Alan B said:
So can we disassemble a couple of gear clusters and put the 11T on a narrower cluster?
That depends. If you have (or make) a chainwhip (see Sheldon Brown's site for details) you can usually take apart any screw-together freewheel cassette.
But...not all of them are the same diameter at the outer (right) end. So you may not be able to thread the 11T onto other ones you already have (or get).
If it is not a screw-together cassette, then it is probably pinned together (though some of those still use a screw-on smallest sprocket or two, like my Suntour). If it's like that, you still might be able to do it as long as the cassettes you're swapping between are the same brand and model year, because it seems that bike parts companies like to switch things up periodically to force-obsolete various parts.
Since the splines on various sprockets may not match between different brands, you will probably need to use the same brand anyway, but sometimes one can be used on another.
I wonder what CPU they use in the controller. Might be fun to reprogram it. Variable regen is not a high priority.
I'd love to see someone do that, but since you will have no source code (or even code read out from the MPU) then you have to start from scratch. You'll need to reverse engineer all of the hardware in your particular controller first, so that you know what he MPU needs to control, and what voltage ranges it expects and sends out, using the existing software first.
I can tell you that if you *can* do this, there are a fair number of people here on ES and probalby elsewhere that would have a list of feature requests for it longer than a DNA strand. :lol: I'm one of them!
As for which MPU, that depends on which controller--for the Infineons and some others, that information is listed in various threads about them, especially the ones that already have some programmable parameters.
dogman said:
What I've seen in screw on clusters, which are used on hubmotors, is that they are not able to be dissasembled.
I haven't directly seen the ones on hubmotors, but standard bike screw-on clusters, with the freewheeling core and the slide-on, pin-on, and/or screw-on sprockets, can all be disassembled if you have the right tools (or make them).
Many even have inter-compatible parts, but not always.
5,6,and 7 speed freewheels all take the same wider chain, and shifters index the same. So a 7 speed shifter works fine for a 5 speed derailur. It just works for the frist 5 speeds and then hits the stop on the derailur.
Actually, that's not always true, unfortunately. I have various Shimano shifters, derailers, and cassettes/freewheels/etc. In index mode, the 7-speed Shimano levers on CrazyBike2 don't usually match up correctly with the 5- or 6-speed Shimano cassettes (of the same vintage, early 90s or so. If I stack the cassettes next to each other, I can see why, because the spacing between the sprockets is different on some. So for example, the 3rd and 4th gears have trouble shifting without grinding or failing to mesh the chain, causing it to slip over to the next sprocket instead, or keep hopping up and down between two of them depending on loading.
I've had the same thing happen with gripshifters on DayGlo Avenger. At least with the thumb lever shifters they have a non-indexed mode that I can use to smoothly shift, but of course it doesn't click into the gear automatically, I have to learn where to stop for each one.
Now, the derailers seem to work fine regardless as long as they can physically move correctly over the entire range left to right and up and down, but some that have sufficient L-R range do not shift into the correct vertical position to clear sprockets in lower gears, unless adjusted out enough to not give full wrap in higher gears (which can cause slippage if you apply too much torque in higher gears). Usually, it isn't a problem (even using different brands of derailer than shifter or cassette doesn't seem to matter that much).
Alan B said:
Does a narrow rear derailleur, such as the 9 speed one I have, work with the 5/6/7 speed "standard" chain?
Probalby not. It's fairly likely the cage is too narrow and will rub on the chain (or even snag it) as it passes thru. You can stll try it, but it may be problematic.
So if I want to use a "standard" six speed cluster I need a "standard" chain and indexing in the shifter to match, but any brand 6/7 speed shifter should be ok.
Most likely, unless it's Campagnolo; they seem to like to do things differently out of spite. :lol: Might stil work.
So the existing 9 speed forward derailleur and chainrings are compatible with the wider "standard" chain?
Probably. It is unlikely they are close enough together to pose a problem, and the cage on the front is probably not narrow.
The forward shifter on my set has multiple "clicks" per gear, so it is not exactly indexed. I think there are about three clicks per gear change. So that may work with most anything, it does not seem to be critical.
If they are SIS (or some Shimano) gripshifters, then that appears to be normal. I think that they use some of the same parts between left and right sides, so it ends up with just as many total clicks between them but the derailer is only moved into the shifting position for a particular chainring in front by three of them.