Mondo Velo

Hi,

I'm one year into a world tour and considering changing my gearing. I'm riding a Surly LHT with 10 speed 11-32 and a 44/32/24. I have replaced the cassette, chain, and 44 ring after 6000km and am probably going to do so again soon. A mechanic suggested I go to 7 speed as the parts are cheaper, more durable, and more easily available outside Europe. My route is going through some remote places (Sahara, Siberia, Congo, Alaska etc) so I will carry spare parts regardless. So, think heavy loads and maximum abuse.
I know there are other threads on this topic but I have relatively specific requirements and would appreciate your advice. I'd like to keep the range of gearing (rarely use the 24 ring but nice to have on the big climbs). Would you change to a 7/8/9 or stick with the 10?

Thanks

10 Wheels

Never did like the 10spd for touring.
Last bike I bought had a 7spd and I loved it.

8 spd might be for you.

mev

I don't know on the Congo or Sahara but have cycled Siberia (across Russia) or Alaska. I was traveling with 9-speed cassette/shifters. My impression for Alaska & Siberia:

- In Siberia, I expect you'll likely find best options in largest cities e.g. Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Khabarovsk, etc. In those cities you'll find bike shops with at least 9s and I suspect 10s as well. Not sure you will find too much outside the largest places anyways - so I wouldn't go to 7s based only on Siberia.
- In Alaska/Yukon/north, bike shops at least in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Whitehorse, Skagway and probably some other places closer to Anchorage. In the smaller places I've come through e.g. Tok, Delta Junction, Watson Lake, I haven't found much of a shop - so again I wouldn't go to 7s based only on Alaska.

My suspicion on largest cities in Sahara region e.g. Khartoum, Cairo, Casablanca, etc that again you might not find the absolutely latest (e.g. 10s?) but it won't be too different from what you can find elsewhere on global market. Likely similar in largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa e.g. Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Kinshasha, Lagos, etc.

So my opinion is that I would perhaps shy away from a 10 before a world tour...but once I was on that tour I wouldn't necessarily go through the expense of changing over until it became necessary. I also wouldn't go all the way back to a 7 speed. I believe the largest cities in Siberia and Alaska carry what you need. Africa outside of South Africa and neighboring countries is a bit different story, though I'd still find myself to the largest cities to sort things out.

fietsbob

I had a Derailleur tour Bike, Kept it simple for reliability , Friction shift, Freewheel, 6 speeds, 13~34t

and Phil Wood Freewheel Hub so zero chance of axle issues. Triple crank steel cogs 24, 40, 50.


Now I like Rohloff .. Renowned for the Reliability.. (Shimano if you dont want to invest the Money) IGH.

Now they have a Snap ring fitted Cog [ not unlike * 3 speeds ], so the spare cog change,

If worn, They can be flipped over to double the service life, only needs prying off the snap ring with a screwdriver..

https://www.rohloff.de/en/products/s...ets/index.html


the interface is a 13 notch combination so aligned under the tooth of their smallest cog

13 t to 21 T available .

a Bigger chainring and bigger hub cog will wear a Bit longer.

My Koga WTR has a 16t cog and a 38t chainring, Surly Stainless steel..

the 21t cog & a 50 t chainring is practical. (about the same Gear for 11th, the direct drive gear)

Trekking Bars and their grip shifter.



BTW, The Rohloff company will back up their product, shipping anything you may need, any where you Need it .




./.

Squeezebox

cassettes, chainrings, chains usually wear out instead of break. I think you could have those shipped to where you expect to be in a month or so. maybe the same with tires. Wouldn't a shift to 7 speed mean change all chainrings and rear deraileur plus rear shifter also.

bradtx

Ditto.

Brad

Rowan

I am going to suggest something here that will throw the purists and the expert mechanics into a right spin...

But I have been using a 10 speed Shimano shifter with a nine-speed cassette on my Thorn Club Tour for a while now, and I haven't had any problems with shifting up and down the cassette. If I click through the range, I get a phantom click after the ninth gear, but the limit screw stops the derailleur from going any further than the smallest cog.

I originally figured that the different in pull between the 9 and 10 speeds was very small, and that despite what most people think, there is a little bit of "play" in how the shifter and derailleur interact.

It works for me.

