Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Islabike Beinn 20 hub – OK for 9 speed?
  • Doh1Nut
    Full Member

    Wonderchild #2 has inherited a Beinn 20
    I already “upgraded” the twist grip for a trigger shifter – but being a bit smaller she cannot change up the gears – just does not have enough power in her thumb (despite the change working well for wonderchild#1)

    So I can service the gears and make sure it is all running nice
    and/or refit the twist grip

    but I have some nice 9-speed stuff in the spares box that I am sure has a lighter action and could happily change it all to Shimano – the only concern being the hub- will it fit a 9-speed cassette?

    or is there something else I should be thinking about?

    Cheers

    Yak
    Full Member

    I did on a beinn 24. Spares box xt/deore mix 9sp. Much lighter action and a bigger range. I also added a proper top chain guide as the plastic bash rings/guides had fallen off.

    Doh1Nut
    Full Member

    Excellent – hope they use the same hubs

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    brassneck
    Full Member

    Not sure on the Isla, but most 20″ are screw on free wheels. You can get 24″ freehub wheels cheap, and Taylor Wheels do a 20″ – think you can buy them thorugh AMazon if you’re stuck.

    daern
    Free Member

    Not sure on the Isla, but most 20″ are screw on free wheels.

    Nah, Islabikes have proper freehubs – i.e. accept normal Shimano cassettes. That’s part of what you pay for with them 🙂

    tomcrow99
    Full Member

    My daughter’s old Beinn 20 had screw on freehub. It was an early-ish model though.

    Doh1Nut
    Full Member

    OK – Partial Update

    I changed the gear back to a twist grip which did not actually make any improvement on the ability to change gear – so still need to improve.

    I Took 7 speed cassette off and it is indeed a normal Shimano spine free-hub (almost) as it is a 7 speed one so a bit shorter than an 8,9,10 speed one.
    I tried to fit a 9 speed XT casette but I can only fit 8 out of 9 sprockets on, so I might be able to bodge up an 8 speed using the limit screws but there is a nasty step-down of gears past the missing one gear.
    Jump is from 15t to 11t lock-ring (13t removed)
    so either get a 13t lock-ring (or machine down the 8speed 13t one I have)
    or make up a basic 8-speed cassette with 9s spacing using all plain sprockets rather than the fixed xt spider.
    alternatively, it might be possible to unscrew the freewheel from a spare shimano 9speed hub to allow all 9 gears to be used. But that depends on the same fixings on the free-hub and that there is not some further impact on wheel dishing or other clearance type things.
    Need to get some more garage time.

    schmiken
    Full Member

    I might have a load of old 9 speed sprockets off a cassette I drilled the rivets out from if wanted?

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    I had a similar issue with my eldest’s Hotrock 20, it came with 6speed tourney, a twist shifter and a screw-on freehub, so I went and rebuilt the rear wheel with a Claris cassette hub (130mm spaced) and fitted 9 speed with an old LX trigger…

    She never really liked or got on with the trigger shifter, so eventually I located a 9 speed SRAM Rocket halfpipe, this she is well able operate…

    In retrospect I’d probably have been as well leaving it with the original drivetrain, she got a smidge more range and slightly less weight for quite a bit of faffing.

    TBH, bike snobbery aside, I actually think Gripshifters suit more kids with their diddy hands and developing bike skills, they’re quite simple to operate and pretty robust…

    In your position OP I’d maybe have gone for a seven speed cassette (say a 12-30 perhaps?) and looked for an older design SRAM 2:1 gripshift, any 7/8/9 speed shimano mech you like should work with that.

    Goldigger
    Free Member

    Could you not get another hub like a shimano LX 9spd 135mm rear hub and re-lace the wheel…assuming spoke lengths are the same.

    Edit ^ beat me to it

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Nah, Islabikes have proper freehubs – i.e. accept normal Shimano cassettes. That’s part of what you pay for with them

    True for this one, but not in all cases.

    Our original Mk1 Beinn 20 was definitely a screw on freewheel. They even had a spacer down the back to get the chainline better (so was actually only engaged on about 2/3 of the threads). I fitted a smaller chainring on the back of the original cranks and had to remove the freewheel spacer to get the chainline to work.

    On the same note with the 9 speed conversion – the very short chainstays mean big / small sprockets are at the very limit of chain sideways flex, so chainline has to be spot on and may still drop off when back pedaling.

    On fitting a different hub – aren’t Islabikes rims a reduced spoke count (28 or something like that) so a standard 32H hub won’t work?

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Just thought – if you have a 9 speed cassette with alloy spider for the big sprockets, you can machine the inner mounting face back a few mm to allow the full 9 sprockets to fit. Just need to watch how close the mech etc gets to the spokes.

    It was a fairly common bodge to get 6 ish gears onto a Hope singlespeed cassette hub (I’ve done it with no problems).

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

The topic ‘Islabike Beinn 20 hub – OK for 9 speed?’ is closed to new replies.