rear cogs

You can still find six cog clusters (right next to the boxes of hen's teeth, LOL),

Actually, it's not that bad. BUT, if you're thinking of adding more cogs, you may have a problem. A
seven speed will fit, but for eight or (heaven forbid, more speeds, you'll need a different hub with
a longer axle.

May you have the wind at your back. And a really low gear for the hills! Chris

Chris'Z Corner "The Website for the Common Bicyclist": geocities.comczcornerOpen ↗

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently have
13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I was
spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

_______________________________
M Lee Tharps Dept of Chemical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University [email hidden]
www.espasticity.net

319 Morewood Ave Apt 18 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ,-._,-. \/)"(\/ (_o_)
(412) 687-2521 / \/)
(413) 901-4785(mobile) (|| ||) oo-oo
______________________________

Mark Janeba said:

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

You can still find six cog clusters (right next to the boxes of hen's teeth, LOL),

Actually, it's not that bad. BUT, if you're thinking of adding more cogs, you may have a
problem. A seven speed will fit,

Not necessarily. In the early days of SunTour's ultra spacing, near 1980, there were lots of bikes
made with 120mm spacing and ultra-six clusters. A seven won't fit those without at least a new
axle (and preferably a re-dish and a rear triangle widening).

We need to know more about the fellow's bike to answer his question.

Quoted message said:

but for eight or (heaven forbid, more speeds, you'll need a different hub with a longer axle.

--
Mark Janeba remove antispam phrase in address to reply

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

You can still find six cog clusters (right next to the boxes of hen's teeth, LOL),

Actually, it's not that bad. BUT, if you're thinking of adding more cogs, you may have a problem.
A seven speed will fit,

Not necessarily. In the early days of SunTour's ultra spacing, near 1980, there were lots of bikes
made with 120mm spacing and ultra-six clusters. A seven won't fit those without at least a new axle
(and preferably a re-dish and a rear triangle widening).

We need to know more about the fellow's bike to answer his question.

Quoted message said:

but for eight or (heaven forbid, more speeds, you'll need a different hub with a longer axle.

--
Mark Janeba remove antispam phrase in address to reply

Lee Tharps said:

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently have
13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I was
spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

Well, if it was made with a freewheel in '96 (this is a guess, it could still be a freehub system.
If it's a freehub, the hub will most likely have a bulge at the right side, and the spacers in
between each cog will be the same size.), then it's pretty low end, and low end spares for these
should still be available (top of the line expensive stuff pretty much isn't, but that's not a
huge issue).

What you need to do is clean the ring part of the freewheel directly around the axle (you might have
to remove the wheel to do this), and find out what brand the freewheel is. Probably Shimano.

sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗ sheldonbrown.comk7.htmlOpen ↗ The articles there
might help you determine what kind of beast you have, and what to do with it.

sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗ has various replacement freewheels, but I notice
that in 6 speed there's no set starting under 13.

If you have a frame/rear wheel with 126 mm spacing and you use friction shifters (as opposed to
indexed), you can fairly easily upgrade to a 7 speed freewheel of which there is one that starts at
11. If you use indexed shifters that reside on the top of your mountain bars (resembling
harriscyclery.netitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗ ), you can get new shifters as well for about
the same outlay again of just the freewheel.

Another option to get higher gears might be to increase the size of the front chainrings. Your
chainrings might either be bolted or riveted onto your cranks. If riveted, you'd need to replace
your entire right crank.

Oh, and one last thought: If you're pedalling so fast you can't handle the bike properly any more,
coast. You don't necessarily need to keep pedalling the bike unless you ride a fixed gear, which
very few people do.

Jasper

They are quite common and cheap see sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗

Lee Tharps said:

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently have
13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I was
spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

_______________________________
M Lee Tharps Dept of Chemical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University [email hidden]
www.espasticity.net

319 Morewood Ave Apt 18 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ,-._,-. \/)"(\/ (_o_)
(412) 687-2521 / \/)
(412) 901-4785(mobile) (|| ||) oo-oo
______________________________

Mark Janeba said:

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

You can still find six cog clusters (right next to the boxes of hen's teeth, LOL),

Actually, it's not that bad. BUT, if you're thinking of adding more cogs, you may have a
problem. A seven speed will fit,

Not necessarily. In the early days of SunTour's ultra spacing, near 1980, there were lots of
bikes made with 120mm spacing and ultra-six clusters. A seven won't fit those without at least a
new axle (and preferably a re-dish and a rear triangle widening).

