Upgrade or make do till later?

[Doctor Morbius]

Originally posted by boudreaux
These 2 statements ice it. You deal with a bike shop for your info,but yet think you know alot. The shop hosed you on the price, of something you could easily have done yourself. Derailer chains have variable ouside width to fit narrower cog spacing.The inner width between the plates where the chain contacts the teeth is the same 3/32" for all. So,yes a 10 speed chain will work just fine on an 8 speed crank as per your example. Done it.

That's good to know about the cranks and chain. Thanks.

Yeah, I still rely on the old LBS for things that I'm not comfortable with. Swapping out a 7 speed cassette for another 7 speed cassette is something I can handle though.

The bike shops in Indianapolis are expensive. I don't know why. They wanted too much scratch to fix up that old bike and I didn't have the time to overhaul it myself then. My Dad was sick and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. Instead I just bought a new bike a few weeks later. That way I got new cables , freshly greased bearings, yadda yadda. Problem solved, albeit in a round-a-bout fashion.