On Tue, 2013-04-16 at 10:11 -0600, PATRICK MOORE wrote: > > I think, therefore, that if Shimano and others simply brought back 8 > speed systems with friction options, we'd be where we need to be in > respect of drivetrains. No? I agree that new systems are not, from the > standpoint of both use and money, the best solution.
I tried Sun Tour Sprint friction shifters with 8 speed Hyperglide. Didn't work well at all: far too much ghost shifting. I moved the shifters to a new bike with 7 speed Hyperglide and found it worked very well. Also: 8 speed never had a range of gearings that began with 13. Other than for juniors, they began with 11 or 12. Nowadays just about all you can get in 8 begins with 11. Except on my 17" wheeled Moulton, I have no use whatever for 11 tooth sprockets, and I would need a 44 tooth large chain ring to get the high gear I like with a 12 tooth sprocket. Summary: except for tandems, for me 8 speed gearing range is crap. Seven, on the other hand, had several nice gear sets including 13-30 and 13-34. Seven also has the 14-32, which is surprisingly perfect on a 650B bike with a 39/53 double. What's more, all the 7 speed gear ranges are still currently available, albeit not in the nice shiny versions they once used to have, whereas just about all that's left of 8 is, as I said, crap. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
