Friction shifting should be by far the easiest to set up and manage – just get the limit screws set up right, which you can do without the chain on the bike, and you're good to go. So, there's definitely something going on that would be easiest to trouble-shoot "in person."
But I'll play online mechanic, too: What hub are you running?.. If it's an 8-9-10 speed hub, a 7sp cassette will most likely wobble, causing mis-shifts, and requiring a spacer to fix. If there's no wobble to the cassette, I'd check shifter cable tightness when the RD & chain are on the smallest cog – if it's too loose, the cable pull will be off throughout the entire range. (Also be sure that the shifters aren't slipping mid-range – tighten if needed.) Also, are the cogs ramped?.. some 7sp cassettes (and freewheels) didn't have any ramps. A 9 sp chain could simply be too flexible to get onto the next cog without a greater overshift, requiring you to "back off" right after the shift happens. (Shift happens...ha!) (In the olden days, that's how people friction-shifted anyway, and then some early indexing shifters – SunTour – even took that into account with built-in lashback.) Lastly, I'd not mess with a 9sp chain on a 7sp cassette. An 7/8 sp chain is usually the same whether for a 7 or 8 sp cluster, but a 9 sp chain tends to make noise and misbehaves a bit on a 7 or 8 sp cluster, IME. BTW, I was setting up a "1xN" bike for my kid and discovered that the rear hub was Shimano 600 of the 7sp variety. Due to a number of considerations, I needed to fit a 9sp cassette on there, so I just dropped the next-to-smallest cog from the cluster and ended up with an 8 cog cluster having 9sp spacing. Shifts great, even with indexing. :-) - Max (A2) On Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 4:16:00 PM UTC-5, Eric Karnes wrote: > > Hi all- > > I was wondering if I could pick your brain a bit on this. I ended up with > the following setup for my Hilsen 1x7: > > - Existing Wolf Tooth 40T Drop Stop wide/narrow ring > - Deore 9spd Rear Derailleur (with pulleys swapped ala Deacon Patrick's > advice) > - Riv Silver Downtube Shifters > - HG-50 7sp Cassette (12-32) spaced with proper notched spacer on a 8/9/10 > speed cassette > - SRAM 9 speed chain (narrower 9 or 10sp chains are recommended for the > Drop Stop ring) > > Anyway, shifting is even worse than it was. Aside from constant ghost > shifting under load, it honestly feels like I'm NEVER in gear and can't > really ride the bike as is (though I made a valiant effort today). Even on > the bike stand, there feels like there is friction when I spin the crank. > I'm not a skilled home mechanic by any means, but I don't usually feel this > incompetent! Oy. > > Anyone have a similar 1x setup? And any advice? I'm thinking of just > going to a standard 1x matched index setup and selling these parts. But > that's a pricey proposition for me and I wanted to see if I could figure > this out first. > > Thanks! > > Eric > > P.S. I know the logical solution is to just bring it to a local LBS. But > I'm having a lot of trouble finding one within riding distance (I don't own > a car) that even knows how to work with 'retro-y' parts. I've pretty much > given up on cantilever brakes for this reason...after spending a ton of > money getting them (very poorly) installed and adjusted a number of > times...including once when the brake pad fell out during a ride. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
