Originally Posted by
robsta
Hi all
Will soon be using the swift for some touring and after my European adventures would like some lower gearing.
I found the standard gearing was, for me, a little too high for the big Pyrenees I was lucky to ride.
What I was thinking, if I could pop on a front ring maybe one or two less teeth that would be great.
All is still standard on my Swift. Will any Shimano front ring suffice or do I need to stick to SRAM?
( Don't worry about lowering the gearing too much I never use top gear (my daughter burns me on a single speed mami-chari)).
I know some Swifters have added a smaller front ring alongside the larger and I don't mind that application either but my first choice would be a smaller front ring alone.
Look forward to any ideas.
Rob
You can replace the chainwheel with a smaller one but make sure it is not ramped or pinned - as per Xootr site. I think the pins and ramp help to shift the chain from chainwheel to chainwheel but are not needed when a single ring is used. I dropped the gearing by fitting a Surly 48 tooth chainwheel but then found an FSA single chainset online with a 46 tooth ring. It fitted the Shimano bottom bracket and has worked well. I also replaced the cassette with one that has a 32 tooth sprocket for added "granny gears"!