My old trusty bicycle has a seven-speed rear gear cluster. Bikes today have eight or nine. I just bought a new set of wheels; the rear has a hub made for an eight- or nine-speed gear cluster. The new hub is longer than the one I had with my old seven-speed setup, so my seven-sprocket cluster was floating around loose with space to spare. OK, I bought the new wheels without even thinking about the fact that the rear hub would be the wrong size. However, instead of returning my purchase in defeat, I found an old individual sprocket I had lying around (on the floor, actually), and used it as a spacer, along with another, actual spacer that had been in use on my old hub. The new setup works perfectly, and the larger gap between the spokes and the gear cluster means there is no chance that an errant chain can become wedged in there.
This project also inspired the fabrication of my own homemade chainwhip. It is used for removing rear gear clusters.
Posted by Charles on May 11, 2003 07:56 PM