Steve,

please leave your two 80's bike as they are (clean them, polish them, maybe sing to them, but don't change it to 9/10 speed!).
They are beautiful!

That said, a year ago I changed from 7-speed freewheels to 9 speed cassette (on two of my bikes), and I definitely appreciate the 9 speed chain/cassette combination. Seems to run smoother than the old combination.
And of course the added comfort of the smaller steps in shifting (I use a 12-25 cassette in the hills).

I stuck to using down tube shifters, but had to change to 9-speed Dura Ace shifters, because of the length of the throw and the indexing.

good luck with your De Rosa and the very rare (I guess) 753 Look.

Freek