|   Singles speeds are <b>GOOD</b> gears are OK. | martini
Sep 26, 2002 4:19 PM | | What was I? Stupid? Bored? Wanting a change(get it!?)? All of the above? I'm really not sure, but this is example one and two:
I think it all started when I got this crazy hair up my butt to do an epic up near Duluth this summer. At least I think that was the reason I did it. Either that or simple boredom after I got laid off. The eipc I wanted to do was 60 miles and lots of climbing, so I think that was the main impetus to put gears on the Hunter. This IS why I had him put a hanger on it after all. Thankfully my wife is smarter than me. She knew that I couldn't do this race up at Lutsen. I'd crumble into a shimmery bowl of gelatine after the first major climb. I'm glad she's smarter than I am. She makes me look good!
Anyways, the stuff I put on (the good old XTR and the XC Pro Thumbies) worked really well. Never missed a shift. Not even during the slopfest that was the Chequamegon 40(belive me, there were lots of people cursing out their mis-behaving drivetrains, attempting to shift when it really wasn't needed). After the race though, I needed to really clean my bike well, and as long as the opportunity was there, off came the gears! Finally a reason to pull them off and put the stuff back into the box it came from.
Thank god I did that. The next day I took it for a spin at Lebanon Hills Regional Park. A place that MORC has been doing wonderful things to this past season and a half. Great single track has been added, making it a destination again(it was once a forgotten sh!t hole of a trail). The bike just danced over the terrain, responding to my inputs in a way that, somehow, I forgot that single speeds do. We all know how it feels. The perfect gear. No climb is too difficult. Technical sections are handled with aplomb. I love single speeds. Please remind me to not do this again when I contemplate it, huh?
Marty~ps, can any one tell me why I can't post these pics? |
| For some anyway--- | Bigwheel
Sep 26, 2002 7:29 PM | | but for this rider, even the two speed BB drive system was not enough. I did a string of rides on my newly rehabbed rigid bike but found that while I really liked the simplicity of the 2 spd, the 39" low was not low enough for me to get up the long steep grades here without pushing more than I wanted to and the 65" gear was not fast enough on the road to keep up with the wife. Plus, once you start adding gears it gets complicated, no matter what. Sooooo,
when I had the work done on the Townie I had a derailleur hanger thrown on for what I figured was my old age, well I guess I am old now. Dug around the parts closet and came up with a 12/32 7 spd Suntour freewheel in mint condition and an XC Pro rear derailleur and thumbie to match. Mounted them up with a little cable strung inbetween and now in conjunction with the bracket drive I have a 14 spd. with a 24.5" low and a 108" high. This gives me about the same gear range as I had on my Ross Mt. Hood 20 years ago. Which served me then and should serve me now, what goes around, comes around.
The whole setup weighs about half of a Rohloff and cost about a third as much. It should be simple to maintain, one cable, one derailleur, and lube the bracket drive once in awhile. With the single chainring bracket drive I can use all cogs on the freewheel in both modes with only one overlapping gear ratio in the low 27/14, high 44.5/26.
Oh yeah, because I have a flip-flop hub I retained the ACS 20t and can switch back to the 2 spd at anytime to use for instances when that can be mo funna. Just going to install another power link in the chain at optimum 2 spd length so that I can pull the rear d and the cable and the extra chain off in just a little bit of time on the stand. |
| Sounds like a pretty sweet setup.. | martini
Sep 27, 2002 5:58 AM | | I like the versatilty built into what you've got. Goes by my EBB/hanger a little further. I'm not sure I understand the 2 speed bb thing though. I've ridden 2 speed kick back's(fun hub), but I haven't seen your system. Tell me about it, eh! |
| How sweet it is--- | Bigwheel
Sep 27, 2002 7:26 AM | | Last year at Interbike we ran across a Swiss gentleman name of Florian Shlumpf. His website is:
http://www.schlumpf.ch/innovationse.html
Interesting guy, makes the bracket drive and a hydraulic ram pump, both with the requeset Swiss precision. We took the info from the booth and over the winter decided that it would be worth a try. This spring we ordered a few and have been using them all summer as 2 spds on a couple of rehabbed Townies and they are holding up well, really well in fact. Now there 8 of them in use here.
We are using the Speeddrive model with a 27t chainring. The advantage when you change gears is 1:1.65 making the taller gear a 44.55. So in the 2 spd mode with a 20t rear cog you get a 39" and a 65" gear. About the only complaint I had when I first rode it was that you were missing that sweetspot 2:1 SS gear--- However you get two sweetspots instead of one, they are just lower and higher? As I said in my previous post, when you start to add gears it gets complicated! Anyway you still have a single chainline and changing gears is as easy as a click of the heel. The weight of the unit is less than a triple chainring setup too. The 27t with the guard affords alot of clearance also.
Here is the way I have it rigged up. The silver cap is the activator for the system you use your heel to push it in which you can do easily in the clips. |
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