Bicycle Mechanics - Rsx 7 speed to 9 speed.

I have a 7 speed rear wheel with a rsx hub,and would like to upgrade it to 9 speed.
If i change the freewheel body to a rsx 8 speed will it work?
Can anyone see any problems?

nope..you gonna have to get a full 8/9 speed hub...sorry, I'm in the same boat. the long term answer is you have to either buy a new wheel assemble from online or get your local LBS to cut out your hub and replace it. If you owe your LBS then them do it..if they owe you get an online wheel assembly.

Videoman,
What are you trying to accomplish? Higher gears? Lower gears? Closer gear ratios? What is your typical terrain like - flat, hilly, mountains? After having spent quite a bit of money upgrading from 7 to 9 speeds I have now learned that you can do an awful lot by using different freewheel and chainring combinations. It is a lot cheaper, and you can probably accomplish 99% of what you want. On a typical road bike setup with 53/39 up front and 9 speeds in back you may have only 14-15 discreet usable gears. You can get close to 14 actually usable gears on a 7 speed setup with the right combinations. You just have to decide what gear ranges you are really going to use. If most of your riding is flat but you occasionally go to the hills you can just have an extra freewheel to put on for lower hill gears. I have 9 speeds and I do that, anyway - I keep on a close ratio cassette (1-tooth increments) and put on a cassette with big cogs when I get to go to the hills.

There are many ways to skin the cat, as they say, and some of them are a LOT cheaper than others.
Regards,
Raymond

I just converted a 7 speed RSX to RSX/Ultegra 9 speed foe a friend. The bearing races in the hub were shot so he purhased a new wheel set on-line for a very reasonable price. How ever, I do agree with rainmanP, in that 7 speeds will give you just about everything you need. I got carried away with all things techie and upgraded my tandem from 7 to 9 and my summer single from 8 to 9 and wish I would have spent the money on other things.

It's do-able, but it takes a bit of work.

1. Remove the axle, cones and bearings from the hub. It's a good idea to note where all of the spacers and washers come from and in what order.
2. Use a 10mm allen wrench and remove the 7-speed freehub body.
3. Install a new 8/9 speed freehub body.
4. It's best to buy a new 8/9 speed axle set. It's possible to reuse your old 7-speed axle set, but you'll have to fiddle with the spacers. Sometimes all that you have to do is to move one spacer from the left side to the right side of the hub.
5. Redish the wheel by tightening all of the right side spokes and loosening the left side spokes by an equal amount. Doing this right is actually the critical part of the whole job.