| Frequently Asked
Questions SELECTION Q. Which Mountain Tamer Adapter should I use? A. Use the Mountain Tamer Triple when you want:
Q. How can I tell if my spindle is long enough for 4 chainrings? Q. How can I tell what size spindle I have now? A. Go to Sheldon Brown's incredible site and check out his Bottom Bracket Size Database. Q. How can I move the crankarm over to accommodate 4 chainrings? Q. My crank doesn't have spacers. What can I do? A. You can cut the bosses off. Here's how. Q. I want to run a very wide range on my chainrings. How do you get the front derailleur to handle that? A Here's how to do it. COMPATIBILITY Cranks-Chainrings Q. My crank has 4 arms instead of 5. Can I adapt to a lower gear? A. No, the Mountain Tamer adapters mate to the 5 arm-74mm bolt circle. Q. I have a Shimano XTR-M950 Crankset with a 4 arm spider. Is it possible to change it to a 5 arm spider? Y. There are several 5 arm spiders with 74mm bolt circle available for various cranks with removable spiders. We have some of those available in stock Q. My triple chainring is 22 teeth. Can I get a lower gear? A. If your crankarm spider has 4 arms, that is as low as you can go. If it has 5 arms and a 58mm bolt circle you can go down to 20 teeth. If your cassette does not already have a large cog of 34 teeth, you can change the cassette. Q. Will the Mountain Tamer adapters work with my Rotor Cranks? A. No, the Rotor Cranks have a 4 bolt pattern Q. Can I use cogs from a Shimano cassette on you adapters? A. No. The splined cogs are Suntour 'A' freewheel cogs. The threaded cogs are Maillard 700 freewheel cogs. Neither is in current production. If you find anyone who has the 'A' cogs, let me know. Q. I see you have run out of some of the chainring sizes. Will they be available in the future? A. I am looking into producing the 17 tooth splined rings. At this point, I don't intend to replace the others. Q. I would like to run a 16 tooth quad with a 52 or larger outer chainring. Will the derailleurs handle that? A. You will have to modify the derailleurs. I will post a page showing how to do that when I get a chance. Contact me if you need to know before that. Q. Can I remove my outer chainring a use the quad chainring as a triple? A. Yes. You will need to move the crankset over ~1/4" (6.3mm) Q. What is the smallest chainring I can put in the middle position on a 74/110mm BCD crankset? A. 34 teeth Q. What is the smallest chainring I can put in the middle position on a 74/130mm BCD crankset? A. 38 teeth Q. Can you supply cranksets with a 74mm BCD? A. My suppliers now longer carry any cranks with 74/110mm BCD. I special order cranks with 74/130mm BCD. Inquire for prices and availability. Q. What is the outside diameter of the small chainrings? A. The outside diameter of the chainrings: 16 - 2.710" 17 - 2.860" 18 - 3.015" 19 - 3.150" 20 - 3.350" 21 - 3.490" 22 - 3.645" 24 - 3.980" Bottom Brackets - Spindles Q. I have a Fisher with oversized bottom bracket. Will the Mountain Tamer adapters fit over it? A. Yes. The inside diameter of the adapters is 46.5mm (1.830") Q. My bottom bracket has a locknut on the right side. What is the inside diameter of the adapters? A. The inside diameter of the adapters is 46.5mm (1.830") Be sure to allow some clearance for mud, etc. Q. My bottom bracket has outboard bearings on the right side. What is the inside diameter of the adapters? A. The inside diameter of the adapters is 46.5mm (1.830") Be sure to allow some clearance for mud, etc. Q. Can I replace my cartridge type bottom bracket with the old type spindle with ball cups? A. Yes. Q. What are standard bottom bracket shell widths.? A. Standard bottom bracket shell widths are 68, 70, and 73mm. Most mountain bikes are 68mm, though some are 73mm. Road bikes are usually 70mm. Q. What does the spindle or bottom bracket length refer to? A. The length is the distance of the spinde measured from end to end in mm. Some spindles have studs instead of bolts. The are measured from the end of the interface surface, not the end of the studs. Q. What does 1.37" x 24 tpi means on the bottom bracket? A. 1.37" diameter - 24 threads per inch Q. I can't get the bottom bracket cup on the chainring side to come loose. What do I do? A. The right hand cup