Originally Posted by
fratello25
Good evening. Some of you may recall me posting a few questions about an older Birdy for sale near me. I appreciate greatly the advice I received, and ended-up purchasing it for a very reasonable $300. The gearing, as purchased (with cassette removed) was much too low. So my first order of business was to get a cassette back on it. However, I noticed that in the lower 4 gears, the chain rubs against the frame (see the photos below; sorry they're a little crappy). The last photo is of the chain in the highest gear, with the resulting clearance. Am I missing something obvious? The bike was obviously made for an 8-speed cassette, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong.
The current Birdies are sold with a 52t chainring. Your chainring looks a bit smaller, and your chain seems to miss the cutout in the chainstay, just above it. If the chainring isn't original, the whole crankset may not be either, in which case the chainring may also be too close to the center of the bike. But judging from how big the chainring protector is, it looks like it's just the chainring that has been swapped out for a smaller one.