nashvillwill

So, i have a Schwinn Frontier MTB that i only use on city streets. Here is a link to a spec sheet.

https://www.bikepedia.com/quickbike/B...tier&Type=bike

According to bikepedia the crank is 28/38/48, and the cassette is 7 speed 14-28 teeth.

So, i don't trail ride at all. In fact i only ride in an urban setting. The bike does fine for what it is, and i certainly understand it's drawbacks, but i'm trying to hold off on purchasing a new bike. Besides, i don't understand bike mechanics very well, but want to learn. It's biggest drawback for me is the gearing. My city consists of constant gentle hills, so on the downhill, i always end up spinning. Even on the uphill I never use my smallest cog on the front ("1st gear"), so it is pretty useless. Speed increase would be nice, but i mainly just want a more "street feel" if you know what i mean. I have replaced my knobby 1.75 mountain tires with 1.25 slicks, that helped a little.

I am thinking about trying to replace the gearing to make my ride better for me, and to help me learn. Here are a few questions;

1. Would this be a complete waste of money/time?
-------I want to try to find hand me downs, for cheap/free. But will different gearing still have little effect on the bikes performance? If i have to buy gears, is there a cheap option?

2. What gears should i be looking for?
-------I don't know jack about gears, so what setup would be good for road use on this type of bike? Also, what other factors do i need to know to make sure things are compatible, such as hub size or chain length?

3. Can i feasibly do this at home with common tools?

I know the 2nd question is a little loaded. Everyone's opinion on gearing could be very different, but i ask because i have NO idea where to begin. Is there any internet reading i could do to help understand? Please link a site for me if so.

Also, is this just a total waste? No matter what i do, it will still be a MTB with front suspension and it weighs 40lbs. Should i just deal with it until i can afford something different?

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

fietsbob

https://sheldonbrown.com/gears/ will help you calculate ratios, gears are ratios .. gear tooth #A is crank, #on B is wheel cog. A/B fraction is the ratio.. 48/24 = 2/1, or 2:1

Metric sizes and tools are dominant on bikes ,, so common asks which tools? fractional inch , no.

I'd change the tires to a street smooth type first, then see what ratio you use most
you can change the cogs on the back to be one tooth difference and make the ratio differences small,
for staying on one chain-ring on the cranks ..

LarDasse74

You can simmply change the rear 14-28 gear set to a 11-28 (or similar) set with a much smaller smallest gear... the smaller the gears in the rear, or the larger the gears in the front, the 'larger' the totall gear ratio and the slower you need to turn the pedals but the harder you need to ppush to get up hills... However, if you can find rear cogs to fit with an 11 or 12 tooth smalllest gear, the largest (easiest) gear wiill likely be the same so you can climb hills exactly the same as you can now.

FWIW, your bike probably has a 'freewheel' on the rear, not a cassette - a freewheel has the ratcheting cooasting mechanism built into the gear set itself, while with a cassette the ratcheting mechaism is built intoo the rear hub. When you want to change ratios with a freewheel you buy a whole new freewheel - ratchet mechaism and all; when you want to change cassette you just by a set of gears. On modern bikes, generally only more basic and inexpenive biikes have freewheels, while moreexensive ones have cassettes... ironically, buying a basic complete freewheel iis usually less exppensive than buying a cassette.... but freewheels do not have as many sizes available, and the ratchet mechanism makes it more difficult to get a freewheel with very small gears. To swapp from a freewheel too a cassette mechanism you need to change the rear wheel, or have anew hub laced to the existing wheel (which is, again ironically, more expensiive than buying a whole wheel).

Another opption would be to change the front chainrings to a larger set, or change the crankset to one wiith larger chainrings. Often less exppensive bikes doo not have replaceable chainrings so changing the crank is necessary to get larger chainrings, and swapping cranksets is a little more complicated and expensive.

edit: Too doo any of these swaps you need a couple of specialized tools - like splined freewheell removers or crank pullers.

Kotts

If you're riding on pavement, the first and largest improvement you can make is to change from the knoby tires your bike came with to a smooth "City" or "urban" tire. Do that and ride a bit before you change gearing, because tires are pretty inexpensive, and you may find that gets you all the improvement you need, at least at this point on this bike.

