sjanzeir

Hi everyone,

I could use some more gear inches on my Vybe D7. It has 20x2.10 tires, a 46T chainring, and an 14/16/18/20/22/24/28 cassette. I do not know the brand/type of the cassette that I have, but I suspect it's a Shimano of some sort:



What would work better: simply going for a faster cassette (say, 11/13/15 for the faster gears,) or swapping out the last three or four cogs for ones with fewer teeth?

JonathanGennick 

You might have a freewheel. It's common for freewheels to have 14 teeth as their smallest cog.

We might be able to tell if you pull the tire from the bike and take a photo showing the smallest cog and where the axle goes through.

Your only option might be to get a larger chain ring on the front, and then a larger-diameter chain guard to go along with that. You might be opening a bigger can of worms here than you first think.

cny-bikeman

You don't have a cassette, you have a freewheel. They are not available with an 11 tooth cog, except with a discontinued Shimano item that only came in a very wide range freewheel. Generally freewheels only go down to a 13 tooth cog. Increasing the chairnring size would mean a higher gear, but I don't know how practical that is on a foldable. You might check the Folding Bikes subforum for the experience of others attempting what you propose.

sjanzeir

Yeah, I kinda got the feeling it won't be as simple as I might have hoped. I figured it might be easier to change out cassettes than to try to find a matching right-hand crank with a bigger chainring, but based on what you guys said, I'm beginning to think it might be the other way around

Here's a better picture of the OEM cassette:



I don't see any clearance issues with a possibly larger chainring:





That said, I've been through Amazon and other sites this afternoon, and I have yet to find a suitable replacement chainring/right crank that would ship to Saudi Arabia.

Andrew R Stewart 

You might find out that the easiest way to get bigger gears (and note gears aren't fast, riders are) will be to replace the rear wheel/hub from a freewheel to a cassette one. Of course finding a stock prebuilt wheel might be hard but finding some one to custom build one should be easy. Andy.

fietsbob

Get a new wheel Built around a Shimano Capreo Hub, It Is a cassette , 9~26t

The Shimano Capreo hub and Cassette
FH-700 Freehub.
Special 9-speed Freehub, 135 mm spacing, 24, 32 or 36 holes.

CS-HG70-s Cassette
9-10-11-13-15-17-20-23-26 tooth sprockets. yes you need to get the rest of the 9 speed Group shifters Rear Mech , etc.





...

Retoocs

Any new rear wheel would also require spreading the dropouts from 126mm to 130 or 135 mm depending on the hub.

Easier option is to get a new freewheel. There are 11-28 7 speed freewheels on ebay. DNP EPOCH 7 SPEED 11-28T NICKEL PLATED MTB-HYBRID-CRUISER BICYCLE FREEWHEEL | eBay

sjanzeir

Andrew - see, that's the thing. More often than not, I find myself quickly running into knee-killing cadences in 7th gear, especially in flat surfaces with little or no wind resistance - if there's some tailwind, I find it easier to just coast along.

Retoocs - this would be ideal if it fits my stock hub. The same item's description on Amazon does say "HG Shimano, index compatible." Do I need to unscrew my stock freewheel to find out if it matches before I place an order?

alcjphil

A freewheel is a freewheel is a freewheel. As long as the one you buy has the same number of cogs as the one it replaces, all is good

sjanzeir

Okay - so the threads are standard. Awesome! Thanks Phil!

Retoocs

Luckily freewheel hub threads haven't changed. You will need the appropriate tool to remove it. The HG Shimano index compatible just means it uses the same spacing.