sternforprez

Hi. Brand new and first post.

I picked up cheap a spankin' mint 2006 Schwinn Super Sport GS - basically a flat bar road bike. Possibly the nicest bike I've ridden and I've ridden dozens and dozens. I also work on all my own bikes and other's bikes as well and am pretty good. But all this 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 speed stuff along with double, triple, compact double front, Shimano/SRAM etc., is hard to keep up with sometimes. The specs for the bike are here https://www.bikepedia.com/quickbike/B...t+GS&Type=bike. The only difference is the original FD is a Deore for some reason and the tires are 700x23 and in great shape.

Crankset is a 4 bolt 48/36/26 with 11-32 9 speed. I cannot see myself ever using the small ring especially the 26/32 or 26/28 combos (no off-road) although the 48/11 should be plenty for rec riding. I'd like to upgrade the rings to a 52/42/30, and/or maybe a road cassette like 12-26 - closer to my previous Trek road bike. I feel like I'm wasting a lot of gearing potential since it has 27 combos. Take away extreme cross gears, redundant gears, and ones I won't use even on the middle ring and I have about 10.

Can I slap on a road triple or do I then need a new FD, then new shifters? I'm almost thinking of buying road drops and a whole road groupo and I'd have a nice roadie pretty cheap. But will it fit right?

GeoKrpan

Get an 11-23 nine speed cassette and use the 48/36/26 crank. The 48-11 combo is plenty big. Take off the inner chainring if you'd like and adjust the front derailleur so that it can no longer access it.

I ride a 48/38/28 crank with the inner chainring removed with a 12-25 nine speed cassette and it's plenty high enough and low enough with no big gaps.

sternforprez

Thanks, just the cassette change would be cheap and easy. But wouldn't I need a small ring? The lightest gear would be 36/23 (or whatever cassette I choose) and if I have a climb of any length, wouldn't running middle to largest cog be a wee bit extreme of a chain line for any kind of duration? Thats why a larger small ring I was thinking would be better than running even a 26/whatever. Or am I over thinking this?

GeoKrpan

Yes, you are.

It depends on how good of a climber you are. Leave the inner ring on then, it's not hurting anything.

A hybrid usually has longer chainstays than a road bike so fatter tires can fit. Longer stays mitigate chainline issues. I wouldn't worry about it.
I rarely use the 38 chainring on my monstercross (a glorified hybrid) with chainstays long enough for 2" slicks.
I spend brief periods in the 48-25 combo. It makes no noise and runs smoothly.

dprayvd

As GK (rightly) says, don't lose that small ring.

My secondhand '08 7.5fx (which I've now had for a full year): I run the stock 26-36-48 crankset with a tiagra 12-23 and a 114-link sram 971 chain. This set-up I find does the villified big-big without any problem. It also does the 26/15 combo without complaint--any lower though gets the chain a-rubbin' at jockey wheel.

Synopsis: a triple paired to a cassette with 5 single-tooth ratios goes a loooong long way imo.

I'm certain I could swap-in a 25 or 27 cog if I found myself needing to climb the side of a tall barn, but so far the 23 cog is doing the deal.

And, I've just replaced the middle ring, chain, and cassette with the same for a second go-around. It's now a proven set-up, having lasted a full year. The other chainrings will surely need replacement next time, so I may go with an external BB crankset then, if something that replicates these ratios for reasonable cash can be had.

Sixty Fiver

A compact triple and close ratio cassette is a very nice set up unless you are racing and need to turn those massive gears on fast descents.

I ran a 24/34/46 with an 11-25 cassette on my old Trek hybrid... it was an exceptional set up for everything except mountain climbing and gave a wonderful gear range with closer spacing in the rear.

sternforprez

Well, the forum did what I wanted. Seems the consensus is to use a road cassette of my choosing and leave everything else. This bike can fly and its comfortable, and I know I don't need a bigger gear than 48/11. My concern was how to drop the unlikely to be used small stuff and replace with more practical gears - even in Colorado.

Thanks all.