CACycling

I doubt you'll find a freewheel with anything smaller than a 13T small cog so the only way to see significant improvement is to swap out the chainrings. On a bike in that price range, that usually means swapping out the crankset and, quite possibly, the bottom bracket. Far better off putting your money toward a new bike than to try and make a cheap MTB into a decent street bike.

dabac

You should be able to get to 25 MPH before turning the cranks becomes awkward.
And unless you are in that range I strongly suggest you practise your pedalling technique before you start improving your bike. Some performance can be bought, but a lot has to be provided by the rider.

If you really feel the need to go much faster than that switching to a freehub wheel and a cassette with an 11t small will let you get to about 32MPH before spinning becomes an issue.

Buying used gears is a risky business. Gears and chain wear together, and random parts tossed together are unlikely to run well. You could try looking for a MTB wheel that can take either a 7-speed cassette, or one that can take 8-9-10. Then get a new chain and a new (7-spd) cassette and you should be OK. a 7-spd will fit on a 8/9 spd wheel with a spacer.

Chain length isn't an issue, as you really should replace the chain anyhow. and when you do you cut the new one to length.
Oh, if you can, try to get a road cassette. They've got smaller steps in the ratios, which makes them more suitable for road riding. You've still got the granny gear if you run out of steam heading uphill.

Ad you are right to question the sense in this. No matter what you do your bike will always be marked by its humble origins. But chains and cassettes are wear items, and would have to be replaced eventually. Using that opportunity to replace them with something more fitting while you're still at it isn't too bad.

nashvillwill

lots of great advice guys! Thanks!

FYI, i have switched my MTB tires to much more narrow street slicks (well, not exactly true slicks, but pretty darn close), which helped alot.

Here is a final question. If i can find (at the LBS or Craigslist) a similar sized wheel with the desired gearing (11-28 or similar) could i swap it out with my current wheel without any problems in shifting? I'm talking about the whole wheel assembly, hub and all. If so, would it matter if it was freewheel or cassette style?

dabac

All shimano 7-speed have the same spacing. End stops might need some minor adjustment, but after that the gearing would line right up.
Your biggest issue is that chain and sprockets wear together. Mixing parts with different mileages very often lead to chain slipping/skipping. Get the wheel, but plan to get a brand new cassette and a chain from the start. Chances of success are far better that way.

And a new freewheel won't give you the higher gearing that you're apparently still looking for.(which I seriously doubt you'd have much use for anyhow)

fietsbob

Your chain will skip with a used cog set and a less worn chain, New + new wears in together ..
replacing the chain extends the life of the other parts

with friction shift levers the shifting adjustment happens with your hand each time you shift.
Indexing systems take coordinating the # of clicks and the # of cogs and add a whole level of fine tuning,
to the gear changing process..

higher top gear I suggest a bigger front chainring, 48>50 or 52Tooth..

still have to stop early in yellow lights or risk death at every intersection.

Lawrence08648

Go to the local bike store and look in their catalog for a 7 speed freewheel with a large gear of 23 tooth, or even 21 if there is one, then get the smallest number in the catalog such as 12-23. You'll need a special socket and a vise to put it on. If you buy it from the bike shop, he may do it for free or for $5, a little less than the cost of the socket. See how it rides. If you don't like how it rides, then change the chain rings (front gears) to 42/52.

cny-bikeman

I would not recommend going down to an 11 tooth at all. That's as useless as your low gear is now. The 48/14 will get you to 32mph at 120 rpm (I would consider faster than that too fast for most people). Going to 48/11 will get you 41 mph before you spin out, but why on earth would you be pedaling downhill at that speed? Tuck down and COAST!

If you do go eventually to a different geared bike, still are on the road exclusively and still have those strong legs (at my age I need the 28/28) then I would suggest you get something geared a bit closer, so that your large cog is a 24. I would not go smaller than that because you limit your options for climbing steep hills or carrying a load.

DannoXYZ 

Heh, heh... I started racing with junior gearing, 50x14t maximum. Was good for 36-38mph sprints at the finish line...

He could get a 50t big-chainring up front and a closer-ratio 13-24t freewheel. You'll have two gears higher on the top-end and closer-ratios in between. Might actually use the granny ring up front.

BTW - both Suntour and Shimano made 7-spd freewheels with 12t top cog. There was even a special Suntour one with 11t cog that screwed into the 12t one.

nashvillwill

So i want to clarify here. First off, this bike is over 10 years old(stored indoors), bought it new. However, i've really only been doing serious riding for about a month. It probably has less than 350 miles on it. I did recently replace the chain, because i took the old one off to clean it (stupid) and couldn't get it back together.

