Dumb front mech question

[Arch]

I need to get a front mech for the trike, now I have the boom upgrade. I have a dim question. The trike is 9spd. Will a front mech for 7 or 8 speed work? I'm assuming if anything it'll have a wider cage to accomodate the slightly wider 7-8spd chain, so the 9 spd chain will go through fine. I'll have a double chainring, and a non-indexed shifter, so I guess it doesn't matter if the mech is double or triple specific? I'm assuming that the longer chain line on the recumbent means the front mech range is not so specific as it is on an upright...

Thank you in advance for not laughing at me.

 

[TheDoctor]

Pretty much any road mech would be fine. I know from experience that a triple mech will shift a compact double with 50T or 48T big ring, and I suspect most double mechs are designed to work a compact these days. As long as you don't get an MTB mech designed to work with a 42T big ring, you should be fine.

 

[Arch]

Cheers! I'm looking out for max tooth number ok...

It looks quite swish - the replacement boom is white (no fluoro orange ones available quickly) but that matches the Dash graphic and the go-faster seat stripe.

 

[TheDoctor]

OK, get this one. Fits all sizes of mounting post, will cope with big rings of 44T, 46T and 48T, and will take cable pull from either direction. £15 of your Earth pounds. Simples!!

 

[Arch]

Well, it's on, and it works. There was a certain amount of cursing though. The brazed on cable stop on the boom pillar wasn't anywhere near in the right place as far as I could tell. It would only work as a cable stop from underneath, but the mech had to be under it to be fitted right for the chainrings. (so I needed the cable to pull from above, but the cable stop was the wrong way round for that). Anyway, luckily I had a band-on cable stop on the old trike, so I took that off and reused it. It needed bending a bit to accommodate the pillar width, and a longer screw, but I found one kicking about. I'm sure the cable run will have purists tutting, but it seems to work. If it's nice tomorrow, I'll take it out for a shakedown ride.

Just need the rack now. Have to chase up the supplier who said it would be in 'beginning of March'.

 

[Arch]

What did you do with your old bent?

It's sold to Cyclemagic, subject to one of them coming up in a van to collect it. It'll be joining a fleet of stuff to be hired out, I gather. They'll be able to get it back to tip top condition.

Or make it into something bizarre....

 

[TheDoctor]

Yay!!! I'm glad it works. I'd have felt bad if I'd found a mech that sounded the best thing since sliced bread, and it turned out to be the gearing equivalent of a Bros reunion tour.

 

[Arch]

Yay!!! I'm glad it works. I'd have felt bad if I'd found a mech that sounded the best thing since sliced bread, and it turned out to be the gearing equivalent of a Bros reunion tour.

You were on thin ice for a minute or two. The trouble was, I'd ridden down to the lock up on the hack (single chainring), so I couldn't even check against a different sort of front mech to see if that would solve the problem.

As it is, the cable line isn't perfect, because the brazed on cable stop is almost in the way. If it looks like it's going to foul over time, I'll have to rethink. I can't see how the cable stop could work though, with any mech, unless you had enormous chainrings, because the mech is always going need to be lower down the post than the cable stop, but the stop is only set up for the cable to enter from below. (ooerr!)

Talking of Bros, I found a 1975 copy of Jackie in the recycling yesterday - all David Essex and the Osmonds!

 

[Auntie Helen]

BTW Arch, you realise of course that your thread title contains an Americanism?!

 

[MacB]

BTW Arch, you realise of course that your thread title contains an Americanism?!

bit of a dumb post

 

[Arch]

BTW Arch, you realise of course that your thread title contains an Americanism?!

I like to think of myself as multilingual....