has left hand threads. Turn clockwise to loosen the righthand cup. Q. What are the bottom bracket interface designations? A. JIS: square 2 deg. taper ISIS: 10 spline taper - 16mm deep HT2: Shimano Hollowtech-II integrated spindle with outboard bearings OL5: 8 spline 5mm deep - Shimano Octalink (105,DuraAce, Ultegra, XTR) OL9: 8 spline 9mm deep - Shimano Octalink (Deore, LX, XT) Note: older Shimano Deore, LX, and XT cranks used JIS SP8: 8 spline on CrMo cranks SP8: 10 spline on CrMo cranks SP8: 36 spline on CrMo cranks SP8: 48 spline on CrMo cranks PS: Truvativ PowerSpline Howitzer: Truvative MegaExo: Full Speed Ahead Shifters Q. Will the Mountain Tamer Triple work with my indexed shifters? A. Yes, the chainring will be in the same position. Q. Can I run four chainrings with my Rapid-Fire shifters? A. No, unless you add a device such as the 'GIZMO' once sold by Sidetrak which gives you a high range/low range capability. Q. Will Grip Shifters work with four chain rings? A. Yes, as long as they are not indexed. Derailleurs Q. Will my front derailleurs handle four chainrings? A. Yes, though it is important that the crankset be position correctly for it. Q. I want to go to the quad setup with a 16 tooth chainring. Will my rear derailleur be able to handle the chain wrap? A. Yes, keeping in mind you should not use the quad chainring with the smallest cogs on your cassette. Other Q. Will my 9speed chain work? A. Yes Q. Can I use the Mountain Tamer adapters in conjunction with an internal hub? A. Yes, with a caution. Some hub manufacturers specifiy a minimum recommend chainring. If you're not real strong you may get by going smaller. If you want to do this, contact me for more advice. I have quite a bit of experience in this area. Q. Can I use the Mountain Tamer Plus with five chainrings with10 cogs on a 14 speed Rohloff hub? A. Theoretically, with some serious modifications like a custom frame and a modified cassette, I don't see why not. Of course, you would void the warranty on the hub. ...hmm 700 speeds. Are you trying to get into Ripley's? Q. Ok. So what's the most gears you've seen? A. I built a bike with 120 speeds back around 1964. It used 4 chainrings with 6 cogs on a Strumey Archer 5-speed hub. At that time, 6 cog freewheels where rare, as were triple chainrings. The bike had a gear about every 2" and a range from 10" to 156". I rode it 5000 miles before the frame failed. USAGE Q. How much difference does one tooth make on the chainring? A. Roughly, each tooth difference below 20 teeth equals one gear. From 20 to 28 teeth, 2 teeth equals a gear. Q. How many of the cogs on the cassette can I expect to use, practically, with the quad chainring? A. This will depend upon several factors: chainring size, cassette size, chainstay length, chainline, and chainwrap of the rear derailleur. Typically the gear ratios will start to overlap around the 4th cog. You can expect to use 3 to 5 of the largest cogs on the cassette with most setups, more with a long chainline if you can wrap the chain. Q. Will I be able to balance with such a low gear? A. Of course. You will actually be going about the same speed you where before. The difference is that you will be able to spin faster, which is much more efficient. Q. When I climb really steep stuff, my front wheel comes off the ground. What should I do? A. Drop your shoulders. Q. Where should I be on the saddle on really step climbs? A. Position yourself over the saddle such that your weight is driving through the ground contact point of the rear wheel or as close to it as possible. Q. How steep can I climb with such low gears? A. Anything you have the guts to stay on the bike. I have climbed stuff on slick rock where I was standing up with my chest against the handlebars. The thought of breaking a chain was very distracting. |
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Q. How can I tell if my
spindle is long enough for 4 chainrings?
Q. How can I move the crankarm over to accommodate 4 chainrings? A. Some spindles are adjustable. Simply adjust as needed. If the distance needed is less than 3-4mm
Remember, typically, but not always, half of the additional length is added to each side. Back |
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