I'm a bit of a n00b with regards to gears and stuff on mountain bikes - bring back the good old days of BMX that I could take apart, thoroughly clean and put back together again!
I'm about to change my 44T chainring to a 48T - will the current chain be ok? With my previous bike, I found I wasn't using the three front hears, so I had two of the chainrings removed, leaving just a single one, and having that replaced with a slightly larger one for a bit more speed. I'm tempted to have the same done with my current bike, as it also gets rid of excessive metalwork, and gives the bike a cleaner look.
Also, I have a Shimano SRAM PG980 which seems to produce extremely loud clicking! My previous bike wasn't too bad in this respect, but this just seems excessive. I remember just shoving a load of grease in my old BMX cassette which made it almost silent (rightly or wrongly!), so is it going to be the same with a 9 speed mountain bike cassette? I did Google this and have seen. Anyone different reasons for the noise, with some saying it is good as it is a sign of good engineering, and others saying it is the first sign of wear and tear!
Rather than rely on a bike shop to do everything for me, I want to start to try and understand more about some of the complexities of gears and disc brakes, so I'm sure there will be more questions to come...
A Few Drive Train Questions...
Re: A Few Drive Train Questions...
if you go to a single ring with a derailleur and remove the front mech you may find that the chain unships off the chainring when you don't want it to. All those gears are there for a reason; maybe you don't need them if you are just nipping round town but hills, (especially offroad hills) may need more gears than you can easily get with one chainring.
The clicking could be normal or it could be something that is not quite right. I'd suggest getting a second opinion; it could be wear or even just be lack of lube, (which can make the chain rollers rattle like fury). But derailleur gears are inevitably a little noisier than a SS drive; running the chain over the jockey pulleys as well is always going to make more noise.
If you go up 4T you need to have a spare 1" of chain slack available when you are running big to big, and for the chain not to be too worn. If so then it should be OK.
cheers
The clicking could be normal or it could be something that is not quite right. I'd suggest getting a second opinion; it could be wear or even just be lack of lube, (which can make the chain rollers rattle like fury). But derailleur gears are inevitably a little noisier than a SS drive; running the chain over the jockey pulleys as well is always going to make more noise.
If you go up 4T you need to have a spare 1" of chain slack available when you are running big to big, and for the chain not to be too worn. If so then it should be OK.
cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re: A Few Drive Train Questions...
Could the clicking be chainline related? If you're only using one chainwheel then you might be having some extreme chainlines that will cause noise as the chain engages with the teeth at an angle.
Re: A Few Drive Train Questions...
karlt wrote:Could the clicking be chainline related? If you're only using one chainwheel then you might be having some extreme chainlines that will cause noise as the chain engages with the teeth at an angle.
It's definitely not train related - definitely the cassette.
Re: A Few Drive Train Questions...
Brucey wrote:if you go to a single ring with a derailleur and remove the front mech you may find that the chain unships off the chainring when you don't want it to. All those gears are there for a reason; maybe you don't need them if you are just nipping round town but hills, (especially offroad hills) may need more gears than you can easily get with one chainring.
The clicking could be normal or it could be something that is not quite right. I'd suggest getting a second opinion; it could be wear or even just be lack of lube, (which can make the chain rollers rattle like fury). But derailleur gears are inevitably a little noisier than a SS drive; running the chain over the jockey pulleys as well is always going to make more noise.
If you go up 4T you need to have a spare 1" of chain slack available when you are running big to big, and for the chain not to be too worn. If so then it should be OK.
cheers
Thanks for your reply.
It is definitely cassette related. Even though the bike is 2007/2008, it has obviously seen little use (or at least a lot less than would be expected in that period of time) as the condition is excellent, so I doubt very much it is wear - either this thing is on its first set of tyres, or the previous owner replaced them like for like. It could possibly be a lack of lube inside the cassette, but I'm not sure how much difference that will make.
I had the other two chainrings removed off my last bike, and still never used the two lower gears, even on fairly steep hills. I enjoyed the extra speed the larger chainring gave me though (along with slicker tyres).