Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

TY!

My commuter has developed a proper loud squeak, only while pedalling in certain gears. I'm pretty sure I've located it to a very gritty feeling pulley wheel on the (presumably 20 years old?) shimano STX rear derailleur. My questions are: 1.) is servicing / replacing the pulley wheels worth the hassle compared with just replacing the rear mech altogether and 2.) if I replace the pulley wheels, any ideas what parts I'd need? I know I need to get the right number of teeth, but do I also need to get a 7-speed specific pulley wheel, or would something like this be ok? Ta!

Yeah anything 8 speed should work.

I need to get lower gears on my and my partners touring bikes, currently have GRX 2x10 cranks (46/30) and front mech and an 11 speed M8000 rear mech.

What is available in 165mm and 170mm with 36/26 chainrings? Nothing niche please, I’m hoping to find them in a bricks and mortar shop in Bogota, Colombia (and also don’t have much money).

M8000 2x11 looks like they would work, any others?

Also we currently have Hope external bottom brackets, is it ok to run them without the internal spacer tube? The one in there at the moment is for road cranks.

Alternatively I could try some kind of cut and shut with a coke can and epoxy to extend it 5mm but I’m not sure it’s worth it.

Bonus points if you can also recommend a front mech to work with the new cranks, band/braze on.

What cassettes are you running?

Anyone got the data sheet for one of these. I carefully laminated mine then lost it, I used this as an excuse to buy the Park Tool one.

I’m building up a tool kit for my son to take to university so thought he could have this one.

I can try and remember Hookes law and calculate one using my Park Tool one but this will only work for spoke widths I own.

1 Attachment

11-42 10 speed, microshift thumb shifter

I've been running XT 2x cranks on the gradventourer for years now. Until recently, I'd been using a Claris front mech with an offset shim to let it reach the MTB chainline. Have just fitted a GRX400 front mech with braze on adapter, and it reaches the outer chainring no problem without any mods.

You've already got that end fully covered then.

Is that a spoke tensiometer?! Is that even the right word? When I went to uni I think I had some tyre levers and one of these ball-ended socket spanners.

1 Attachment

Can anyone ID the number of cogs on my Focus Cross Expert w/ Ultegra bits? I want to put a new cassette on it but I don't know if it's 9s or 10s...

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16960514/

Loooks like 6500 (9 speed) but I'd wait and see if someone is a bit more sure than I am

That's you and @Pifko saying it's 9s.

So the next question is - what chance do I have of fitting a 10s cassette to it?
Are 9s and 10s freehubs the same? I don't mind limiting off top gear for example.

10 speed will fit on, you'll need a spacer behind it but the gears won't work without 10 speed shifters.

1.85mm spacer like when I fit 11s MTB to 11s road or something different?

I don't mind losing top gear if it means I can fit a long cage RD and use one of my bigger 10s cassettes.

Hmm, looks like I've only got 28T lowest 10s cassettes anyway. What's the lowest geared 9s cassette around?

I can't remember the exact one, but the spacing is different so the gears won't work anyway. You can get big 11-40 odd 9 speed cassettes but 11-32 are common and cheap, 11-36 are easy enough to find too.

Cheers. Looks like I'll not bother taking a 10s cassette and just try to find a big 9s one next time we go over.

https://www.parktool.com/assets/doc/product/TM-1_conv-table.pdf

Perfect, saves a job. Thanks

It won’t be the end of the world if we can’t find 165mm cranks but it would be nice. I’ve heard from friends that availability in Colombia is good, I just hope it’s not all 12 speed one by.

Here goes;
650c wheels in a 26er v brake frame, doable? I think there’s only a 6mm difference in wheel radius? Will a ‘normal’ (read cheapy shimano that’s already on there) work?
Genuinely asking for a friend.
Ta

What do you reckon about the bb shell tube? Is it a problem to run it without the tube?

I got a new bike with an 11 speed Shimano cassette and when I took it off it had a spacer on the freehub, I thought the spacer is for 10 speed cassettes?

it's this one:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hub-spares/shimano-duraace-fh9000-rear-right-low-spacer-185mm-y4t724000/

It's only there to keep everything sealed, so maybe you'll reduce the life of the bearings a bit or the axle will rust more than it would without but nothing is going to burst into flames.

Thanks, hopefully we’ll find some cranks and work something out. Not sure my legs will deal with the relentless climbing without more low end.