Seven speed and nine speed chains and spacing are identical; eight is wider. I commuted for quite a few years with 9 speed rings and chain and a seven speed freewheel. Worked fine, even in friction mode, with the newer ultegra deraillers.
The history, as I remember it. Seven speed freewheels came in the mid-late '80s as an upgrade from six speed and mounted on 126mm hubs. Shimano and Campy both offered their first Indexing with the seven speed freewheel. Unfortunately, the older deraillers required an over shift and finesse that made friction shifting challenging for many but the early index systems were also finicky. Then came the 130 mm hub, 8 speed cassette, and wider spacing, which gave the industry some sizzle. They could advertise the amazing 21 speed bike and reliable indexing to entice new riders into bike shops. Indexing improved and they quickly introduced the 9 speed system which reproduced the 7 speed spacing with 130 mm cassettes and reliable rear shifting. Lots of us found the indexed front on a triple a PIA. I would expect that a 9 speed chain would work fine with an 8 speed cassette, since it is the spacing, not the metal thickness that varies. But apparently that is less true with rings. I'd been told that but didn't believe it till I tried it and observed that slight hesitation for myself. There is certainly enough variation in the ring mfg. and over time enough wear that it may work in some setups but not in others. Michael On Thursday, February 20, 2014 8:33:50 AM UTC-5, Steve Palincsar wrote: > > On 02/20/2014 07:45 AM, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > I have tried running a 9 speed chain on 8 speed rings and found it > > problematic. > > YMMV. Every one of my bikes has 8 speed rings (most have XTR M900 > cranks) and have experienced zero problems. > > > > -- 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 http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
