52telecaster

I just bought an allcity spacehorse and it is a very good bike but i am seriously considering a Bob Jackson World Tour frameset. The thing is when I outfit it with drivetrain I would like to go 8 speed with barends. Does this sound crazy? I had that setup until I got the space horse which came with 10 speed brifters and a compact double. The bike is very nice but I dont like the drivetrain. I am thinking of switching it over to what I think I want on the Bob Jackson while I am saving money to order the frameset. (I buy no bike stuff or anything else for that matter on credit.)

I guess what I would like to hear is whether any of you think that retrogressing to 8 speed is crazy. Could be something odd about me but 11-34 8speed with 26-40 chainrings just felt very comfortable.

mstateglfr 

So you have a Spacehorse with a compact double drivetrain. You want a Bob Jackson tourer. You want the Tourer to be 8sp like you used to have. While saving for the Tourer, you will buy all the components to turn your Spacehorse into an 8sp drivetrain? And then continue to save for the Tourer frame, and then outfit that as well with an 8sp drivetrain?

Hey, have at it and all, but it seems redundant. I have redundant bikes though, so if thats what you want then cool. Just want to make sure I followed what you posted.


As for spec'ing an 8sp drivetrain, it isnt wildly crazy. I built a 9sp bar end touring bike last year and thats only 1 more cog than what you want. COOP touring bikes are 9sp. Fuji Touring comes as a 9sp.
Its not like you are way off the mark and all touring bikes are 11sp now.

I wouldnt go for 8sp at this point, but thats only because I think 9sp is pretty inexpensive to build and it keeps the shift jumps closer together thru the cassette range. If the shifting of your old 8sp is what you like, then cool.

52telecaster

I will probably return the spacehorse to its original configuration when the bob gets here. its not like I am throwing drivetrain away. I think I actually liked the wider jumps in the 8 speed cassette. Being a guy who commutes 20 miles or so a day, I have no need for super close racer guy stuff, so I guess I am answering my own question. Just wanted another opinion is all.

skookum

No you are not crazy as long as you can get the parts.

I still have a bike with a 5 speed freewheel.. Try and find those parts.

Have we reached the limits on how many cogs you can get on a cassette?

I suppose the next step is some kind of CVT, where you have an infinite number of gears. Or does it exist already?

52telecaster

8 speed stuff is real cheap now actually, cassettes r < $20. Found a set of ultegra barends for 48.00 on ebay and I am thinking of going with inverted mustache bars so they have a rise.

skookum

Maybe I should stock up before they disappear.

I like moustache bars, but inverted with bar ends?

To each, his own.

Snuts

I understand this logic.
I look at my bikes as a hobby. Alterations, and or upgrades are a big part of my hobby.
Cycling gets me the exercise part of my hobby.

Enjoy yourself Russell

-Snuts-

52telecaster

You my man, have a generous spirit. Plus i always wanted a bob.

Snuts

The Bob Jackson is the Goal.
Using the Space horse as a test bed, is simply (genius), practical.

Driving (grinding, ha-ha) along on tour, I often think of you and your outlook on gear-inches. Best of all I will end up in Edmonton this fall where last years touring bike is waiting. It is a 3 X 8, and I am willing to play with it's ratio's and gear-inches. The hobby part of my cycling (touring).

-Snuts-
(Dale if you like)

saddlesores

don't worry about what some anonymous basement dwellers think.
consider some of our prolific experts here have never done
a bike tour, yet are often the first to spew baseless nonsense.

it's your bike, your money, your tour.
if it makes you happy, it not crazy.

Mr IGH

They'll be 8-speed stuff forever, why not? I bought a set of 9 speed Shimano bar-cons for $40, already had some Cane Creek brake levers and a take-off 9 speed Deore derailleur so 9 speed it is for my Saga.

BigAura

I run 8-speed with bar-ends. I don't care about constant-cadence, and shifting less is more lazily-relaxing, when I'm out touring. The cheaper initial & maintenance costs are a bonus too. 8-speed chains are very inexpensive and can be picked up virtually anywhere.

mstateglfr 

Oh, gotcha. That makes sense- swapping the parts back over.
Seems like a great setup. As you mentioned, components are inexpensive and you dont have an issue with close gear spacing.

