[salvage_bikes]

I love tinkering with bikes and have asked many of the same questions.

To cope with your mismatched shifters to cassette, try tightening the "b-tension" screw (the rear derailer adjustment screw that hits the dropout/hanger). It will move the top pulley away from the teeth. At its "extreme" setting, it generally will cause slower shifts and less precise shifting. But it may alleviate the click-click-click problem. Also, set your adjustment for the 5th shift to coincide with the 5th cog, instead of starting with 1 or 7/8. It is harder, but will make the range work better with your set.


7 and 8 speed chains are fine on either 7 or 8 speed rear cogs, and with 6/7/8/9 front chain rings and cranksets. The wider chain may "ghost shift" on 9 speed rear cogs and may annoy you when cross-chaining on 9 speed cranksets. I've run a 9spd XT crank for years with 7 and 8 speed chains, an 8spd "universal" SRAM front derailer, and 8 speed rear cassettes. I've used SRAM, Shimano, Sunrace, and now thumbies.

Consider the cost of your shifters (or shifter & brake combos) and how attached to them you are. Now, compare that to the cost of a freewheel or cassette. 8 speed cassettes can be had for $5-25 easily if you are not picky.

Try Nashbar.com and -- Bicycles, Bike parts, Mountain Bikes, BMX, Road Bikes, Haro Bikes, KHS Bikes, Felt Bikes at Niagara Cycle Works for great budget and replacement parts. I got some 8 speed Sunrace cassettes (11-28) for $5 each. The Megarange 13-34 freewheels and cassettes are great and cheap. It's like a "road bike" cog set, with a bail-out gear that feels like changing a chain-ring up front.

You can sometimes get shifter pods, old style twist gripshifters, and friction shifters for less than the cost of a freewheel. I gave $10 for my thumbies, and they came with cables!

Chains $5-15 , for 5-8 speed (see Clarks anti-rust chain and KMC Z- series)
-5-8 Speed- Bicycles, Bike parts, Mountain Bikes, BMX, Road Bikes, Haro Bikes, KHS Bikes, Felt Bikes at Niagara Cycle Works
You can use them on 5,6,7,8 interchangeably. 9 speed chains will work on 5,6,7,8, but are more expensive and unnecessary for me.





STAY AWAY FROM CAMPY stuff unless you want to run a full campy set. There are some things that work with Shimano-compatible stuff, but CAMPY is ritzy and doesn't like to play with the other mfgrs. Campy cassettes don't work with shimano-styled hubs, and campy shifters don't like shimano style gears. There are whole books and 100's of forums about it, adapters, spacers, and the like, but it's cheaper and easier to just say no to Campy unless you build a full campy bike (as they intended by their exclusivity).

Originally Posted by photosbymark

The 7 and 8 speed chains are different. If you really want this to shift right you are likely to have to change the chain rings as well as the chain. You can't use a 7 speed chain ring on the cranks and an 8 speed cassette on the back, even if the shifters are compatible. I think I remember that some rear wheels are set up for one or the other.

When I started biking, the tolerances on a bike were not that tight and things like this just were not much of a problem. As the shifters and gearing got better with better engineering and design, the tolerances got tighter, but the performance was improved. When you make a change in the drive train, its often far more than one that's needed now. It can also be frustratingly close to working, but it won't unless everything is right.