6 speed to 7 speed upgrade, mountain bike

"joel roth" wrote in message .edu...
I have a park FR 5G to remove cassettes. Will this work to remove the
freewheel, or do I need the FR 1?

I recommend a breaker bar in addition to the freewheel removal tool.
That way you have a really long lever arm to pull.

A long piece of pipe over your wrench handle should work if you don't bend the
pipe. I'm sure I've bent pipe that way before.

"joel roth" wrote in message .edu...
I think that it is a freewheel. I have a park FR 5G to remove cassettes. Will this work to remove the freewheel, or do I need the
FR 1?

If it's a freewheel, you'll need a freewheel tool.

FWIW, I've seen both 6-speed FW and cassette on late 80s MTBs. The only 6-speed cassette I've
seen was Exage or similar (Exage Mountain?) low-end Shimano.

Thank you very much to all who responded. I'll give it a try.

Joel

Sheldon Brown wrote:

joel roth wrote:

I have a park FR 5G to remove cassettes. Will this work to remove the
freewheel, or do I need the FR 1?


If it's a Shimano or SRAM freewheel, and isn't on beastly tight, it
should work.

Sheldon "No Guarantee" Brown
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession |
| of the mind, they become self-forged chains. |
| --Helen Gahagan Douglas |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

wrote:


"joel roth" wrote in message
.edu...
I have a park FR 5G to remove cassettes. Will this work to remove the
freewheel, or do I need the FR 1?

I recommend a breaker bar in addition to the freewheel removal tool.
That way you have a really long lever arm to pull.

Or if you have a bench vise, put the freewheel tool in the vise, and turn
the wheel. I've also improvised something similar by using a box wrench
wedged between two boards in my porch in the place of a vise.

--
Benjamin Lewis

Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.

Just look for lock ring and it a cassette. If it
doesn't have one its a freewheel.

David Wrote:

"joel roth" wrote in message
.edu...
I think that it is a freewheel. I have a park FR 5G to remove
cassettes. Will this work to remove the freewheel, or do I need the
FR 1?

If it's a freewheel, you'll need a freewheel tool.

FWIW, I've seen both 6-speed FW and cassette on late 80s MTBs. The
only 6-speed cassette I've
seen was Exage or similar (Exage Mountain?) low-end Shimano.

There were 6 speed Durace Uniglide cassettes as well. FWIW, my 6 speed
cassette is Exage, but I thought there were other 6 speed cassette
groupos out there besides those two.

There are 6 speed Hyperglide cassettes out there too.


--
meb

David wrote:

"joel roth" wrote in message .edu...

I have a park FR 5G to remove cassettes. Will this work to remove the
freewheel, or do I need the FR 1?


I recommend a breaker bar in addition to the freewheel removal tool.
That way you have a really long lever arm to pull.

A long piece of pipe over your wrench handle should work if you don't bend the
pipe. I'm sure I've bent pipe that way before.

With a long enough cheater bar (e.g. 10-foot AW rod) it is possible to
bend steel pipe wrenches and break aluminium alloy pipe wrenches.

--
Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island

David wrote:

FWIW, I've seen both 6-speed FW and cassette on late 80s MTBs. The
only 6-speed cassette I've
seen was Exage or similar (Exage Mountain?) low-end Shimano.

Long, long ago, *all* of Shimano's lines included 6-speed cassettes,
from Dura-Ace:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/shimano1982/pages/21.html
down to Adamas:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/shimano1982/pages/33.html

(Adamas? Wasn't he on "Battlestar Galactica"?)

I seem to recall that the very first Dura-Ace cassettes were available
in *5-speed*. The catalog shows 5-speed 600EX hubs:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/shimano1982/pages/24.html
(Check out the nifty high-flange cassette hubs- I wonder if any of them
made it to the U.S.)

Jeff

joel roth wrote:
I have an older Raleigh mountain bike from the late 1980's.
(Elkhorn?)
It has six speeds in back. Several years ago the LBS replaced the
original shifter with a 7 speed index shifter. It works, but requires
'double shifting' at times to move the chain.
Can I simply replace replace the 6 speed cassette with a 7 speed?

Sheldon Brown Wrote:
Are you sure it's a cassette? Cassette hubs were quite uncommon in the
6-speed era. If you're not sure, see: http://sheldonbrown.com/free-k7
If it's a thread-on freewheel, you can just buy a 7-speed freewheel and
a new chain, see: http://harriscyclery.com/freewheels. You might need
to add a washer to the axle for clearance, might not.
If it's a cassette hub, you'll need to do a body transplant. See:
http://sheldonbrown.com/k7

meb wrote:
Your answer regarding the body raises a red flag on an issue I never
attempted before since my cassette bikes all have indexed shifting and
my 6 vs. 7 speed cassettes are from quasi-incompatible eras.
Are 6/7 cassette bodies different axial lengths (I have 1 uniglide
cassette 6 speed wheel and several hyperglide-C 7 speed wheels in case
the answer varies per Shimano era)?

Yep. Six speed cassette bodies are about 28.5mm, sevens are
about 31 and 8/9 are about 34.5mm.

Freewheel or cassette six speeds are usually 126mm OLD and
7-8-9 130mm, 135 for mountain format and some tyouring
applications.

If you run a seven speed cassette on an 8/9 body, add a
spacer ( there are plenty in between the cogs of the
cassette you're throwing out)

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

"joel roth" wrote in message .edu...
I think that it is a freewheel. I have a park FR 5G to remove cassettes. Will this work to remove the freewheel, or do I need the
FR 1?

David wrote:
If it's a freewheel, you'll need a freewheel tool.
FWIW, I've seen both 6-speed FW and cassette on late 80s MTBs. The only 6-speed cassette I've
seen was Exage or similar (Exage Mountain?) low-end Shimano.

Six speed cassettes are pre-HG. The last cog screws to the
body.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971