clengman

Has anyone used a 7-speed (14-28) freewheel on a Schwinn World Voyageur (or similar) frame with 126mm dropouts? Is axle respacing, wheel redishing necessary? Will a Crane GS RD have enough lateral travel to reach all 7 cogs?

Just curious, my original 5-speed freewheel is worn. The original chainrings are a little worn as well. I'm thinking about changing up the gearing since I'm going to need some new parts soon anyway.

Ronno6

I'm a bit rusty on this, but, as I recall, 5 speed spacing was typically 120mm.
126mm started with 6 speed and continued thru 7 speed.
Spreading your dropouts, if 120mm, should not pose a problem.
7 speed should work with your rear derailleur, but you will need a new 7 speed chain.
That may not play too well with your front chainrings and/or derailleur.

I'm sure if I have led you astray, there will be someone along to correct me!
Good luck.

wrk101

The World Voyageur was somewhat unique for that era in having 126mm spacing despite a five speed freewheel. RD will handle seven, but you may have clearance issues with chain rub on rear drop out or stay. I have had this problem on other bikes in going from six speed to seven speed.

Metacortex

A World Voyageur with original wheels I measured was 124mm OLD, however after measuring many other Schwinn bikes with original wheels I've found that Chicago built Schwinns (except Paramount) were 125/126mm OLD from '68-'69 on up: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...e-spacing.html

clengman

I knew that a 6 speed frewheel was a dealer option for this bike when new so it must have clearance for at least a 30mm wide freewheel. It'll need another 2mm clearance to fit a 7 speed right? Or around 10mm or so beyond the end of my 5 speed freewheel? Seems close enough that if it doesn't work at first, it would only need a very minor adjustment to the axle spacing and dish to fit. It seems worth a shot unless someone can tell me for sure that it definitely won't work for some reason.

clengman

Okay, how about this... If I need a few mm extra for the small cog to clear the dropout, would it be preferable to 1) add a couple washers to both sides of the axle, force the dropouts apart a bit and leave the wheel dish the way it is, or 2) move spacers from NDS to DS, keep OLD the same and redish the wheel? Does it matter much one way or the other with regard to wheel strength, dropout alignment or... whatever?

Metacortex - Interesting about the variation in OLD for all those bikes. I knew that mine was wider than 120. I just assumed it was 126mm.

pastorbobnlnh 

I had no trouble fitting a 126mm Shimano UG freehub wheel in my '75 Voyageur II. Currently I have it set up with a 6 speed UG cassette. When I was building it I tried a 7 speed UG cassette and while I could make it work in the stand, I decided not to because the small threaded cog only engaged the threads about half way (safety first ).

I was able to shift fine through all 7 cogs using a Sachs-Huret Eco DuoPar RD. I did not have an issue with chain rub on the stays and IIRC I was using a 13T small cog. Of course in the stand is not always the same as loading the frame with your weight and riding it.

On my '83 Paramount (126mm), I run a 7 speed Sachs freewheel, 13-30, with indexed Shimano 105 bits (shifters, RD, FD, and hubs) with a SRAM 8 speed chain and it works flawlessly.

Hope this is all helpful information. I doubt if you will need any spacers. Best of luck with your project.