Gear Inch Redux
 

Not really trying to lower my gearing , at least only so far as trying to gain some future flexibility.

More a story in how to save a few bucks, but in reality, spend more by maybe not thinking some things through. It is definitely age related.

The bike is a 1998 Miyata City Liner. It's a full blown lugged steel (Prestige tubing) touring frame that is by far my favorite bike. I purchased the frame for $175 from American Cyclery in SF, CA.

At some point, I really don't remember when, I had a set of 9 spd. Ultegra triple rated brifters sitting around and decided to make this bike a 9 spd., removing the 8 spd system, LX R derailer, Bar-Cons, Diacompe 287 V brake levers..... etc.... I ended up needing a 9 spd. crank and b-bracket to make the switch to 9, so a Nashbar trekking crank, 26-38-48 plus ISIS b-bracket.

It never really shifted well to the small ring, mostly I think, due to my stubbornness in using a 1991 vintage Suntour XC-Pro F derailer. As I was mostly commuting on this bike on flat terrain, I was sort of OK with it, until recently I found myself riding a lot "upstate NY", with a lot of hills, as well as loaning the bike to a buddy on a ride, and basically the bike would not shift to the granny unless you stopped and moved the chain by hand.

This won't do.

So knowing I still had the bar-cons, plus 287''s plus LX rear derailer, I decided that rather then buy a new set of 9 spd. bar-cons, for the out-of-this-world price of $100, I would buy a new 8 spd cassette and chain ($50). Plus $50 or so for cables and bar-tape. As I would have needed the cables and bar tape anyway to do 9 spd bar-cons, it saved a bit.

Then the existing Sora level front V brakes would not work with the 287 levers. Too much dirt, corrosion, etc.... so a new set of Acera V brakes, $15 ea. went on the bike ( a score at my LBS who NEVER has this kind of stuff). They worked fine. Then the Nashbar 9 spd crank, which apparently had pins and ramps on the middle and large ring, would not work with the 8 spd chain. The chain would catch in certain gear combo's. So I dig out an old XT crank, 110/74 bcd with 24/36/50 rings that don't look too worn. Plus I seemingly have about 5 new square taper b-brackets, all in 115mm, no clue why so many, but it seems to work.

I think I gained about 4 gear inches at the low end, so maybe my tired old ass will make it up some hills.

The age thing is, I used to do all my own work on bikes. I've built up probably 15 bikes or so, but sort of grew tired of it maybe 4-5 years ago. Thus I could not remember things like " why do I have so many 115mm square taper b-brackets ?". And "how do the DiaCompe levers go together, there's this plastic front cover thingie.....". And forget trying to figure out the problem with the original v-brakes. And there was NO WAY I was moving to canti-lever brakes, even though I had like 3 sets in my parts drawer. I recall enough of how cantankerous they can be, and quite frankly I don't have the patience anymore. That's an age thing.

Plus all this tinkering took me 3 days. I know I could bang out a bike build in a day, but no longer.

I test ride tomorrow. If it don't shift on the first hill, I heading to the local REI. They are clearing out their LHT's.

Thanks for reading.

SB

I kind of doubt that REI is going to be able to help you. You have CBTD (compulsive bike tinkerers disease). Buying a complete new bike will only give you an additional bike on which to swap components, so it will actually make the matter worse. There's no known cure so you might as well just go along and enjoy it.

Don't ask how I came to become an expert on recognizing the symptoms of CBTD.

OK, but do find that your "CBTD" is aggravated by some age induced "CRS" ?

That's what I was dealing with.

Hope it all works. Not really important here, but just fyi, the 8 speed LX RD would have worked just fine with a 9 speed build.

math is simple smaller drive gear,' Chainring' , larger driven gear, 'Cog' the lower the gear.. ratio.


FD .... chain shover, is pretty simple too . even simpler without the left STI gimmick ..,


writing about , falls short of actually seeing and being there , but it fills the time.

I would've just swapped in a Shimano triple front derailleur? Maybe it's not that simple?

That was one option, I just was not sure if the new F derailer would play nice with the Nashbar 9 spd. 110/74 crank/ISIS b-bracket combo.

If not, I'm then holding a derailer that is of little use. Changing to an (expensive) Shimano crank/b-bracket that plays with the a new Shimano triple derailer yields a crank that has road rings, so the desired gearing range is a bit less desirable. Then to get that functional, I'm seeing the expense of different rings in 9 speed, and they are not cheap.

Or I just go back to what I knew once worked very well. I wasn't sure the 8spd chain would play with the 9 spd Nashbar crank, which it didn't, but I had plan B, in 2 different 8 spd. 110/74 cranks plus assorted rings sitting around. I might need to put a 118mm b-bracket in to make the chain line prettier and it does improve shifting to the granny.

Why not? Was the chain line off? Otherwise, the derailleur doesn't care what make the crankset is, it cares more about the shifter...

If the crank is a compact triple, 110/74, a road triple doesn't exactly match the curve of the rings, and the further from the standard Shimano road ring design you go, the less the match, especially with a 48 big ring, where the derailer is designed for a 52. I have had issues with this on a prior occasion. The Suntour F derailer I have was designed for a lg. ring of 48 or so, it was pre-Micro-Drive and is a really good derailer, thus I was hoping to stay with it.

The real problem I dealt with, was the Nashbar crank had pinned middle and large rings. The chain would get caught by the pins on the middle ring in certain gear combo's, resulting in a type of chainsuck. That's a chainline issue and I did not desire to hunt down an ISIX b-bracket in a different size, especially owning a good stock of new square tapers. So on went the old crank.