Originally Posted by
bobotech
That is kind of the big question. yes, you can use a spacer on a 7 speed cassette to use it on a 8-9-10 speed freehub.
Take the wheel off, and remove the cassette and lets look at what we have. At least take the wheel off and take some close up shots of the cassette area to see if we see spacers.
I can take some pictures tomorrow and post them on Thursday. I took the cassette off a couple of weeks ago when I replaced a spoke, and there were 2 of them on the drivespline that were separate from the cassette.
Originally Posted by
roccobike
no motor, Are you referring to spacers on the axle or spacers on the freehub. Big difference. If you have spacers on the freehub (I'm not referring to the spacers between the gears of the cassette), then you have a 7 speed cassette that was mounted on a 8/9 speed freehub and you are really in luck. All you would have to do is replace the 7 speed cassette and additional spacers with the 8 speed cassette and your other parts and you're good to go. BUT If you have the stock rear wheel (silver Alex rim/Shimano hub) for a 2000 Hardrock, it came with a 7 speed cassette/freehub and the 'spacers' the mechanic was referring to are the spacers on the axle that center the wheel. To upgrade that wheel to 8 speed you'll have to replace the 7speed freehub with an 8/9/10 Shimano freehub (use a 10mm hex for that) and you will have to try different spacers along with re-dishing the wheel to center it (been there/done that for the same bike).
If you do have to make changes to your wheel, now would be a good time to think about replacing that wheel if you were inclined to do so.
The spacers are on the freehub, and go between the lowest/largest gear on the cassette and the outer flange of the hub. The spacers aren't a part of the cassette. I had to remove the cassette from the wheel to get to them, they're not between the cassette lockring and the dropout if that describes the location any better. There are 2 of them, and they are different thicknesses. I replaced the rear wheel about 5 years ago after bending the wheel that came with the bike. There was enough room to get the chain between the spokes and the cassette when I was adjusting the RD too.
"All you would have to do is replace the 7 speed cassette and additional spacers with the 8 speed cassette and your other parts and you're good to go." I think this is what I need to do - would I use any of the current spacers with the 8 speed cassette if I did have a 8/9/10 Shimano freehub on the bike now? I'm guessing the spacers are designed to fill in the extra space when using a thinner cassette on the wider freehub, and am unsure of the widths of the 7, 8, 9 and 10 speed cassettes.