[Øjvind Harkamp]

Dear all

I am quite new to the world of Moultons and to this forum. But I have been reading a lot in hereand I read in another thread that @pdoocey and @bobmacqueen both have succeded in upgrading the gears on your fx8 to respectively 18 and 16 speed. Would someone, perhaps one of you, care to explain to me how you have done this? A combination of hub and derailleur?
I aquired two mid-nineties Moulton APBs, a Land Rover and a fx8, a couple of years ago, and would like to have them brought more into use. For the fx8 this requires that I somehow upgrade the gears…
I am also considering just shifting my chainring to a larger size. Any recommendations on which size to choose are more than welcome.

Best regards
Øjvind

[Cameron]

Hi Øjvind,

Welcome to the world of Moultons.

When you say upgrade, are you thinking of better gears, lighter gears, better shifting, more range, more gears, higher top gear etc?

Lots of options!

Rgds,

Cameron

[Øjvind Harkamp]

Hi Cameron

I can see that I haven’t been specific enough. First and foremost I want to know what myoptions are before I make a decision. But the gearing is too low for my taste, so I guess I will at least change the chainring. I guess I can’t get a broader range of gears by shifting to a double chainring without having some mech for a frontshifter welded on to the frame. But I can see that some others have had their fx8 changed to a broader range of gears, so I guess that they either have had mech for a frontshifter welded onto their frame or they have used a combination of hub and derailleur gears?
Right now I’m leaning toward the simple solution just to go for a larger chainring, but I don’t know which size to go for? Right now the bike is fitted with a Shimano Sora 8 speed system. The cassette is 11-28 and the chainring is 49t. Will I be able just to change to a larger chainring aand keep the rest? If I have to change the rest I might go for better gears as well, but what i need most is a little heavier gearing than now…

[Cameron]

Hi Øjvind,

I believe the bottom bracket on the FX8 is standard (fellow forumites please correct me if wrong), so easy enough to change the crankset to a larger one, or even just the chainring of it is removable. Plenty of 52 or 54 teeth ones around. You might need to increase the length of the chain, or just buy a new one of the right size and width as fairly cheap, and then check if the derailleur has enough capacity. Is it a short cage or medium cage? My guess is that if you bought a new 8 speed 52 tooth chainring on ebay and just swapped it round then you might get away with no other changes.

To increase the range I think the easiest is a bigger chainring and wider range cassette. This wouldnt be expensive but needs a bit more effort to balance the chain length etc.

On my TSR 9 I replaced the shifter, cables, derailleur, chain and cassette (11-40) with 11 speed Shimano XT from their mountain bike range. It works really well although the medium cage derailleur gets quite close to the road.

I don’t think the SRAM combi hub and derailleur is still available.

Rgds,

Cameron

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