Originally Posted by
Trakhak
My guess at the time of release was that an engineer figured that their derailleurs and shifters would work well with a big jump to the largest sprocket, enabling a double-chainwheel bike to approach the low range of a bike with a triple. It was an unorthodox idea for a stock cluster at the time and was arguably an ancestor of the now-fashionable 1X setups.
Someone in marketing must have thought that all that billboard space on the sprocket should be used to advertise the added low-gear capability. Without the "Shimano" shout-out, you'd have had to look closely to notice the then-unique big sprocket. With it, there's no mistaking it for a conventional, comparatively close-ratio range.
Mixed feelings about the look myself. Still---kudos to Shimano for having come up with the mega-range idea.
Oh, I'm sure it has its uses, just like long cage derailleurs. For my riding, at this point, I absolutely don't need anything more than 24T at the back because there aren't too many steep hills where I usually ride. For the few I have on my regular route I'm usually on 52 & 21 (5th cog). Which means I still have option of either going into 42 at the front or 24 and 28 at the back or a combination, if needed. The way I configured the chainline on my bicycle I can do 52 & 28 without chain rub on the FD, at least on my daily ride (the BB spindle is 3mm shorter than specified for Shimano FC-6207, mostly because I couldn't get the correct Swiss threaded one at the time, so it stayed this way). Not so much on my other bicycle, which does require trimming the front and shifting between 52 and 42 as you go through the range.
Visually, I would definitely prefer just one colour, silver or black. But I'm not overly bothered
At the moment I'm using a pretty standard Tourney 7sp casette, which also has black biggest 28t sprocket. So not exactly a Megarange one. Also, I've just got MF-6208 for the wheel I'm going to use at the back when I switch the wheel to one that takes freewheels. No esthetic problems with that one
Speaking of freewheels. I was soaking one in penetrating oil recently (well, soaking the thread on the Superbe hub it was sitting on) for quite a while and today decided to try removing it again. It came off beautifully, like it was never stuck, so I'm very pleased with that. I'm a bit less pleased to see that half of the spokes underneath it are deformed (and one is gone, but I knew about it before). So obviously, these will have to be replaced with the immediate plan to take the wheel apart, measure the spokes and see if I have the correct lenght ones to replace them. Luckily I didn't order spokes for another wheel I'm going to be building, so worst case scenario I can just add some more to the order. The new tyres are on the way already and I went with Panaracer Race C Evo 4, since it's a Japanese made bike (inner tubes are going to be Michelin AirComp though for now, Panaracer's R'Air seem to have dissapeared from the UK shops).
The hub is beautiful. In mechanical terms, at least. It looks like it definitely needs no overhaul, spins just as smooth as the front one I've built up a wheel whith recently. I still can't quite believe how good these hubs are.
The freewheel is in a pretty decent condition. It might not look like that in the photos, but the sprockets don't have much wear. It's a Suntour New Winner with 13-14-15-17-19-21 gearing. Of course now, because it's been getting blasted with penetrating oil, it will require full overhaul. Which will be interesting. I have Suntour tool for that, but I think I will have to do more research into how one actually is supposed to use it. As well as figure out how to remove individual cogs from these freewheels, because I never succeeded with that so far. Thankfully I have other Suntour freewheels, so there's no rush with this one.
Now let's hope the penetrating oil will work just as well on the stuck stem and BB fixed cup.
