Help Gearing Question

Hi All,

My sister bought a used Dawes Dutchess. She has a problem though in that it is way too easy to cycle, it has 7 gears and 1-5 are nearly unusable generating little movement.S he is only using 7 and 6 at the moment.
Should I change the sprocket to a bigger one up front?

I was thinking of moving up one tooth is that enough?

Cee-Jay-Cee

Are there 2 chain rings on the front or just one? Changing one tooth will make absolutely no difference. If the first 5 gears are unusable as they're too low then you'd need to be changing to a chainring with maybe 7 or 8 extra teeth to leave a useable spread of gears.

Edit: I just googled the spec, it has a 38T front chain ring and 14-28t cassette so yeah I can see how there would be a lot of 'easy' gears. Because it has only o e front chain ring your sort of limited on what range of cassettes you can use and anything lower than 28t would mean hills would be very difficult. I think best thing is just to use the higher gears and still have the easy gears for when they're needed.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Are there 2 chain rings on the front or just one? Changing one tooth will make absolutely no difference. If the first 5 gears are unusable as they're too low then you'd need to be changing to a chainring with maybe 7 or 8 extra teeth to leave a useable spread of gears.

Edit: I just googled the spec, it has a 38T front chain ring and 14-28t cassette so yeah I can see how there would be a lot of 'easy' gears. Because it has only o e front chain ring your sort of limited on what range of cassettes you can use and anything lower than 28t would mean hills would be very difficult. I think best thing is just to use the higher gears and still have the easy gears for when they're needed.

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. If I was to change the front ring instead of the casette would it give more "usable" gears across the range though?

Edit, or could I put on a front derailleur and add another sprocket?

smacl

Jairo Rhythmic Neurology wrote: »

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. If I was to change the front ring instead of the casette would it give more "usable" gears across the range though?

If it is a cassette as opposed to a freewheel, this 12-28 would help, but I'm guessing that it is more likely a freewheel. You could pick up a 13-25 or 13-28 7 speed freewheel from SJS here which would help slightly.

smacl

Jairo Rhythmic Neurology wrote: »

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. If I was to change the front ring instead of the casette would it give more "usable" gears across the range though?

Edit, or could I put on a front derailleur and add another sprocket?

Bigger chain ring at the front would give you fewer 'easy' gears and more 'hard' ones. Something like a 42t would make everything ~10 'harder'.

Front derailleur and 2nd ring would also require an additional shifter, cabling, bottom bracket, and crank set. The frame may possibly not support this, though most I've seen do.

smacl

smacl wrote: »

If it is a cassette as opposed to a freewheel, this 12-28 would help, but I'm guessing that it is more likely a freewheel. You could pick up a 13-25 or 13-28 7 speed freewheel from SJS here which would help slightly.

Thanks for that, are freewheels very rare. I was looking on chain reaction but could see any so il buy from the link you showed, would 13-25 or 13-28 be very similar or would one be preferred?

07Lapierre

Jairo Rhythmic Neurology wrote: »

Thanks for that, are freewheels very rare. I was looking on chain reaction but could see any so il buy from the link you showed, would 13-25 or 13-28 be very similar or would one be preferred?

Do you know how to replace a freewheel? do you have the appropriate tools?
You say the bike is a "used" Bike, how old is it? Its quite possible you'll have to replace the chain as well as the freewheel.

07Lapierre

07Lapierre wrote: »

Do you know how to replace a freewheel? do you have the appropriate tools?
You say the bike is a "used" Bike, how old is it? Its quite possible you'll have to replace the chain as well as the freewheel.

Yeah il grab a freewheel remover from a mate. Yeah I've no problem with the chain, the rear mech looks like it's taken some punishment so I'm going to replace that, the freewheel and chain. Bike is probably 3-5 years old I would say

smacl

smacl wrote: »

If it is a cassette as opposed to a freewheel, this 12-28 would help, but I'm guessing that it is more likely a freewheel. You could pick up a 13-25 or 13-28 7 speed freewheel from SJS here which would help slightly.

So I ended up buying the 13-25, a new rear mech, new chain and new gear cable :eek: probably worth more than the bike