6 Speed cassette/12 gear.

[Okeydokey]

I am going to need a new cassette for an old Raleigh Airlite which has 6 cogs on the rear set. The bike hasn't arrived yet but... the front drive chain I will be changing to a single, removing the front derallieur mech entirely. I can see better purchase options on an eight cassette, but the bike currently enjoys a six. Any one suggest options of how I space things out?

Complete novice bth!

Edit: Oh! I am so old & unfit.. preference to easy riding, short distance (km), little if any knee stress. Terrain most low undulating, flat with a short up hill, when I will push the bike.

 

[sittingbull]

Hello &

I think your options are likely to be limited unless you replace the rear wheel. You will likely have a 6 speed freewheel or a 6 speed UG cassette both of which pre-date the current HG cassettes (including your 8 speed of choice).

EDIT: @Moderators , possibly better in Technical Know How?

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Hi and @Okeydokey

A 6 speed on the rear is likely to be a screw-on freewheel rather than a cassette (6 speed cassettes do exist but are old and fairly rare now). This means that you'd need to change the rear wheel if wanting to upgrade to 8 speed. The late Sheldon Brown explains the differences pretty well in this article: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html

To know whether you can fit a cassette type wheel you need to check the spacing between the rear dropouts on the frame. On a road bike the spacing should be 130mm to take a freehub. I believe that the Raleigh Airlite is a comparitively recent model so you may be lucky and find that the frame spacing is right.