better spread of gearing

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c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
Hi folks, i would like to give my lovely old Holdsworth a better range of gearing. The width of the rear drop out is approx 125mm. Does anybody have any suggestions about how to achieve this. Thanks in anticipation.
 

e-rider

crappy member
Location
South West
Fit a new freewheel with larger range

Fit triple chainset and long cage deraileur
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
28, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14 - you'll need to wrestle the frame a bit to get the wheel on & off, but it's perfectly doable...people will start spouting guff about needing to cold set the frame 'n that. Ignore them. You'll need to shift cones along axles a bit to accommodate the new freewheel, which will be a bit wider, and you'll also need to adjust your derailleur limiting screws. But once you've done that you just need a bit of brute force every now & then (when you fix a puncture). Shouldn't take you more than two or three hours all told, and it's *well* worth it. Good luck! (Oh, you can find freewheels like that on ebay for under a tenner, including delivery. By the looks of things your bigest problem might be getting the old one off - they can be a swine to shift, and that one looks like it's been there since the late '90s. The late 1890s.)
 
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c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
[quote name='swee'pea99']28, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14 - you'll need to wrestle the frame a bit to get the wheel on & off, but it's perfectly doable...people will start spouting guff about needing to cold set the frame 'n that. Ignore them. You'll need to shift cones along axles a bit to accommodate the new freewheel, which will be a bit wider, and you'll also need to adjust your derailleur limiting screws. But once you've done that you just need a bit of brute force every now & then (when you fix a puncture). Shouldn't take you more than two or three hours all told, and it's *well* worth it. Good luck! (Oh, you can find freewheels like that on ebay for under a tenner, including delivery. By the looks of things your bigest problem might be getting the old one off - they can be a swine to shift, and that one looks like it's been there since the late '90s. The late 1890s.)[/QUOTE]

excellent stuff, thanks, im off to ebay right now. oh and wiggle to get a suntour freewheel remover......xx(
 

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
The very cheap and simple option is to fit a MTB freewheel. A Shimano 14-28 5 speed block should cost about £8 on ebay, will screw on as a direct replacement for what you have, will leave you with the same top gear but a few lower ones for the hills and the newer design will mean better gear changes. You will need a few links extra in the chain and there is a small question mark about whether your derailleur will handle the larger sprocket but it should.

A worthwhile upgrade which I carried out on my Pug and has made the bike much more usable.
 

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
c2c said:
excellent stuff, thanks, im off to ebay right now. oh and wiggle to get a suntour freewheel remover......:smile:

Looks more like a Shimano splined freewheel than a Suntour 2 prong. Mind you I've been wrong on spline patterns before! If it turns out to be a Maillard freewheel you better start looking for a seriously old-fashioned LBS to get the bugger off.
But, once done, as tyred suggests - get a Shimano freewheel on there (and a Shimano freewheel remover) Or change the back wheel for a 130mm hub which you can wrestle on to a 126mm drop out, and takes a modern freehub/cassette)
 

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
If it is an odd spline pattern, I remove them with a hammer and chisel. It takes patience but can be done.
 

jimboalee

New Member
Location
Solihull
If you spread your rear triangle too much, ie, from a 5 to a 7, the dropouts will end up 'out of parallel'.

When you tighten the QR, there will be a bending moment on the spindle and the axle cones will be slightly out of alignment.

It is NOT 'guff' about 'cold setting' the frame. We prefer to call it "mechanical adjustments" to bring the dropouts into parallelism.
 
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c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
porkypete said:
Looks more like a Shimano splined freewheel than a Suntour 2 prong. Mind you I've been wrong on spline patterns before! If it turns out to be a Maillard freewheel you better start looking for a seriously old-fashioned LBS to get the bugger off.
But, once done, as tyred suggests - get a Shimano freewheel on there (and a Shimano freewheel remover) Or change the back wheel for a 130mm hub which you can wrestle on to a 126mm drop out, and takes a modern freehub/cassette)

hi, yeah its a regina freewheel i assumed wrongly it was suntour, got the correct remover on order. i would like to stay with the original wheels so will just look to fit a 7 speed freewheel with a better spread of gears as outlined by the marvelous cyclechat peoples.

jimboalee, accepting that the frame needs to be cold set, how does one go about it ?.
 

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
You can spread the drop-outs by levering with a piece of two by four. Sheldon describes how. But that doesnt get the alignment right.

I spread them by winding them out on some big washers on a length of threaded rod. You can use a piece of string to make sure it stays symnetrical.
Then to align the drop outs use two pieces of threaded rod - one bolted to each side (again with big washers each side so as to make each rod at 90 deg to the drop outs, lengths so that their ends almost meet in the middle. When the rods are ligned up the drop outs are parallel. Easier to do than to describe.

TBH if you are not sure - take it to your LBS who should have a jig to do teh job properly.
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
See what I mean? :tongue:

Nah - just give it a bit of welly. I've done it on three or four bikes and never had a problem. Trust me, I'm a doctor.
 
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c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
c2c said:
Hi folks, i would like to give my lovely old Holdsworth a better range of gearing. The width of the rear drop out is approx 125mm. Does anybody have any suggestions about how to achieve this. Thanks in anticipation.

thanks for all your help chaps, here is the end result a 7 speed freewheel with a nice range of gears. so if anyone wants a close ratio, regina extra, freewheel to complete a restoration project, i got one innit...:laugh:
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Blimey - you don't hang about do you? Well done - looks good. I'm sure that's a very nice ride...I've heard good things about those old Holdsworths.
 
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c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
[quote name='swee'pea99']Blimey - you don't hang about do you? Well done - looks good. I'm sure that's a very nice ride...I've heard good things about those old Holdsworths.[/QUOTE]

Well credit to SJS cycles really, i ordered a regina freewheel remover and freewheel from them straight after speaking wiv you lot, and it arrived this afternoon. i cleaned, re-greased and adjusted the hub bearings and job was indeed as they say, a good un.

The bike is an Holdsworth Avanti and as far as im aware the bike is circa 1980, a steel reynolds frame and forks with fairly conservative geometry. it rides lovely as it was but hopefully when finished will have the above mentioned frame and its benefits, but will be a more usable bike.
 
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