To Pete Biggs

At Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:34:49 +0100, message
<[email hidden]> was posted by "Charlie"
<[email hidden]>, including some, all or none of the
following:

Quoted message said:

When I got there I was told that a 24T granny ring was not available for my
chainset. Disappointed, I enquired about a 22T - would it be viable? "Yes
sir, we'll fit it now." Next they discover that the BCD (correct term?) was
not compatible with my spider.
After all that I ended up with an 11-34 Megarange. Of course, that
necessitated a new, longer cage, Deore mech. The whole thing has worked out
a lot more expensive than just trying a 24T granny for starters.
My only question now is, do you think I'm being hoodwinked by an LBS I had
come to regard as reliable? I can't stand shops where they patronise you by
trying to blind you with science.

IMO (and not being Pete) - no. You have fallen victim to the march of
progress. If you had a small independent bike mechanic in your area
it's possible (s)he might have been able to fix you up using bits from
the parts bin, and you may have found what you needed in a bike
jumble, but for the most part IME anything much beyond current Shimano
is difficult to obtain from a mainstream LBS however good they are -
and to be fair, there is not that much incentive to try, when the
alternative is to persuade you to pay more money for something that,
if it breaks, they will likely be able to replace from stock.

I upgraded a bike from 27" wheels, 6-speed block, SunTour mech,
Weinemann cantis, to 700c, Deore LX 8-speed, 105 front mech, bar ends,
Nexus hub dynamo and modern cantis. It cost me around £500 in all,
including re-spacing the rear dropouts, but that is still less than a
new handbuilt light tourer would have cost. Probably :-)

Old bikes can be upgraded indefinitely, but rarely piecemeal unless
you are prepared to do the spadework yourself, I reckon.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

The message <[email hidden]>
from "Charlie" <[email hidden]> contains these words:

Quoted message said:

When I got there I was told that a 24T granny ring was not available for my
chainset.

SJS Cycles advertise a 24T 74 PCD steel chainring that I think would fit
an RSX triple - I don't think they are that rare!

http://www.sjscycles.com/store/vIndex.htm

Nik

Charlie said:

When I asked for a new chain (an Sram with a powerlink) I was told
that I would also need a new cassette as a brand-new chain would
probably "jump" if used with a seven-year-old block. This sounded
reasonable, so I decided to take the plunge and go on to the second
stage of your recommendation and get an 11-30 cassette as well.

All reasonable.

Quoted message said:

After some delay (the 11-30 had apparently been posted out rather
than sent by courier) the bike was ready this afternoon. Full of
anticipation for a set-up avoiding the 26 to 34 gap of a Megarange, I
went to collect my pride and joy.

When I got there I was told that a 24T granny ring was not available
for my chainset. Disappointed, I enquired about a 22T - would it be
viable? "Yes sir, we'll fit it now." Next they discover that the
BCD (correct term?) was not compatible with my spider.

After all that I ended up with an 11-34 Megarange. Of course, that
necessitated a new, longer cage, Deore mech. The whole thing has
worked out a lot more expensive than just trying a 24T granny for
starters.
My only question now is, do you think I'm being hoodwinked by an LBS
I had come to regard as reliable? I can't stand shops where they
patronise you by trying to blind you with science.

I think its 50:50. The shop probably has a standard parts list and they are
giving you what they can get easily. Standard 8-speed seems to be megarange
only.

However, the bits are available. Eg. Spa Cycles (regular advertiser in the
CTC magazine) list a 11-30 8-speed for £17. I'm sure they would have a 24T
granny ring in the correct size as well (guess that Stronglight may have
them, and surely Specialities-TA will do them).

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Hi John,

.............

Quoted message said:

When I got there I was told that a 24T granny ring was not available
for my chainset. Disappointed, I enquired about a 22T - would it be
viable? "Yes sir, we'll fit it now." Next they discover that the
BCD (correct term?) was not compatible with my spider.

After all that I ended up with an 11-34 Megarange. Of course, that
necessitated a new, longer cage, Deore mech. The whole thing has
worked out a lot more expensive than just trying a 24T granny for
starters.

My only question now is, do you think I'm being hoodwinked by an LBS
I had come to regard as reliable? I can't stand shops where they
patronise you by trying to blind you with science.

I'm 99.5% sure that your chainset can be fitted with a 24T inner ring.
Example: www.phred.org/~alex/bikes/trek520.html . The 74mm Bolt Circle
Diameter that it uses is very common. Compatible rings are made by
several manufacturers and some are stocked by major UK distributors such
as Chickens Cycles. So the shop could have got one. I would also have
expected them to instantly know that 24T was the smallest ring that could
be fitted to this sort of chainset.

But to be positive, at least you can now get some real experience of
Megarange to decide whether or not it will be suitable for you in the long
run, and the longer-cage mech will probably work better with a 11-30 than
your previous mech, should you decide to ever get one of those afterall,
especially if using a smaller granny as well.

Sounds like the bike shop haven't been good on this particular matter but
that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't worth using at all. They
probably know an awful lot of stuff about bikes that I don't know :-)
Best of luck
with the bike.

cheers
~Pete

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:34:49 +0100, Charlie wrote:
[snip]

Quoted message said:

do you think I'm being hoodwinked by an LBS I had
come to regard as reliable? I can't stand shops where they patronise you by
trying to blind you with science.

Thanks for all your advice -YOU seem to know what you're talking about!

Cheers,

John

Hi Charlie

Yes, you have been done. They are talking almost total bollocks. I have a
rsx triple chainset and have had both a 24 tooth and 26 tooth granny ring
fitted at various times.

Your lbs are correct about needing to replace both the chain and the
cassette. But what you have asked them to do is pretty simple. You are not
asking for exotic parts. They should do a lot better than palming you off
with a crappy Megarange cassette.

I would support what Pete has already told you.

For your knee problem you might like to try a simple strengthening
exercise:

Stand with your feet about eight or nine inches apart and parallel to
eachother (don't point your toes out). Then bend your knees to squat
gently until your thighs are nearly parallel to the floor. Then slowly
return to the standing position. Repeat about five times then rest for a
minute or two, then repeat for two more sets. Do this three times a week
for the first week. Then increase the number of squats over the following
weeks.

This exercise will strengthen the quadriceps muscles at the front of the
thigh which are very important for good knee health.

Then you can fit a 12-21 cassette and charge up the hills like a madman! ;-)

HTH

Bin

On 06/25/2005 17:34:49 'Charlie said:

When I got there I was told that a 24T granny ring was not available for
my chainset. Disappointed, I enquired about a 22T - would it be viable?
"Yes sir, we'll fit it now." Next they discover that the BCD (correct
term?) was not compatible with my spider.

Quoted message said:

After all that I ended up with an 11-34 Megarange. Of course, that
necessitated a new, longer cage, Deore mech. The whole thing has worked
out a lot more expensive than just trying a 24T granny for starters.

Quoted message said:

My only question now is, do you think I'm being hoodwinked by an LBS I had
come to regard as reliable? I can't stand shops where they patronise you
by trying to blind you with science.

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all your advice -YOU seem to know what you're talking about!

Quoted message said:

Cheers,

Quoted message said:

John

What chainset have you got?

--

Buck

I would rather be out on my Catrike

http://www.catrike.co.uk