Chain thickness and a few other questions

[KneesUp]

I'm gradually putting together the parts to build a sort of tourer-hybrid-off-road-on-road thing.

The bike originally had flat bars and a seven speed cassette. It will have drop bars so I'm looking out for some bar-end shifters for reasons of economy, reliability and the ability to stick it in friction mode if it gets a bit sticky.

First question is - does the indexing number of the shifters have to match the cassette? E.g. if I buy 10 speed shifters and have an 8 speed cassette, will it work (obviously I'd have to set the top and bottom so it didn't shed the chain or shred the dérailleur) but that aside, would one click equal one gear?

Second question - I see a lot of posts about chains only lasting five minutes. Am I right in thinking that up to 8 speed the chains are reasonably robust? My current thinking is that if I got to 8 speed at the back it would be (relatively) sturdy and maintenance free?

Oh, and one more - I presume the only difference between an MTB cassette and a road cassette is the 'depth' because the frame spacing is different? Or am I missing something?

Thanks.

 

[HLaB]

1) No it won't work, indexed 10 sp shifter pulls across the deraileur in smaller intervals than the wider spaced 8sp.
2) the thickness of the chain has little affect compared to the quality of the chain, FWIW my 10speed chains have lasted longer than my 8sp ones because the former are better quality.
3) MTB cassettes tend to offer a larger ratio than a short road bike mech can handle, but if your road bike mech can handle it, theres little or no difference IME (I used to run MTB cassettes on the hybrid).

 

[KneesUp]

1) No it won't work, indexed 10 sp shifter pulls across the deraileur in smaller intervals than the wider spaced 8sp.

See when you put it like that it's obvious My avatar is no coincidence

 

[Dogtrousers]

FWIW I use MTB cassette + MTB rear mech (Alivio) + 8 speed chain + Friction shifters on an otherwise roady bike and it all works no probs. Friction shift avoids all the headaches of different cable pulls between road and MTB and between the different "speeds". There's some clever stuff all about cable pulls and stuff on this page which may or may not be useful.

 

[raleighnut]

With Shimano bar end shifters the indexing can be switched off, not so with Campagnolo.

 

[KneesUp]

With Shimano bar end shifters the indexing can be switched off, not so with Campagnolo.

Thanks - ideally I'd like indexing, but I used to switch to friction on my old downtube shifters when it got out of step and I couldn't be bothered to adjust it, so the option to do so would be good - so that's Campag out

 

[KneesUp]

FWIW I use MTB cassette + MTB rear mech (Alivio) + 8 speed chain + Friction shifters on an otherwise roady bike and it all works no probs. Friction shift avoids all the headaches of different cable pulls between road and MTB and between the different "speeds". There's some clever stuff all about cable pulls and stuff on this page which may or may not be useful.

Thanks - will read that later. The frame I'm using is an old hybrid and I'm hoping to re-use a fair bit. The dérailleur is Alvio I think, and the (very worn) cassette was fairly wide range so I presume it was an MTB item. I think the hubs are Exage though (wheels are in the attic at the moment while I re-spray the frame etc - not seem them for weeks)