So if you are to take up mev's advice -- and that advice very definitely is worth listening to -- maybe get a cheap-level 9sp cassette, fit it, fiddle with the limit screws on the big and small cogs, and see how the shifting works for you.

Tourist in MSN

Eight speed I find to give me all the gears I need. There is more cable pull per gear in an eight speed system than in a nine or ten, thus the eight speed stays in adjustment better. Parts are easy to find and cheap. I however have no idea if the parts would be easy to find where you might be.

Some cassettes can be disassembled to individual sprockets. If you are carrying spares and if you find that certain sprockets get much more wear than others, you might consider carrying only the spare sprockets that you will likely wear out fastest. On my eight speed bikes, I use the 16 and 18 tooth sprockets about 70 percent of the time, the 11, 12, 14, 21, 26, and 32 tooth sprockets get very little wear. If I wanted to carry spares I would only carry the 16 and 18 tooth sprockets. I just mention this in case you are carrying a spare cassette and would like to only carry only the sprockets that you think you use the most.

If you wanted to set the bike up for eight speeds but later find you are in a location where you can only buy seven speed cassette, if you had the right spacer to convert your eight speed system to seven you would be ready to go. Do a google search for 4.5mm spacer to convert eight speed hub to seven speed cassette to see what I am talking about, you should be able to use a seven speed cassette with the rest of the drive train being eight speed if you had the right 4.5mm spacer in your bag of spares.

I use a 11/32 eight speed cassette on my rando bike, my derailleur touring bike and my foldup bike. Makes parts planning simpler when all three bikes use the same cassette. All are Sram, but I could also use Shimano cassettes. A few months ago I used my last spare eight speed cassette, a quick Amazon order and I had three more Sram cassettes on the shelf ready for future use.

Those three bikes, plus my Rohloff equipped expedition bike, a vintage Italian racing bike and my seven speed errand bike all use the same KMC eight speed chains, which makes it even simpler when almost everything I have uses the same chain and chain links.

escii_35

7 speed freewheel or 8 speed freehub, friction.

Try to find a 9 speed chain in a non-tourist town in Peru.

If you roll with a freewheel spend the $$ on a boutique hub, aka Phil. If you use any BB system besides square taper bring a spare. Though I love my Sugino, would shy away from 11O bcd cranks.

My daily ride -> 7 speed freewheel friction
Almost vintage Italian-> 8 sp Sachs ergo
The expedition coupled bike -> 8 sp friction.

Tourist in MSN

Why? I have a square taper compact crank (110mm BCD) on my Rohloff equipped expedition bike, I see nothing wrong with it.

bradtx

Mondo Velo, Welcome to the forum.

If I were going to ride somewhere that replacement parts are possibly unavailable, I'd simply bring spares. An elongated chain is going to wear a couple of favorite cassette cogs and maybe your favorite chain ring and then possibly skip on the lesser used positions, so bring an extra chain for sure. An extra cassette and favorite chain ring if you wish to. You can simply avoid a lot of drive train wear with a good chain.
@Rowan's info is good to know, IMHO. Best of luck on the rest of your tour.

Brad

escii_35

I don't see anything wrong with them either I love 110 cranks. Finding replacement rings in stock however...

The big thing is the square taper BB. You could be waiting a week for that super cool watt saving Octa-hyper-pressfit BB.

As a person who destroys BB's on a regular basis I keep it simple, bring a spare or spend $$ on the skf/Phil bb. My skf is the longest lasting bb I have ever owned its also stupid spendy.

Rowan

The other thing is, you don't have to take a whole cassette as a spare, either. But it does mean you figuring out which gears you use the most, and therefore are the ones most likely to wear out faster.

I think you can still buy the lower level Shimano cassettes that are bolted together, rather than separated by a spider for the first three or four gears. Pick out the cogs that can replace the ones most likely to wear. Really, with adequate relubing along the way, and chain replacement often enough, a 9sp cassette should last up to 15,000km or close to 10,000 miles.

I know this is being picky, but every ounce counts.

martianone

Presuming a 700c wheel with around a 32 mm tire, try 28 & 40 chain rings with a 9 speed 12-36 cassette. Set up my trek 520 with this combination, it has been long wearing and effective.

veganbikes

Stupid spendy??? If you are buying a high quality part that is going to last a long time and give you more piece of mind how is it "stupid spendy". I would think it makes more sense to do that then spend more money buying cheap parts over and over again and being more wasteful. An SKF BB is not really that expensive considering you get a 10 year warranty and it will probably last much longer than that and runs quite smoothly with great sealing from grit, grime and water. Buying cheap parts always feels like financing, it is small seemingly low payments each time but they end up adding up to be quite a bit more expensive in the end.



