road to cross project

[jen]

Hi everyone,
I have an old Bianchi touring bike that is a real road warrior and after suiting it up with some cross tires, I have been riding it off road a lot lately. I already have a great cross bike, so I'd like to do a little experimenting with this one. I want to switch from drop bars and down tube shifters to flat bars and rapid fire mountain shifters. Right now, I have a 6-speed cassette but I picked up some 7-speed shifters for the project.
So my questions are:
1. Can I use the 7 speed shifters with the 6 speed cassette?
2. Is there any way that a 7-speed cassette might fit on my current 6-speed wheel?
3. Will mountain bike brake levers work alright with my old canti brakes? (It seems to me that they should be fine since they pull more cable than road bike levers).
4. Can anyone recommend a good manual for road bike maintenance? I am thinking of buying the Break It Fix It Ride It CD-ROM, but I think that focusses on mountain bikes.


Thanks in advance!
Jen

[wooglin]

1. I think the spacing between cogs changed with the switch from 6 to 7 speed. On the other hand, I've got a set of "6sp" thumbies that supposedly also work for 7 speed. But see #2.

2. I think the real issue is whether a 7sp cluster will fit between your dropouts. Again, a spacing issue. On the roadie side of things where I'm more familiar, some 7sp clusters had narrower spacing. These won't be a problem. Others had the same spacing as a 6sp, and the chain on the small cog has a tendency to rub on the stay. I'd think you'll want to avoid that.

3. Why not find some old canti levers at your lbs? They'll probably give them to you for free.

4. Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance (Leonard Zinn)

5. Don't take my word on this. I'm pretty iffy on 1 and 2.

Edited to ask: are you sure the cluster is a cassette and not a freewheel?

[jen]

Thanks a lot for the response, wooglin.

1&2. I will visit my lbs and see what those guys have to say about this. I imagine it's impossible to tell without looking at it.

3. I bought a mish-mash of shifters and brake levers in hopes of finding something that works on the cheap, and I think the levers are canti levers. So that issue might be taken care of.

I am not sure that my cluster is a cassette and not a freewheel. I actually didn't know there was a difference until I read more about it yesterday. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm a novice at this, obviously.

jen