Bashbike

Hi all,

Giant Escape 3

I have a Giant Escape 3 2016 (I don't have enough posts to post links, links to its specs). Relevant specs from Giant's website:

• Rims: Giant Alloy, Double-wall
• Tires: Giant S-X3, 700x32, Puncture protection

Background (can be skipped reading)

I had a broken spoken after 2000 miles and then after 2200 miles, again. I have 2 cassette removers but no freewheel remover. The first time, a bike shop removed the freewheel for free. The second time, I would have been charged $10. I declined and biked 300 further miles with a broken spoke. Now, at 2500 miles, I noticed 4 broken spokes. I would say its time to replace the whole wheel. This time, with a cassette.


Which Wheel?

All my other bikes are road-bikes. I noticed:

• the rim width on my Giant Escape 3 is a little wider than on my road bikes
• the rear dropouts are wider apart so that a road wheel does not fit

What are the keywords to find replacement wheels on amazon?


I have an 8 speed 23-11 cassette from a road bike lying around and want to use it. I assume I can use that with a 7 speed shifter by just making use of 7 rings. The chain width will also fit 8 speed cassettes!?

veganbikes

Your local shop will have a very low cost replacement and can get everything installed quickly and easily. If you break a spoke you should get it replaced right away or replace the wheel right away. The minimal money you didn't save by not spending the $10 is now even more moot. Just take care of your bike and it can take care of you. Save money where it makes sense but being overly cheap for some reason that doesn't make sense when it ends up costing you more well...uhh...not sure on that one.

They do make 7 speed cassettes I would just stick with that. The spacing is generally the same for 7 and 8 speed but that 8 speed cassette is a rather small ratio and might not be what you want for that bike.

Bike Gremlin

A decent freewheel removal tool costs about $10.

If your shifters are indexed, shifting may not be perfect with an 8-speed cassette, even if using only 7 sprockets.

Cassette hubs nowadays often (usually) come with a freehub that is wide enough for 8+ speed cassettes. With a 7-speed cassette, you would have to mount a sprocket and a spacer from an 8-speed cassette before mounting the 7-speed cassette (otherwise, it would be too narrow to be locked with the lockring - the lockring would bottom out against the hub, not against the smallest sprocket).

For wheels, I would measure the rear dropout width. If it's 132.5, you can use both road (130 mm OLD) and MTB (135 mm OLD... unless it's a boost hub) hubs. If it's 130, or 135 - you are limited to using 130 or 135 OLD hubs.

Relja

xroadcharlie

I'd just take the wheel to a local bike shop you trust and choose the option that suites you best. This might be a good time to inquire about upgrading the cassette. I just had the shop replace a 14 - 34T 7 speed that had worn out with a 14 - 28T. If I had thought of it earlier I might have had the shop replace the 7 speed cassette with an 8 speed and have a new 8 speed twist grip shifter installed.

Bashbike

Hello veganbikes and xroadcharlie

I want to do bike repair myself. That's a great distraction from my office job.

Hello Bike Gremlin

Ah, dropout and OLD.

My dropout width is 135. I found some wheels with this specification, e.g. "Wheel Master Weinmann 700C Rear Wheel, Quick Release, 36H, Black": WHL RR 700 WEI ZAC19 BK MSW 36 ALY CASS 8/9sp BK 135mm 12gSS.

The rim width is a little bit wider than on my road bikes. On my road bikes, I have 25mm tires while on my Giant Escape 3 I have 32mm tires. How can I find the identical rim width?


I want to upgrade my wheel and cassette to 8 speed now. On the long run, I want to upgrade the shifter to 8 speed as well. I can live with a temporary imperfection.


Shifting is a mess. Looking at what is involved in shifting, it can be caused by the rear derailleur, the cable or the shifter.

I replaced the cable and shifting did not improve. So, the next step is replacing the rear derailleur. Now my question:

The rear derailleur is Tourney with a long cage. I want to upgrade it to a 7/8 Acera RD-M3020. Do I need to buy a version with the same long cage? What else would I need to change when I buy a version with a short(er) cage? BTW: is the large cage related to the size of the largest sprocket? Maybe this information is important:

Current: The Freewheel has a large granny gear (which I don't like). The derailleur is a 7 Speed Tourney with long cage.
Intended Upgrade: 8 Speed 23-11 Cassette without a granny gear. The derailleur will be probably a 7/8 speed Acera RD-M3020.

Bike Gremlin

That is very rewarding and meditative.

You don't have to look for the exact same rim width. Here's a conservative chart of tyre widths that a certain rim width is good for.
(conservative as in: I often went beyond those limits, but can't guarantee that every tyre and rim combo, at practically every "reasonable" tyre pressure, will work well if the given limits are exceeded)

OLD, on the other hand, should be within +- 2.5 mm of the dropout width.
Unless you wish to cold-set the dropouts to a different width, which is possible and reasonably safe to do with steel frames. I think that 135 mm hubs are widely available and see no reason to mess with the frame that has a 135 mm dropout spacing.

RD cage size affects two things:
1) Largest sprocket the RD can handle without adding any hanger extenders or similar. With most modern RDs, you want long cage if you plan on using 34T sprockets or larger.
2) How much chain slack the RD can "pick up" (keep tigh). This is called the rear derailleur's tooth capacity, or just capacity.

