Re: [RBW] Down tube friction shfiters and 9-cog cassettes

[Joe Hogg]

On 02/05/2014 02:55 AM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: I'd stick with 7/8 sp cassettes. Here's why. Riv's Silver shifter isn't a true friction shifter, but a ratchet. That means the shifter has a finite number of stops rather than an infinite number of positions in true friction. If you try to shift to a position between the ratchet clicks, the shifter will be pulled by the derailleur spring to the next click rather than staying between clicks where you put it! So if you shift to where the derailleur moves the chain to the perfect position over the desired cog... As soon as you take your hand off the shifter, the shifter relaxes into the next ratchet click, and the perfect alignment is gone. We've found that these shifters "work" with 9sp cassettes but that there are always a few noisy gears where the ratchet clicks don't allow the derailleur to line up perfectly with the cogs (made worse because 9sp cassettes have ramps for easy shifting at the slightest hint on a movement of the chain). I believe most people who detec t this noise simply "trim" the shift until they chain is riding on a different cog that more closely aligns with one of the clicks. In practice, your 9 sp cassette has only 6 or 7 gears that will be tolerably non-noisy. You could ride for years and not notice this, of course, constantly attributing the noise to simply needing to trim the shift, always landing on a cog adjacent to the cog that you really want to be in. But in the repair stand, it's obvious when you try to shift through the range one gear at a time. Thanks Jim. I had this experience using silver shifters, bar-end, with a 9-speed cassette. Moving to an speed cassette solved the "between" cog noise. Using Shimano 8-speed shifters also work great. Joe Hogg LA, CA -- 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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.