JamesRL

I'm building a bike for a friend.

Its a Miele with a "Terry" style frame, I posted about it before. Front wheel is 24 x 1 1/8. Tange Infinity frame, rear brake routed through top tube, Sikkens paint sticker, SLR brakes, Light Action 6 speed derailleur.

The rear wheel they gave me saying it wasn't the right wheel was a 27 inch wheel. I verified by putting a 700C wheel on the back, from the position of the brake pads, it had to have been a 700C wheel. BTW it was a 7 speed wheel I tried with, so I think I can cold set a seven speed even though by the RD A350 Light Action derailleur it was a 6 speed.

I read somewhere, perhaps here, that it is really the shifters that are indexed, and that if I put a 7 speed shifter on it, I might be able to get it to shift 7 speeds, after some adjustments. I do have some Sport LX 7 speed shifters.

My alternative is to either source a 6 speed wheel, or adjust it to just use 6 gears on a 7 gear freewheel, preferably the lower ones.

Thoughts? I could get a 7 speed derailleur and shifters, but that might raise the cost a little higher than anticipated.

I'm open to suggestions as to the best approach.

Sorry about the picture, its a little stretched.

Bill Kapaun

6 speed cog spacing is LIKELY" different than 7.
I'm not sure if 6 speed indexed systems used a RDER That is compatible with 7? If it were 7 indexed, you could go to 8 etc., but 6 speed is "early" and I'm simply not sure if they "cared" about future compatibility???
You could simply get an inexpensive 7 speed RDER IF there were problems.
I'd give the current RDER a try with your 7 speed shifters.

Phil_gretz

Friction mode can always show you in the short term that the derailleur can handle the inward range. An indexing capable 6-speed Shimano should be able to handle the 7-speed change, in my experience. Swap in your 7-speed shifters and give it a go!

fietsbob

No Indexing , no problem , go Friction shifting .. a 126mm wide freewheel hub can use either.

hermanchauw

Simplest would be using an 8 speed freehub wheel and 8 speed casssette. 7 speed freehub is very rare and hard to get wheel only. It is most likely found in a complete vintage bike.

If you want to use a new 7 speed wheel, you would likely have to use threaded rear hub with freewheel. Weaker design than cassette.

JamesRL

Sorry I wasn't clear. I have a 7 speed wheel I can use already.

JamesRL

My regular ride is a 7 speed, and it is a cassette on the rear wheel. My "spare" is also a 7 speed cassette, that is the one I propose to use, 7 Speed with Exage Hub. My previous bike was a 7 speed with a cassette. So it hasn't been my experience.

hermanchauw

Simply change shifters and rd fo 7 speed.

If you want to put a 6 speed freewheel that is fine also. No advantage there except that you don't have to change as many parts.

The advantage to going 7 speed is that there are more shifter and freewheel choices available.

But then, 8/9/10 speed parts are more easily available. Eventually your lbs won't sell the 6 or 7 speed parts or they would sell it expensively that it is not worth buying and you'd be better off buying newer parts online.

hermanchauw

Then change everything to 7 speed. I doubt you could even buy 6 speed cassette.

You only have to change the shifters and rd to 7 speed. Chain is compatible with 7 speed.

70sSanO

I still ride with a 7 speed freewheel. Since Terry bicycles started in the mid-80's your 126mm OLD freewheel wheel should just slide into the dropouts so just run 7 speeds.

As for drive train, here is everything on a nutshell... If you have a Shimano index rear derailleur you can run it with 6, 7, 8, 9 speeds. Likewise, you can run a 7, 8, or 9 speed derailleur with 6-9 speeds. Can't speak for 10 speeds as I believe some pulls are different. All that said, you should figure out what freewheel ratios you need and that might drive a different derailleur (long or medium cage or even a mountain bike rear derailleur) based on maximum cog. I run mountain bike rear derailleurs on both my wife's and my road bikes.

As others have said you can go with an 8-10 speed freehub and use a cassette. If you do this you will have to open the rear dropouts to fit 130mm. The advantage of this is being able to use a cassette, with more gear options, but more importantly you can go with brifters (brake lever shifters) that may be preferable. My wife uses 8 speed Shimano Claris, but you can go with 9 or 10 speeds.

The reason for this is if you want to go to index shifting. I really like down tube shifters, but some people don't like taking their hands off the handlebar. If you go to 7 speed index levers, eBay is your friend. Microshift does sell some, but a early set I got was low quality, might be better now.

John

dedhed

Light action will run 7 speed without issue. All you should need is 7s shifters or friction.

Point

If it's a freewheel just put a 7 speed on there and run 7 or 8 speed shifters with the current rear derailleur. I've used 8 speed Claris STI with a 7 speed freewheel & 6 speed rear derailleur. The indexing is close enough to work fine