my friend just updated his cassette to a 11-28 7-speed... we had to take the 13 and 14 off his 13-23 cassette so he could have something less that crap for shifting granularity... as in... 11-13-15-18-21-24-28... that cassette sucks... but not as much as having NO climbing... so we took it. and did 13-14-15-18-21-24-28... better than total suck. Going to an 8 or 9 to get some better shifting in the top end (smaller gears) is worth it if you ever plan on climbing with a 53/42 like so many older bikes have. Sometimes I find myself shifting twice to adjust on the big cogs, but I always like the tight shifts in the small cogs.