Originally Posted by
ksryder
When you upgrade shifters does it always require a new cassette & derailleur or can you make new shifters work with 6 & 7 speeds and just adjust the limit screws? What do you guys do?
The answer sort of depends on what you're looking to achieve by adding new STI shifters and what your tolerance for slow/sloppy shifts is... New shifters will still move the derailleur, so you can probably make it work, some combos will work better than others due to cog spacing etc. (see the chart @
anixi linked to). Modern cassettes and chains just shift better, so even if you get the limits correct etc. with the 6/7 speed, the shifting is going to be worse.
Originally Posted by
ksryder
For example, I have a bike with 126 mm dropout spacing and a 6 speed freewheel. I don't want to cold set it to 130 mm and I'm fine with a 6 or 7 speed, but it might be cool to upgrade to a 105 group in the future.
You
don't necessarily have to cold set. Plenty of folks just spread the dropouts on steel frames by hand and fit the wider hub with minimal effort. I've done this on several bikes without issues. If you have a budgetary constraint with the project, there's nothing wrong with piecemeal experimentation... But, if you can afford to swap to a whole new drivetrain, wheels, and brakes at once you'll definitely be happy with that decision in the long run. Just my $0.02
Happy tinkering!