Originally Posted by
grizzly59
Thanks,
So my rear dropouts now are spaced at 126mm, and they need to be 130mm for 8-9-10 speed? I'll look into cold-setting the rear. The freehub is longer by 4mm as is the axle, and the wheel has to be dished 2mm to the right?
If I can widen the rear frame spacing to 130mm, and find an 8-9-10 speed rear wheel, then I may try this. The 105 parts are 1055 series from about '93.
If I had the proper spacing and rear wheel, will that wheel take a 8 9 or 10 speed rear cluster? Then match the chain and friction shift?
Thanks again!
Going from 126 to 130 is not a problem.
Wheel needs to be dished to keep the rim in the centre.
The cassette is about 4 mm wider, but so is the whole freehub body (130 vs 126 mm).
Friction shifting anything above 8 speed is a hassle to get it right with each shift. Can be annoying.
8 speed gains you little. Instead of having a cheap 13-25 7 speed, with 8 speeds you'll get an 11 tooth (or 12) extra cog that you'll never use unless racing downhill (my guess is your big front chainring is at least 50 tooth one and you don't spin 50-13 over 100 rpm on flats).
8 speed cassettes can be found with good road spacing, having one tooth jumps from 13 to 15, then 2 tooth jumps, i.e. 13-14-15-17... The biggest sprocket won't go high enough for steep climbs, but that can be overcome with a triple crankset.
9 and 10 speed - would require shifter change for a 9-10 speed indexed one, friction shifting those is tricky. Cassettes and chains are twice more expensive. The gain is tighter gearing. 10 speed ones can be found with one tooth jumps all the way to 17 teeth, if that is important to you (some people can't live without a 16 tooth cog) - i.e. 12-13-14-15-16-17-19... with 10 speed having a better climbing gear as well (28 teeth).
However, 9 and 10 speed will require STI brifters, indexed shifting. STIs are expensive, don't last that long, but very practical and comfortable. They will work with your current brakes (old road standard I guess), but the braking force will be a bit lower.