Seven speed can be a good solution for a friction triple. I commuted on a 7 sped freewheel for many years and it worked fine for me. But 7 spd cassettes are rare, generally of lower quality and often have very big jumps between cog sizes. I like the availability of 12-27 & 11-28 9 speed cassettes, which allows me to drop the size of the big ring. A 13/52, 12/48, and 11/44 all provide the same hi gear; but the options for a lower gear, with a good shifting pattern increase dramatically. My Rambouillet (do the French seem to use up a lot of the worlds supply of vowels or what!) has a 44/30 and an 11/28. The hi gear launches me and the low gear equals a racing triple, enough for me to sustain 8% climbs and manage 10% ramps without too much difficulty. If I know I will need to sustain 10% or more than I need lower gears, which means going to a triple. With 7 speed I get wider steps and different steps which may be just as important to me. This is not the end of cycling joy by any means, but everything is a tradeoff.
Our tandem has a 9 speed, 11-32, cassettes (and DA, indexed BE shifters) and I sometimes find myself wishing I could find the gear between, but given the uphill limitations of a 400+ lb loaded tandem, I live with it and don't complain. I do have a fear that 9 speed could suffer the same commercial fate as 7 & 8 speed. I'm hoarding cassettes, and always buy an extra smallest cog, since that seems to be what wears out first. Michael, just back from a couple of hours canoeing on Little & Big Hosmer Ponds, in the NE Kingdom of VT. On Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:33:17 PM UTC-4, Steve Palincsar wrote: > > On Sat, 2012-08-25 at 11:42 -0700, Scot Brooks wrote: > > Embarrassingly, I have an absolutely awful time getting precise shifting > with my Gran Compe shifter/LX SGS RD/Shimano 12-36t 9-speed cassette combo. > Almost every time I stand up, I get the sickening crunch type downshift. I > have non-ratcheting Shimano 600 friction shifters/Deore SGS RD on my other > bike and I never ever ever ever get the same thing. My ears can't really do > their job since the city is so loud, so I do a lot of the old > look-between-my-legs move when riding the bike with the ratcheting > shifters. I'll put it down to technique, but I'm baffled by it and don't > know what to do to improve it. > > Try switching to a 7 speed cassette. > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/JjMCSPH8MNIJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