Seems like a great build.

bikemig 

One of my favorite bikes has 3 x 8 gearing. It's my 1993 Bridgestone XO-2. I'm running it with brifters, a 44/32/22 crank, and an 11-28 cassette. It has great climbing gears and there are no big gaps anywhere. It just works.

fietsbob

Touring is the trip not the hardware.. All kinds of bikes on the OR coast now , ride whatever pleases you.

6v speed freewheels triple cranks 10 years , many tours..




ride whatever, .... happy shopping..

nfmisso

How about a 1x9 with 32T chainring and 11-42 cassette?
Bicycle Gear Calculator

Loose a gear on the top, and equal on the bottom.

I like my 1x9 44 & 12-36 for commuting.

Squeezebox

What don't you like about the drivetrain? Maybe stick with the 10 speed stuff for a while to see if you get to like it after all.

52telecaster

I've got 700+ miles on the 10 speed drivetrain and I dont like the brifters and I almost always need 2 gears when I shift. Not saying I have enough miles to absolutely know for sure but I do know that I liked the old setup better so far.

52telecaster

There is something to the simplicity of a 1by that I like. really my 40 to 11-34 gives me a sort of 1by with my 26 tooth chainring for the "oh ****" moments.

Squeezebox

Well after 700 miles you should know if you like brifters or not. Personally I wouldn't use anything else. Spent a lot of money and trouble getting bar-ends changed to brifters on my 920. To each their own.
Enjoy!!

Tourist in MSN

I built up a new Lynskey Backroad (Titanium bike) last month. Eight speed with bar ends. Photos attached. The bar ends that I put on that bike I previously installed on a bike in 2004, they still work fine. I leave Sunday for the first tour on this bike, a short five day loop in Southern Wisconsin.

I am running three bikes with eight speed bar ends. I use the same eight speed 11/32 cassette on four different bikes. I use the same eight speed chains (and quick links) on seven different bikes. There are advantages to sticking with the stuff that works well instead of jumping to the latest fads.

A friend of mine leaves in a couple weeks for his third cross country tour. A couple weeks ago, one of his nine speed brifters stopped working and he could not find another one in any of the local stores. He tried out one of my bikes with bar ends for about 10 miles and decided to switch his touring bike to bar ends.

Another friend of mine tours with seven speed and bar ends, but his bar ends are on the tips of his bullhorn bars.

bikemig 

Coming to this site to try to get advice as to why you don't need a new touring bike is like a drug addict asking a dealer if he should go cold turkey or not. Of course you could always find a miyata 1000 to build up with 8 speed after you cold set it to 130 mm . . .

52telecaster

Mike, you make me laugh. Thanks, no morning at work is bad when ur laughing.

bikemig 

YW, if I were going to nitpick the Bob Jackson, I don't like that it can't take a tire fatter than 32c and fenders. 32c is a classic tire size for touring but that comes from back in the day when that was about as fat as you could find in a quality 700c tire. There are so many good choices now in fatter tires. So go phat on your next touring bike.

I like the Soma DC, lots of braze ons, option to go with disc or canti, and you can run a 47c tire (without a fender I think).

Or go really phat. I like the touring bikes that are a kind of a mash up between mountain and touring bikes like the salsa fargo or the velo orange piolet. Either one of those bikes will give you a functionality that the Space Horse lacks (think gravel roads).

djb

Being a very average rider, not particularly strong, the thing with wider jumps is that when your bike is rather heavy loaded, wider jumps are more inconvenient, and yes, 9 gives only one more cog, but my experience touring with 6, 7, 8, 9 speed is that 9 lasts pretty much as long as my 7 speed, maybe a bit less but not really that much that is noticeable or a problem.

comparing a 8 speed 11-32 or a 9 speed , there is a slight improvement of percentage of jumps, but then a 10 speed will be a bit closer as well. I still havent had a 10 speed bike, so dont have personal experience of how long stuff lasts vs 9 and less, although I suspect for a skinny, lightweight, low power guy like me, it won't make an iota of difference and 10 will last just as long as all the speeds Ive ridden on in the past.

in the end, go with what you like, but for me, I'll take slightly closer percentage jumps with more speeds and a similar cassette range any day of the week, especially as I get older and am more atune to little advantages to make up for being older.

in the end, you'll have just as much fun on a "whatever" speed bike, so enjoy travelling on it.