Dean51 

I'm friction shifting 9 out of 10 cogs on a bike with 126mm between the rear dropouts. It works very well for me. Some details....

I started with a 10 speed cassette with 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-28 cogs.
I broke down the cassette and reassembled with just the 12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-28 loose cogs and the 10-speed spacers on a Shimano Exage FH-G50 hub.
The 9 cogs and 8 spacers do not "fill" the full width of the freehub, so I added a 1.6mm spacer between the 28 tooth (9th position) cog and the inboard flange of the freehub.
I'm using a 10-speed chain, 46-34 chainrings, and early 80's Campy Super Record RD & FD.
The setup provides a 32" to 101" gearing range and it works like a champ.

Dean

ABA0973D-1A76-48C8-BE71-284FA318F5EA

846AB14F-5102-4BEA-AB69-EE5BAEE2D1A5

kommisar

Since you are not using the normal top 11t cog do you do anything to make sure the lock ring won't unwind due to vibration? I assume the serrations that are normally found on the top cogs are to hold the lock ring in place during use.

Dean51 

Responding to post #27, I'm not doing anything to secure the lock ring other than to tighten it to the recommended torque.

FWIW, I'm using smooth faced cogs in the first position on two other bikes with similar good results. These bikes are set up with Campag 8-speed Ergos and I wanted to have a 14-tooth first position cog...'hard to find in my experience.

'Short version is I added three short pins (machine screws) to a 7-speed aluminum spacer....the type that have splines which engage the freehub. I simply tapped the three holes that are normally occupied by the pins that hold the cassette together. I trimmed the protruding portion of the machine screws to match the thickness of a cog (~1.8mm) Next, I opened up the three small holes in a non-first position 14-tooth cog to barely fit over the machine screws...the hardness of the cog will trash a drill bit in short order! Then, I "sandwiched" the modified cog and spacer between the lock ring and 2nd position cog.....'hope this makes some sense.

I've put heaps of miles on these modified 1st position cogs and their lock rings have never backed off.

Dean

kommisar

After hearing all of your great input I have decided to try this little experiment. I am getting an 11 speed 11-25 cassette and an 11 speed chain, will remove the fd and put on a 34T chainring. I will bin the 11, 12 and 13t cogs of the new cassette and add a 13t 9 speed top cog I have lying around. This should give me a nice gear chart as follows:





I think my current 8 speed rear derailleur, rd-m310, will shift the best because its medium gain and has a centeron guide pulley and should be able to shift across all 9 cogs. I will also try my suntour cyclone with is probably high gain and has a tight guide pulley which I think should be able to shift across the top 8 cogs. I don't have any sram exact activate derailleurs which would be low gain but I figure that they would be able to shift across the top 7 cogs. I have a microshift 8 speed thumb shifter with friction used as a downtube and some shimano light action downtube shifters which I will try.