So let's assume my gears and chain are virtually new. Would it still be bad to get a miss-matched set of gears? New or used? Also, I'm a new rider. Not strong, but certainly learning quick and not soft. I think i hold decent RPM's although i haven't measured yet. I mentioned spinning while going downhill, but i guess the real problem is that i just feel like i have to shift to little to get up to speed, while using only about 1/3 of my gears.

I just feel like if i have 21 gearing combo's that i should be using most of them, when in reality, i only used about 1/3. I typically accelerate through my cassette (freewheel) via my 2nd chainring and then get to top speed with my largest chainring using only 1 or 2 of my rear gears(while keeping steady RPM's). Is this normal? Does everyone else experience this?

BCRider

If it's got as few miles as you say then by all means go find a 7 speed freehub rear wheel and just plan on buying a new 11 to 28 cassete to put on it and you'll be fine.

skilsaw

Still strong enough to push 28/28 up hills sounds pretty strong to me. I ride a touring bike and lowered the lowest gear from a 30/32 ratio to 26/34. I sure like it for going up hills loaded up for camping.

Al1943

If you want a road bike buy a road bike. Keep the one you have for trail riding or maybe commuting. It would be really easy to spend a lot of money and still wish you had a road bike.

wrk101

+1 Find a good deal on a used road bike.

shelbyfv

Normally on a triple you would use all the cogs with the middle ring but only the 3 or so highest (smallest) with the big ring and the 3 or so lowest (biggest) with the small chainring. You do not actually have 21 distinct and usable gears. IMO your gearing should be fine for Nashville. You'll appreciate the small ring when you ride on the Trace or venture out on the rural roads.

cny-bikeman

Well, not so strong actually. I made an error - my low is 24/28.

cny-bikeman

There's no rule saying you "should" do anything except ride the bike in a manner that respects it's design and limitations as well as your body. The small ring is for hills only, so it's normal not to be in it often. You should not be running all the way through the gears on the middle chainring before going to the large one.

I would avoid the smallest two cogs entirely with the middle chainring - noisy, hard on the chain/cogs.

When you shift to the large you may need to shift down the rear to a larger cog to get a smaller jump in gear ratio.

Finally you should definitely be in more than 2 gears in the large chainwheel unless they are the larger rear cogs (lower gears). As noted above the highest gears are for the highest road speed.

MRT2

IMO, yes, a waste of money. I see lighter, faster bikes than yours all the time for not very much money. You can probably find something better for less than the cost of changing your gearing for a lighter mountain/hybrid or even an older road bike.

Don in Austin

I knew as soon as I saw this thread people would start telling you to get a different bike. I disagree, there's a lot of satisfaction in learning how to tailor a bike to your needs. Schwinns may be "department store bikes' buit they are about the best of that genre. I bought a Schwinn MTB heavily used at a pawn shop and put 1000 trouble free miles on it and while I have since acquired other more high-tech bikes I enjoy riding it still. You do NOT need to change your wheel: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

That will give you a buttload more top end. Your chain may be a little loose now. Put the bike in big front/big rear and if you have a lot of slack in the chain take out a couple of links. You have to leave a little slack to avoid a drivetrain crash if you inadvertently cross-chain into big-big while pedalling hard.

You will need to buy a tool to remove the existing freewheel or take it to your LBS. The new freewheel you screw on by hand and will automatically tighten as you ride the bike. You may need to tweak the rear derailleur a tad.

Regards "it will always be a MTB weighting 40lbs....." A MTB with front suspension is nice if you like to hop curbs, negotiate potholes comfortably etc. I can't get comfortable on a full road bike with dropped bars but many can. The weight is, of course, a climbing disadvantage but you say you don't climb severe hills. It is a disadvantage to a lesser extent on the level. How much of a disadvantage depends on what you weigh. For a heavy dude the 25 lb difference between your Schwinn and a 15 lbs ultra-light high-tech road bike is no big deal. If you weight 95 pounds its a bigger deal. Its not proportional to the bike itself, but bike + rider total weight.

FWIW street tires will cut down the weight a little. My full front/rear suspension Schwinn MTB weights 36 lbs.

Don't listen to the naysayers but have fun learning how to customize a bike to your taste. Maybe eventually you will decide that the Schwinn has inherent limitations such that you want something else, but should that time come, you will know much more about what you want and how to get it from your experiments.

Don in Austin

Don in Austin

No need to swap the rear wheel: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Don in Austin

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Don in Austin

Don in Austin

Change bikes for less than $36??? https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Don in Austin