Change rear cassette on old MTB for more speed

[chrisgatguis]

Hi,

I fall under the category of - the guy whos pulled out an old bike from the back of the garage - from the guide in the sticky above..

Its an old Diamond Back that keeps getting dug out every year and I'm hoping to commute on it this year (6.5 miles / 13 mi RT)..

My question is - (sorry if this is repeated all the time) - can I replace the rear cassette fairly easily to give me a faster top speed?

Its a 7 speed, Shimano 'MF-TZ07' with 14 - 28 teeth... http://www.woollyhatshop.com/Casset...Speed-Screw-on-Freewheel-14/28/prod_2033.html


Would I be able to stick an 11 - 28 cassette (still 7 spd) in its place to give me more top speed?

If I'm keeping everything the same (number of gears and biggest gear still with 28 teeth) does that mean everything can stay the same (chain length / shifter etc)?

Many Thanks

Chris

 

[grumpyoldgit]

Yes you would,& it will help.

 

[chrisgatguis]

Excellent, thanks for the quick reply..

just as an example would something like this work?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-A...sure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item48553eddd4

its only a tenner - seems quite a good 'performance' gain for the price.

thanks

 

[mcshroom]

Sorry to stop you, but you don't have a cassette compatible rear wheel. the TZ-07 is a screw on freewheel. To replace it with a cassette you'd also have to replace the back wheel.

There's a bit more on the difference between cassettes and freewheels here: -
http://sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html

 

[woosey]

@ the op, save £1 and get it from the same people via amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007R3Y4GO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A78KJF5XDCZ5M

 

[chrisgatguis]

Sorry to stop you

No apology needed - thanks for saving me money!

back to the drawing board then.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

If your bike has the right spacing of 135mm between the rear dropouts in the frame you could replace the wheel with a cassette type one. You'd need also need a spacer so that a 7 speed cassette would fit on the 8/9 speed freehub body.

 

[Cycleops]

Seems like a lot of trouble for not a lot of gain but it's up to you.

 

[Brommyboy]

You can get more speed simply by fitting slick tyres, assuming you have wide nobblies on at present: speed is obtained by pedalling faster, not by powering a really high gear. When I run my touring bike up to 25 mph, I am using 36Tx12T as my highest! Your 46Tx14T is considerably higher than that.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Am I being daft, I don't see where the OP says the bike has a 46T big ring?

 

[chrisgatguis]

Hi thanks again for the replies

Looks like the big ring is 44T to me, I have just installed slick tyres so I'll see how it goes I think..

I was only really interested in doing the rear end as I'd seen the cassettes for soo cheap and barely any effort so made sense.. I suppose another option would be to swap the big ring to bigger but then the chain size is different I guess and other problems I guess?

Think now is the time to nuckle down with what I've got and if I stick to it I can look at a nice new bike

Thanks