bikenooby

Has anyone ever toured with a 7 speed?
I have a Jamis commuter 1 which is fine for buzzing around town, but I wasn't to sure about long distance with panniers. I do live in South Georgia, so not that hilly.

fietsbob

Shimano's K cassette, a 13-34 is a perfect set of ratios with a triple crankset,
of say 48, 36,24t. or 50,38,24t.

You dont really need more ..

FunkyStickman

You can get the same range as a 9 or 10-speed setup, it just wouldn't have as small of a step between each gear. Most bikes have tons of gear overlap anyway, so it would work out fine if you picked the right cassette. I have a 7-speed rear on my LHT.

Aquakitty

My bf tours with an Alfine, just as long as you are comfortable for every day rides you should be fine. Only time he ran into trouble with the Alfine was when he decided to put a tiny chainring on the front and had ridiculously low gear inches and wore his legs out spinning like 150 rpm to keep speed! The worst that can happen is you have to push up a hill if you go a bit too big.

SweetLou

That bike has a low of 35 gear inches. Since you say it isn't so hilly, this might be good for you. People have toured with less. The only way to say for sure is if you give it a try. Get some gear and do a weekend trip and see if it works for you.

wahoonc

I tour on a variety of bikes, the lowest number of gears being 3 the most being 21. On average you will probably want to lower the overall gear range a bit, but you can certainly get started with what you have. Worst case is having to walk some hills.

Aaron

LeeG

37yrs ago I toured on a wide range 10 spd, 14-34 five speed freewheel w. 44/48 chainrings from LA. to Seattle. Course I weighed a lot less back then.

zzOtherlandzz

Hey Funky..... On a side note how is the recovery going? Asked about you and Linda over in the Southeast forum.. Hope all is going well!!!

Gotte

Toured exclusively on seven speeds. No problem at all. Even in the Mosel and Bavaria (hilly). As mentioned previously, you get the same spread, just with a few more jumps.

Torrilin

All my tours and distance riding have been done on a Breezer Villager, so with a Nexus 7 speed hub. Low gear is around 33", high is somewhere around 75-80". Wisconsin has a lot of flat, and I'm car-free so I do a ton of loaded riding on this bike day in and day out, so the gear range is not a serious problem for me. Riding elsewhere... I'd probably need to prep by doing hill repeats at least a bit before I left.

hopperja

Not sure about your specific bike build, but Grant Peterson recommends 7 speed tourers. His reasoning, if I remember correctly, is that it requires less dishing (or perhaps no dishing?) of the rear wheel, so the wheel is inherently stronger.

Grant Peterson talks a little about it here.

MassiveD

Seven speed sprocket, no problem. I have a somewhat distant plan to build one off the phil hubs, and most of my bikes have at best been seven speed in the rear. I don't notice any real difference going to 8. I have a 9 in process and the wheel dish is just plain scary.

Now if you are talkking 7 speeds neat, I would prefer not. No granny means no serious hills with a load. If you went ultralite on gear, and had an 8 pound pack plus food and water, it would be OK, but get up to 40, and it isn't the same bike, that shifts everything over a chainring for me.

SweetLou

I didn't see anything on the Rivendell site recommending 7 speed tourers. I know he likes 7 speed freewheels, but usually with more than one chainwheel. The OP's bike is a 7 speed, one chainwheel. That's fine, I prefer a bit more gear range when touring.

bktourer1

My tourer is a 13 year old Diamondback "parkway" 7 speed which has carried my a long time fully loaded, though after all these years the only thing original is the frame & fork

djb

of course it will work, and as fiets says, with proper chainrings and a reasonable wide rear set of gears, you will have low gearing too. (my 24 granny and 30 rear gives about 22 gear inches)

question now is if you have this and it works, sure stick with it. If not, go with 8 or 9 speeds for closer ratios or jumps.

but yes, I too toured on a triple with 7 speed, it works. I prefer 8 or 9 speeds for tighter jumps however. (and will one day prefer 10 or 11 speeds I am sure....) 7 doesnt mean you will not have a great time however.

Aquakitty

You can have a granny, you just can't have a fast bike, cake and eat it too and all that.
The OP has not said if he has an IGH though, some of them do not like having tiny chainrings and have a minimum you should use with em. If he has a cassette/freewheel I see no problem with swapping it out or changing the ring.

aroundoz

7 speeds are great for touring and the availability of cassettes is still good. The top and bottom end will be the same, you will just have to push a little more between gears which means you get to shift less. 9 and 10 speed drive trains are common but doesn't mean they are necessarily better. They are better if you like to spin at a certain cadence but if you don't and like to push more than spin like most of us, there really isn't a need to go any higher than 7 or 8 speed (other than availability of parts).

bikenooby

Thanks guys for all the comments!