New cassette, should I shorten the chain?

[DJ]

Hi all, I had to replace my wheels due to an accident so thought I would put a new cassette on as well the old one was a 13/28 and the new one is 11/22 still on the 7 speed system.

My question is should I be shortening the chain at the same time in order to make the gear ratio correct? Or does this not effect it at all!!

Sorry if this is a completley dumb question.

 

[yello]

Not a dumb question, no, not at all.

You might not need to shorten the chain as the rear dérailleur might take up the extra slack. It certainly won't make any difference to the gear ratio.

My advice would to be 'suck it and see'. Run it on the chain as is and should it give any problems then take some links out. It's not a difficult job to work out the correct chain length.... actually, thinking about it...

...if it's a new cassette then you might well benefit from a new chain anyway!

 

[DJ]

Thanks for the quick response,
sounds like I could take a couple of links out just to make the tension better, maybe that would improve the gear changing as well. Or is that not affected by the chain tension?

 

[yello]

Yes, too slack a chain could make gear changing less clean.

 

[Yorkshireman]

If a job's worth doing ...
http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html#chain