Originally Posted by
jmaher
Vik,
Thanks for the link - I have read through it. When I took the bike to my local shop they told me that the wheel would not take a 9 speed cassette as it was built for 8 speed and that it was missing the spacer that would be been included to allow for to fit a 9 speed by removing the spacer. IN short that there wasn't room to fit a 9 speed.
I may start with new cables but am curious how much improvement (if any?) that I would see with higher grade parts.
Jim
Curious, an 8spd cluster takes up the same space on the freehub as a 9spd .. I've done the 9spd in place of 8spd many times .. on the Birdy, if you do change rear derailleur for something like a SRAM X-9, you need the long cage version to be able to wrap enough chain when folding to keep the chain on the chainwheel... if it were me, and the bug had bit, I'd swap in a 9spd cluster, 9spd chain, long cage X-9 derailleur, and X-9 thumb shifter... but if you are just after crisper shifting, I'd start with the cable (lube, routing, no kinks), then a decent 8spd thumb shifter.