dayco

I have a very clean mid-90's Huffy 'box-store 10-speed' mountain bike with friction/thumb shifters I received for free. I want to install these parts:


Shimano 14-34T 7-speed Mega Range freewheel (Bikeparts).
Xundah 'long' rear derailleur (AvidMax).
Triple ashtabula chainwheel 28/38/48T, of which I'll remove the 48T wheel and only use the 28/38 wheels (AvidMax).
7/8 speed chain, kmc/NS-CN78 (Nashbar).
26"x1.75 Kenda tires on the original chrome steel rims.


The front derailleur will be the original Falcon friction derailleur. Does anyone see any problems with these parts working together?


Thanks for your help.

Retro Grouch 

Probably, but count on having to make some adjustments or modifications along the way. That's just part of the discovery and learning process that makes this project worth doing.

JohnDThompson 

I don't see any glaring problems, but that doesn't mean you won't run into some sort of glitch. Re: the Ashtabula triple. Many of these have a chainring assembly that attaches as a unit to the crank arm, meaning that you can't simply remove the largest ring without losing the ability to attach the rings to the arm. This may or may not apply to your crank, and even if it does, you could simply adjust the front derailleur to lock out the large ring if that's important to you.

fietsbob

Also Is the possibility of converting , adaptors have long made, to replace One Piece with a 3 piece crank..
BMX converts ..

Saw no mention of a Front derailleur,

But that does not matter stopping a picking up the chain, 'greasy finger shifting', has a Long Tradition..

Bezalel

A 7-speed freewheel is not a drop in replacement for a 5-speed one. Your current shifters may not have enough range for 7 speeds. The Ashtabula crank might have all three rings riveted (or welded) together as a cluster.

dedhed

Personally, I'd skip the Xundah 'long' rear derailleur and spend a couple more dollars on a Shimano Tourney, alivio, or altus.

SBinNYC

5-speed freewheels usually took a 122mm hub (space between locknuts). The 7-speed freewheels took a 126mm spacing. If this is your case, you will have to add spacers to the rear axle (possibly replacing the axle if not long enough), redish the rear wheel and widen the rear dropouts.

Try riding the bike as-is, before putting lipstick on a Huffy.

Narhay

With the money you spend upgrading the existing bike you may be better off selling it as is and buying a higher quality bike.

Bill Kapaun

+1

Not to rain on your parade, but Huffy ranks at the bottom of the pile for cost benefit.
I'd rather pay $50-75 for an old Rockhopper or TREK etc. to fix up, than get a Huffy +$20.

The brakes tend to be total garbage, the bike is over weight and basically designed to accept the cheapest parts. It likely has steel rims instead of aluminum.
The Ashtabula crank adds to the problem.

I used to flip bikes on CL and learned early to stay away from Huffy. You can stick $100 into it and still have a $25 bike.

I guess the best analogy is if someone gave you a free YUGO.

dayco

Thanks everyone for the heads-up and advice.

dayco

This is an update to thread I posted a while back. Thanks to everyone who gave warning and said these parts would work together.

I'm not an avid bike rider. I'm just an old guy in street clothes getting a little excercise traveling 10 miles a day to run my errands. With the exception of a joy-riding 8 year old, I wanted a bike that could be secured with a light lock and would be worthless to everyone but me. I wanted it to be as comfortable and rideable as possible and yet when I checked out of a store, I wanted it to be there. And free made it even better. I rode my Huffy all summer long but I needed better gearing. Parts...


Nashbar, NS-CN78 chain, $12.99
Avidmax, Sunlite triple chainring 28/38/48, $13.98
Sunlite (Xundah) long-cage derailleur, $11.95
Bikeparts, Shimano 7spd Megarange freewheel 14-34, $14.39 (I had a used one)


I started by removing the rivots holding the chainrings together. I ground the teeth off the 48 tooth sprocket, took it over to my brother who has a small lathe and machined it smooth. I put the chainwheels back together with grade 5, 1/4-20 bolts cut to length. The large wheel now acts like a chain-stop/guard. I put thin plastic on the chainwheel and FD to protect my pants from chain/sprocket oil. It was fun.


The used freewheel, FD and the Xundah rear derailleur mounted and adjusted without any problems. I took a few links out of the chain and everything works fine. I now can climb steep hills easily at 3 mph and travel downhill, or with the wind to back, at 16+ mph. Easy and fast enough for me. Thanks again, I'm happy.


(I have a pic but can't figure out how to post it)

dayco

This is an update to thread I posted a while back. Thanks to everyone who gave warning and said these parts would work together.

I'm not an avid bike rider. I'm just an old guy in street clothes getting a little excercise traveling 10 miles a day to run my errands. With the exception of a joy-riding 8 year old, I wanted a bike that could be secured with a light lock and would be worthless to everyone but me. I wanted it to be as comfortable and rideable as possible and yet when I checked out of a store, I wanted it to be there. And free made it even better. I rode my Huffy all summer long but I needed better gearing. Parts...


Nashbar, NS-CN78 chain, $12.99
Avidmax, Sunlite triple chainring 28/38/48, $13.98
Sunlite (Xundah) long-cage derailleur, $11.95
Bikeparts, Shimano 7spd Megarange freewheel 14-34, $14.39 (I had a used one)


I started by removing the rivots holding the chainrings together. I ground the teeth off the 48 tooth sprocket, took it over to my brother who has a small lathe and machined it smooth. I put the chainwheels back together with grade 5, 1/4-20 bolts cut to length. The large wheel now acts like a chain-stop/guard. I put thin plastic on the chainwheel and FD to protect my pants from chain/sprocket oil.


The used freewheel, FD and the Xundah rear derailleur mounted and adjusted without any problems. I took a few links out of the chain and everything works fine. I now can climb steep hills easily at 3-4 mph and travel downhill, or with the wind to back, at 16+ mph. Easy and fast enough for me. Thanks again, I'm happy.


(I have a pic but can't figure out how to post it)