We need to know more about the fellow's bike to answer his question.

Quoted message said:

but for eight or (heaven forbid, more speeds, you'll need a different hub with a longer axle.

--
Mark Janeba remove antispam phrase in address to reply

although a smaller small cog is not available is six speed. Msot likely you can just screw on the 7
speed 11-34 freewheel, which may require a new rear derailer..but those are alos quite inexpensive..
sheldonbrown.comderailers.htmlOpen ↗

The tourney mega range works fine

Lee Tharps said:

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently have
13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I was
spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

_______________________________
M Lee Tharps Dept of Chemical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University [email hidden]
www.espasticity.net

319 Morewood Ave Apt 18 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ,-._,-. \/)"(\/ (_o_)
(412) 687-2521 / \/)
(412) 901-4785(mobile) (|| ||) oo-oo
______________________________

Mark Janeba said:

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

You can still find six cog clusters (right next to the boxes of hen's teeth, LOL),

Actually, it's not that bad. BUT, if you're thinking of adding more cogs, you may have a
problem. A seven speed will fit,

Not necessarily. In the early days of SunTour's ultra spacing, near 1980, there were lots of
bikes made with 120mm spacing and ultra-six clusters. A seven won't fit those without at least a
new axle (and preferably a re-dish and a rear triangle widening).

We need to know more about the fellow's bike to answer his question.

Quoted message said:

but for eight or (heaven forbid, more speeds, you'll need a different hub with a longer axle.

--
Mark Janeba remove antispam phrase in address to reply

Lee Tharps said:

woah, I've only got six cogs in my rear cluster.

Will replacing that be hard?

Not real hard. Selection isn't what it once was and not everybody stocks them. You just have to know
where to look. If your local bike shop doesn't carry them, then here's one place:

sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗
sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗

You can also find them on Ebay.

It helps to have the appropriate freewheel tool to remove the old one. If you don't have one, your
local bike shop can probably remove it for you for less than the cost of the tool. Hopefully you
don't have an old regina as I've found many bike shops don't seem to have that tool anymore. I had
one on a used wheel I bought and I had to wait a few days for the old guy bike mechanic to show up
and then he had to go home to get the tool since the shop itself didn't own one.

--Bill Davidson

Lee Tharps <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently
have 13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I
was spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

_______________________________
M Lee Tharps Dept of Chemical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University [email hidden]
www.espasticity.net

319 Morewood Ave Apt 18 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ,-._,-. \/)"(\/ (_o_)
(412) 687-2521 / \/)
(412) 901-4785(mobile) (|| ||) oo-oo
______________________________

Try this link--but it looks like the 6 speeds all have 13 teeth as their high gear. You may have to
go to a 7-speed Freewheel assuming you have enough spacing.
sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗

Brian

Lee Tharps <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently
have 13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I
was spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

Still not enough information- if it's a "freewheel", then you won't easily find a replacement with
fewer teeth. If it's a "cassette", you might be able to fit a 12-tooth small cog- but that's pretty
rare, also.

Sheldon has excellent explainations of the differences and how to spot them:
sheldonbrown.comfreewheels.htmlOpen ↗ sheldonbrown.comgloss e f.htmlOpen ↗

Jeff

Lee Tharps <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

it's a mongoose switchback, not sure how old, but I would guess from 1996 or so.

I would be happy with another six speed as long as I can get a smaller small gear. I currently
have 13 teeth on my smallest gear. I'm looking for speed. I just came from riding my bike and I
was spinning out going down a really shallow grade, and almost got run over.

Six speed freewheels are available, although they are not cheap and the selection is much more
limited than it was when they were on every new bike. Try doing a Google search on "six-speed
freewheels". I know Yellow Jersey sells them.

Six speed cassettes, I'm not sure about. I haven't seen any advertised.

Tom

"Lee Tharps" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

woah, I've only got six cogs in my rear cluster.

Will replacing that be hard?

With six, it will be neither difficult nor expensive

--
Andrew Muzi yellowjersey.orgyellowjersey.orgOpen ↗ Open every day since 1 April 1971