---How much of a problem would the chain/gear interface be between wheel sets?

For the last few winters I've been putting studded snow tires on my old 26" 7-speed MTB-commuter and using it as a snow-and-ice bike.

But since converting it to drop bars, I'd like to be able to swap winter and summer tires quickly and easily, since the bike is more fun to ride than ever, and with fold-out baskets it is also my utility bike.

I realized that I'll want wheels with the same rim width so that the rim brakes don;t need to be adjusted after swapping, and I'm gonna shoot for 7-speeds since my shifter is indexed for 7-speeds, but my question is this:

---How much of a problem would the chain/gear interface be?

I'll be buying used wheels and I've had issues with the chains on my two other bikes when I put new rear gears on one, and a new chain on the other.

---What is your advice/experience with wheelset swaps.

Theoretically there should be no problem at all.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a theoretical world. If it was my bike Id do whatever was necessary from the inception to shim the cassette so that it perfectly matched the existing wheel set.

As Retrogrouch suggested, the cogs on wheel #1 will probably not be the exact distance from the frame, compared to wheel #2 . So some cable adjustment will be needed each time, unless you shim them to be the same.

Also, you may get skipping if your chain is fairly new, but 1 cog set is quite worn, .

I should have googled bikeforums first (which I usually do). This has been discussed many times. No need for further comments.

You may just have to re-index your derailleur every time you change wheels as the cassette's might be slightly different

Cables stretch, pads wear, and occasionally you'll need to make adjustments. New cable inners would be at the top of my list with such work being done, they're wear-parts after all.

This is why God gave us barrel adjusters:

It nver worked out for me as well as I hoped. 2 or 3 bikes is easier.

I'd go with disc wheels with thru axles and the same cassette on each wheel. I have this setup and swapping between my mountain and road wheelsets is seemless.

You didn't mention it, but I assume you'll be looking for the same gearing range as your current set up. Mounting a wider range cassette could be beyond the limit of your rear derailleur

Thanks again, for the input. I realized my wife's "comfort" bike is a 26" 7-speed. When she's not looking, I will try a wheel swap and report back.

I had a second wheelset built up. I specced the same brand hubs (but Tiagra to 105), same brand and spread cassette (but Tiagra to Ultegra). The wheelbuilder measured the dropout to low cog distance of the existing wheel for reference, but told me the Shimano hubs were very consistent. The 10-sp shim aligned the 10 sp Ultegra cassette perfectly on the 11 speed 105 hub.

The rims were 1mm wider on the new wheels so the canti- shoes are set very close and may get a slight turn of the barrel adjuster when going to the old wheelsat but the differnce in lever travel is not significant so adjustment is not always required at present, but that will change as the pads wear.

The first ride showed some shifting noise, but a bit to tightening of the RD cable eliminated it and actually made thh original wheel set shift a bit better.