When it comes to shifting, one or several things can cause problems:
- Cables (you've replaced those).
- Housing - for indexed shifters, it's best to use derailleur housing (in my experience, companies and people often use brake housing for this, a common mistake - see brake vs shifter housing for details).
- Routing of the above-noted two. Leaving them needlessly long, or with too much winding, or with extremely sharp bends, can also cause problems (how to route cables and housing).
- Derailleur hanger - if it's bent, you might not be able to make your shifting work nicely for all the cogs ("gears").
- Chainline - if you get it wrong by a lot, especially on frames with short chainstays, it might affect shifting.
- Shifters and derailleurs - finally, if your shifter or derailleur is bent, damaged or worn, shifting will not be very good. Some cleaning and lubrication often does wonders when it comes to this.

Depending on what causes the problem, a new derailleur might not fix it.

Relja

jsdavis

RD- M3020 has 30 tooth minimum low gear so it will not work well with 23 tooth low gear. If that is a typo and you meant 32, then that will work fine.

If you want 23 low, then you definitely need a short cage road RD like Sora or something like that.

Iride01 

I can understand why you wish to DIY your wheel. But there is a lot to learn about doing wheels correctly. And a few special of tools and fixtures you need to do it correctly.

Your wheel likely needs more than just the spoke replaced. Even if it runs fairly true, there might be spokes with too much tension and others with too little. And that might be why you are breaking spokes. Other than the spokes and other parts that might be needed the shops here don't charge very much to go over a wheel and tension all the spokes properly. Not much more than a few beers in the tavern or a cheap lunch for two.

My wheels on my bike are about the only things I don't DIY myself. There are plenty of other things I can do to get that Zen time.... Like ride the bike.

veganbikes

In that case your local shop can sell you the parts needed. However I would not put a lot of money towards that bike. Just get it safe and functional and save up your money towards a bike you want. Generally if the bike comes with tourney it is a good sign to just leave it alone and run it into the ground and save your money for something better, everything on it is going to be lower quality components and not worth your time or money. The Escape is what I call a price point bike the only goal of it is to hit a price point, there are generally few if any other considerations and the quality just really isn't there. The minor upgrades won't really change the bike significantly and you can get another price point hybrid with 8 speed already on it and it will give you a slight upgrade all over.

Like I said earlier 11-23 is a pretty small cassette and now you are wanting to get rid of the 23 and just use the smaller stuff might be a bit shortsighted as the thing probably came with a 32 at the back. It was a freewheel so it was probably a 13 or 14t as your smallest gear so I can understand maybe wanting a little smaller but I wouldn't want to get rid of my larger gears for getting around especially on a bike like that.

Doing repairs at home is great, though collecting tools can get quite expensive but well worth it if you get good tools. However in cases when you are unsure getting parts or help from your LBS is going to be quite useful so at least when you get to the repair you have the right parts and have a place you can go if things go south.

Also one final note if you put an (@) symbol before someone's name like @forummember which would show up as in your case Bashbike it will generally alert the person you have been mentioned otherwise you are just using their name and they have to find it.

Bashbike

A quick update.

At my LBS, I ordered their cheapest wheel in person. It took 6 weeks to arrive.

I really got what I paid for:

- There is rarely an spin. I use that bike for commuting 2x30 min and can accept that biking became harder.

- It has a single wall, only. I was not aware of it when I ordered it. I was hoping that a bike store would point out possible wrong-buyings. No.

After 3 weeks, I had my first puncture towards the spokes. That is not acceptable. I'm now shopping for yet another wheel :-/

veganbikes

So you ordered a cheap wheel for a cheap bike. It happens especially with the way you went to them. I have customers come in all the time doing the same thing, They sound like birds "cheap cheap, cheap cheap" so we get them that and they balk still and then they complain about their cheap wheel being problematic even though I let folks know what they are getting into. A single wall wheel isn't always terrible but if you go double wall you pay more and then they have to explain why it costs more and then more balking at price. You balked at the price of removing a freewheel ($10) and decided to trash your wheel over that $10. I know I would see you and say this isn't worth the battle order the cheapest thing and get them out the door. If I have to fight to get $10 out of you, it isn't worth my time and I have clients who actually care about their bikes and want to get them fixed and understand it costs money.

Surprised it took 6 weeks maybe there was an odd issue with stockage and maybe they knew just wait for the cheapest option because even $10 more is going to be a hassle for them dealing with a customer.

I am not trying to be mean but honest I see customers in similar situations and have dealt with them for over a decade and unfortunately it is all a similar story of not wanting to put money towards their bikes that they have run into the ground and do zero maintenance on. I am not running a charity, I am trying to keep myself and my staff employed and make sure we can eat, live and pay our bills and maybe have some money leftover to have an actual life. Things do cost money and my time and labor isn't free and the parts that you need do cost money as does having a building and lights and all of that to run it. It is the reality of life that some people in this world forget.

Lombard

Brutally honest.

As the saying goes, buy cheap, buy twice.

Iride01 

I'm still trying to get past the part where it didn't spin well or whatever the OP was trying to relate, but then continued to use it.

Possibly there is a language issue. But if the OP simply ordered a wheel from the shop and installed it himself, then the shop doesn't seem responsible for the problem since they couldn't have known the wheel wasn't working correctly.

GamblerGORD53

Of course the new cheap wheel doesn't spin. The cones are TIGHT and spokes likely LOOSE.
If you refuse to do service, then you need to buy a whole lot better stuff.