Originally Posted by
jimmuller
I've been riding with a 5-speed freewheel so long I don' t know how to count to six. But with a 126mm rear hub I could go to 6 or even 7. Don't know if it's worth the trouble. Unless I have to drop down to the smaller chainring most of my riding uses only 3 gears, with the very occasional foray into high (48/14).
If I went to a 6 or 7-speed freewheel or cassette would I need a new, narrower chain?
Last chain I bought for a 6 speed was 6/7 if your putting on a new freewheel or cassette, probably a good idea to put on a new chain as well, a partly worn chain can wear down a freewheel or cassette pretty quickly. Either way, if your happy with the current freewheel, then I would wait until it or the hub starts giving you grief and then decide what you want to do.
Changing the freewheel to a 6 or 7 speed can cause other issues, if you have an indexed shifter then you need to replace that, you need to make sure that the RD has enough room to accommodate the new number of gears. Some can, some can't. Typically though a 5 speed RD can accommodate at least 6 and a 6 speed at least 7, but going from 5 to 7 might be a little tight.