I have no direct photos of the gearset at the moment, but I indeed verified tooth count. I also spent some time on Velobase looking up what exactly was on it (see notes below) - It was a time trial bike in its day, and was sitting for quite some time before I found it. She's happy with my Trek 1.5 gearing (50/34, 11/26 9-speed). An 11/28 would provide similar top and bottom ratios - granted, I doubt she'd actually use top gear, so a 13T would likely be a better fit to her riding style and intent (she's planning to commute with it).
Agreed, we can't make a blanket statement without knowing more about the shifting system, as Athena was redesigned from 7 speed Syncro to dedicated 8 speed in the early 1990s. If it has Syncro levers, we'll need to know the freewheel and/or lever insert. Only if the levers are dedicated 8 speed, do we know they they will work with 7 speed SIS compatible freewheels. There are also three possible derailleurs, all with different capacities, that will affect the freewheel gearing options.
Exactly the direction I was looking for. I have some photos of the bike from when we first got it, and can snap a few more tonight to upload to my
photo album. I've also done some more digging to identify the components. I had initially thought they were Athena, which the brakes are, but that's not the case with the shifting mechanism.
These actually appear to be
C-Records from 1989-early 90s.
Athena(?), mfd 1988-1991.
This appears to be a
Super Record derailleur, mfd 1979-1987.
