Bicycle Mechanics - The Eight Speed Story

I am confused as to what the status of 8 speed components is. Is 8 speed stuff going to be no longer made or am i just misunderstanding. I have two bikes with 8 speed shifters and rear cassettes, will I be able to upgrade the deraillers (alivio) in the future or will I have to change everything to 9 speed?

I assume that when you go to 9 speed you have to change shifters and cassette as well as rear derailler.

You will have a hard time finding upgrade parts, the better eight speed stuff has not been made in several years so you would need to find a place with some NOS laying around in the back. You can use a nine speed rear der with your eight speed stuff, the front der will work pretty good but the other stuff is not compatible.
Unless you break a part the stuff you have should hold up pretty good. If your bike is spec'd with Alivio it is one of the lower/mid range bikes, I would ride that sucker til it is worn out and then buy a new bike with nine speed, it is usually cheaper than piecing it up and everything is new not just the drivetrain.

I'm not much of a Mtb'er now but I'm still riding an LX 7-spd equipped Mtb. And although many replacement parts can be found on Ebay, I figured when time comes to replace any major part on the bike, I would simply convert it to a singlespeed.

George

I am confused as to what the status of 8 speed components is. Is 8 speed stuff going to be no longer made or am i just misunderstanding. I have two bikes with 8 speed shifters and rear cassettes, will I be able to upgrade the deraillers (alivio) in the future or will I have to change everything to 9 speed?

I assume that when you go to 9 speed you have to change shifters and cassette as well as rear derailler.There is plenty of 7 and 8 speed stuff around. Nashbar even carries some new shifters. Cassettes and chains won't be an issue and 9 speed derailers and cranks will work too.

That's strange, I just talked to the mechanic at the local bike store yesterday. He said that he can get any 7 or 8 speed component I want. He says he orders 8 speed deraillers, cassettes and shifters every day. I told him about his thread and he said, "look out on the floor at how many 7 and 8 speeds i have for sale out there."

He is right. Probably 75 % of their bikes are in that category and most of them are '04 models.

That's strange, I just talked to the mechanic at the local bike store yesterday. He said that he can get any 7 or 8 speed component I want. He says he orders 8 speed deraillers, cassettes and shifters every day. I told him about his thread and he said, "look out on the floor at how many 7 and 8 speeds i have for sale out there."

He is right. Probably 75 % of their bikes are in that category and most of them are '04 models.

Ok....I'm sure QUALITY 8-spd components may still be available. But 7-spd? Yes, there are many 7-spd bikes sold today and the components on those bikes are dept store quality JUNK!.....starting from the shifters.

George

Depending on where you shop, it's probably easier to find good 7-speed stuff than 8-speed stuff. But if you need to replace parts, there are a few things to remember to make it easy:
- except for first year 8-speed Dura-Ace derailleurs (was it 1996 or 1997?), all more modern Shimano rear derailleurs are compatible with each other. So a new derailleur (say LX, XT, Ultegra...) will work with either 7-speed, 8-speed or 9-speed, depending on the shifters.
- shifters are different. If you have STI (i.e. $$), it makes sense to go 9 when your shifters are busted.
- the 9-speed cassette is obviously different than the 8-speed cassette. If you can't find an 8-speed cassette, you could either buy a 7-speed cassette and keep a cog from your 8-speed cassette, or use the cogs from a 9-speed cassette with the spacers from an 8-speed cassette. Yes, 9-speed cogs are narrower, but the 0,02 mm difference probably doesn't matter (been there, done that once). BTW, all "low end" (105, HG-50 and HG-70) cassettes are dismountable, either by removing smallish 2-mm Allen bolts or by cutting rivets.

Regards,

So if you have a 8 speed cassette freewheel body (old XTR hub), will a new 9 speed cassette fit over it? (ie - an HG70)

Yes it will fit.

Just checked the Quality wholesale site. Highend 8-speed stuff is still listed as available, but discontinued. So it appears they have some in stock but will(may) not be able to get any more. So if you want a spare you might want to get it and hold it.

I figured when time comes to replace any major part on the bike, I would simply convert it to a singlespeed.
George

You can still get the Shimano Nexus 7 speed hub. If the bike has horzontal dropouts, there's no reason why you couldn't use the 7 or 8 speed Nexus hub.

I'm not much of a Mtb'er now but I'm still riding an LX 7-spd equipped Mtb. And although many replacement parts can be found on Ebay, I figured when time comes to replace any major part on the bike, I would simply convert it to a singlespeed.

George

That's what I did with my old MTB about a year after I got it, when the rear derailer got tweaked in a spill. It was mostly a workbike and I needed it to run in a hurry, so I just yanked the derailer, cropped the chain, and lived with 38/18 gearing for about a year before I bothered to "fix it". Talk about single speed on the cheap!

I eventually got a wheel made with a Sturmey Archer 3speed hub, which was in there for several years. These days, it's a single speed again... coaster brake even! Simple and fun.

So why are most "recreational level mtb's" still coming out in 8 speed? If I buy a 2005 Trek 4300 or even 4900, i would expect to get replacement parts for a long time. Would i be wrong???

Or in Trek or someone going to all of the sudden say, hey world look at our new rec. level 9 speeds, screw those of you that bought the 8 speeds last year.

... If I buy a 2005 Trek 4300 or even 4900, i would expect to get replacement parts for a long time. Would i be wrong??? With Shimano, a company with a history of obsoleting everything quickly, you would indeed be dead wrong. This is another reason I ride nothing but classics with friction-shifted 6-, 7-, or 8-speed cogsets. I love hills and need to take care of my knees, so single-speed, fixed-gear, and even wide-ratio hub gears are just not my thing.

How do you obsolete innovation?

I still have an 8-Track tape player... What is a 5-inch floppy disk? Beta? Oh how about points on cars or normally asperated?

Now let's see... Shimano's 6-7-8 speeds use the same chain... Uni-glide can be upgraded to hyperglide with a simple change of the free-body... Um... You can upgrade an 8-speed to a 9-speed by changing only 5 parts... You can upgrade from 8 or 9 speed to 10-speed by changing 5 parts... You can use a 10-speed crank with a 9-speed drive train... Brakes from 8 9 or 10 speed all are comptable.... You can mix mountain bike components with road components (except brakes) as long as they are the same speeds...

bTW the obsolete comments is not so much Shimano as it is the control and selling of internet based companies like Performance, Nashbar and others... These ompanies limit your selection of components and thus makes it seem that components are not avaiable when they are... Some of this is market driven so we must put some of the blame on ourselves... Our fettish to be a LANCE-o-LIKE will certainly cause the current increase in road bike part cost to continue ($150 for a 10 speed cassette!!! vs $90 for a 9-speed DA or $40 for Ultegra 9)...

Of course I think I may be a little faster off the line with my STI based shifters and knee saving 9-speed mega casettes with modern triple DA seems more interesting than clicklitie clikitie clikcitke.. Hold on a sec... gotta tweek the shifter again ....

Just a bit of fun... Sorry John E... SLAP... OK I won't say any more ;)