My wife bought a Schwinn Admiral hybrid. We live in hilly SWVA and it’s geared way too high. It’s a 43 front 28/14 7 spd rear. I’d like it to be something close to a 34 front, 34/14 rear.
What kind of BB does this bike have? Can I get a new crank without replacing the BB?
Can I find a 7 spd cassette close to what I’m looking for? Can i keep this RD and just replace the chain?
Should I just replace the entire drivechain? I’d prefer an easy fix, but if this is what it takes, so be it.
by slbarr88
6 Comments
MegaRange freewheel + probably longer chain to accommodate 🤠
Ninja edit: quite honestly, changing out much more of the drive***train*** than that in order to achieve a significantly lower gear would probably exceed the value of the entire bike.
Unfortunately, the advice here is really “get a MegaRange freewheel, or get a real bike” 😬
This isn’t what you asked but you need to hear it, your wife isn’t struggling because of the gearing, she’s having a hard time because that’s a heavy, slow bike that isn’t really suitable for steep hills. Low gearing might let her climb more hills, but it’s not going to change how slow and hard to pedal that bike is.
If you search “Ashtabula chainring” you will see some listings for smaller chainrings. Fairly easy to replace.
A smaller bmx chain ring is gonna be cheeeeeeeeeereeeeep.
Edit. And you can swap that with an adjustable wrench, screw driver, and hammer. No joke.
You’ll need a square taper bottom bracket adapter, which will allow you to install square taper crank arms. Then you can get all kinda of chainrings that will fit with the bolt diameter of the crank arms.
You could get something with 32 teeth or less and it would significantly improve the ratio, but you will also have to shorten the chain.
I have seen the adapters on Ebay and Amazon for $30 or less, and crank arms with chainrings are about the same.
Unfortunately that old style crank just isn’t able to swap the chainring unless you find a smaller one as spare parts somewhere.
I can share some links if you’re interested. This will be easier than changing the rear gearing and require fewer unique tools, just hex keys and a wrench. The bike will lose some top speed though.
Your rear der will probably handle the mega range, though you might need a new chain unless you change the front ring. To change the ring you have to remove the chain guard, remove the non-drive pedal, there will be a nut at the BB that usually takes a 32mm wrench, can be 28,30 or 36mm, unthread that, remove the keyed washer and the inner nut/cone. The cone will usually have two recesses and no real tension on it and comes off with a screw driver. Once that’s off, remove the bearing, and slide the crank out the other side. You’ll need track lockring tool or something similar to remove the driveside cone that holds the chainring on, now you can replace with whatever. Note, one of the two sides is reverse threaded and I can never remember which off the top of my head but I want to say the non-drive side though that might be due to associating it with the pedal.
With a bike like this, especially if you didn’t build it, check things like the hub tension, the wheels will often show up too tight to spin well, same with the BB. Are the wheels straight or are they hitting the brakes or are the brakes just rubbing? Sometimes there’s just enough resistance in the drivetrain that it really slows things down and makes it seem like you have to change a bunch of things. But switching things to a 36 ring with a mega-range will also make hills a lot easier and just getting the wife riding can be half the battle.