Folks who are worried about chainrings just need to keep up on replacing chain and cassette and you should be ok. Not running chain and cassette into the ground will help keep the rest of your drivetrain running smoothly. As far as other replacement stuff from talking with folks who have toured in remote places, sometimes they don't even have some of the basic bike stuff and you would have to ship it in anyways. Certainly you want something that is more easily available in other countries like a good 8-9 speed drivetrain but having a more durable and well maintained one I think is the most important. Replace stuff a month before the tour and get the bike tuned up and everything so when you go out on a long tour you might be less likely to need replacement.

Mondo Velo

Thanks for all the advice. I will definitely carry a spare chain and cassette during the more remote parts of the trip. I think I'm leaning towards an 8 speed, seems the best balance between affordability and availability.

timdow

You have bar-end shifters? You will need to change them out or go friction only.


8-speed may be a better choice than 7 due to no spacer required, AND if you did want to change your shifters to match the cogs so you can index, 7-speed road shifters, both STI and bar-end are getting mighty hard to find.


Also, the 8-speed chain is much wider and may rub on the 10-speed rings, especially when cross-chaining. A 9-speed probably would not rub at all.


My opinion is to stay with the 10-speed setup. Bring spares as others have suggested. If things get dire, and you have to purchase locally, an 8,9,10 speed cassette will fit your wheel, and you can friction shift any of these (again assuming bar-ends). If you are very worried about only being able to find a 7-speed cassette, bring the 4.5mm spacer in case you have to use 7-speed. The chain is the same width as 8-speed. You can slap it on with the spacer and friction shift that, too.

saddlesores

if it's not broke.........

one year in and all works well? only problem is wearing out parts?
don't screw with it. replace parts as they wear out (well....before
they wear out and take other parts with them.)

i'd expect drivetrain parts to last a whole tour (excepting the chain),
unless you're riding in some awful evil muck grinding away at
your gearing.

replace rings, cassette, chain.
carry a spare chain or two and don't wait to get
the full life out of them.

buy a spare casette and and small/middle rings and a couple
chains...mail ahead to a hostel or hotel (or post restaurante)
to a city you could get to easily enough if needed.

when you reach your next maildrop, use what you need, send
the rest on to the next drop.

Mondo Velo

All going well, just thinking I can save some money by changing to simpler gearing. I have to replace the chain/cassette anyway so it's a case of whether it's cheaper including new shifters/derailleurs. Should say, I'm on a 26er with bar end shifters and planning to do another ~60,000km, so replacement parts will add up.

timdow

It will surely not be cheaper if you have to replace even the shifters. As I stated above, quality 7-speed bar-end shifters are not made any more, and if you went 8 or 9 the shifters alone would be near $100 not to mention the labor to replace them.


You could resign yourself to friction shifting, but why mess with what works?

Tourist in MSN

Since I never switched to 10 speed, I do not know the answer. Are the ten speed rear derailleurs interchangeable with an eight or nine?

The eight speed bar end shifters are still available. I did a quick google search.
Shimano SL-BS64 8SPD Barend Shifters > Components > Drivetrain > Road Shifters | Jenson USA

saddlesores

possibly cheaper but still good quality, check
microshift and sunrace/sturmey archer 8,9,10
speed bar end shifters.

question for experts....what's the cable throw
on a front derrailler barend shifter? would it be
possible to use the front shifter set on friction to
shift a 7spd cassette?

Tourist in MSN

Shimano front bar end shifters are friction. Not sure why you would want to use a front shifter on a rear derailleur instead of using a rear shifter.

saddlesores

because quality 7-speed components are no longer made,
and could then use a 7spd cassette?

mdilthey

Not an expert, but I looked into this for my own bike. 9 and 10 are very similar cable pull, so a shifter/derailleur will almost always work together. 8 speed is close, so most of the time this will work. 7 speed is too different,and the newer stuff won't work- you need a 7-speed shifter to go with a 7-speed derailleur.

All this assumes friction, though I'm sure a great many combos can be indexed.