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Trick to use 7sp cassette as a 6sp on a 8/9sp freehub, with friction shift levers and any ol'
derailleur:

You need an extra cog, which I happened to have. Slide this cog first onto the freehub body. Then
slide the the cog assembly and lockring.

If you are bored, you can read the whole shabang:

I ordered an 9sp cassette from Performance, to have it arrive without the lockring (to my surprise
this evening). I am doing a race this weekend. I am PO (read as poor) so I can't afford to go to a
bike shop for a quick fix tomorrow. My old rear wheel looks like a potato chip from a recent crash.
It had a 7 speed ShimaNO cassette. I have been using the new 8/9 speed wheel with the 7 speed
cassette by adding an extra 18 tooth cog I had into the mix: I slide the now solitaire 21 tooth cog
in first, then the 13-19 cog assembly. The 19 and 21 tooth cogs are nullified because their spacing
is only the heads of the tiny bolts that hold the 13-19 cog assembly together. Note: 6sp corn cob
works fine for Houston.

Actually, there will be some hills in the race, so I finally thought to switch out the cogs in this
order 13,14,15,16,18,21,19,17 where 19 and 17 are nullified.

Any better ideas?