Double singlespeed?

[ColinJ]

I am definitely getting old... The Zoom meeting started but nobody could see me. I spent 5 minutes messing about with video settings before I remembered my anti-hacker privacy protection - a sticking plaster over the lens of the webcam!

 

[ColinJ]

First things first. I find the word 'dinglespeed' a bit twee so from now on the bike will be known as a 'two-speed', but I'll save some typing by shortening that to '2-speed'! I will never do an entire ride in the 42/29 unless someone transports me to the foot of a long 10+% climb which I then ride up and freewheel back down. If I do an entire ride in the 52/19, that is a singlespeed ride. If I use both gears, that is a 2-speed ride. Clever, huh?

Now then - important news. I put the ColinJ engineering team to work and they have come up with an impressive new shifting technology, optimised for 2-speed bikes. They found the materials for the prototype in the works canteen, but rest assured - when we go into production we will set up a truly professional manufacturing plant. 2-speed test rides were very successful, so the next step was to decide on a catchy name for this new technology.

I have ridden with Campagnolo Ergopower shifters on some of my bikes for over 2 decades. Our new shifters are a bit less 'ergo' and a lot less powerful, so we did think about calling them Ergopowerless, but a survey showed that the workforce were not happy with that name.

The next suggestion was inspired by Shimano STI ('Shimano Total Integration'). My reasoning was that if Shimano can get away with naming their kit after sexually transmitted infections, we would get away with calling ours UTI (Useful Tool, Innit?). That name was dismissed when someone pointed out that, unlike our shifters, a UTI is something that you definitely do NOT want!

Then our M.D. had a brainwave. SRAM make 'Double Tap' shifters. Our superior technology will henceforth be known as...

Single Hook!

 

[classic33]

Dingle-Speed, post nine.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/708498-two-speed-freewheel.html

 

[ColinJ]

I see post #9...

this wouldn't be a winter singlespeed; it'd be some sort of homegrown dingle-speed. between the headache of setting this up, manually changing gears for "monster hills", and still having to clean/maintain everything else on the bike, i think you'd be better off with a cheap 1x5 set-up. Or, pick a gear you can live with, and run singlespeed.

... and raise you with post #11!

As far as changing gears goes, my situation is that I can handle most of the riding I do in high gear. I would need to switch for one hill I ride over often that climbs just under a thousand feet in the course of two miles, with some very steep sections. I'd also change at the end of every ride to come up the 3/4 mile steep dirt road that leads to my house--a climb that I always have to make when I'm at my most tired. It's not as if I'd be getting off the bike and changing gears at every little rise in the road.

I don't need a 1x5 - I already have a 3x10!

As for picking a gear I can live with and running singlespeed... I did, and have done thousands of kms in that 52/19 gear. Unfortunately, none of those kms were at gradients greater than 12-13% and most of them were nowhere near 10%. I can take my singlespeed to the Vale of York or Cheshire and it is fine. Round here it is pretty much good only for the valley roads and the Cragg Vale climb, that's it. With the addition of one more gear I should now be able to ride about 95% of my usual routes.

 

[GuyBoden]

First things first. I find the word 'dinglespeed' a bit twee so from now on the bike will be known as a 'two-speed', but I'll save some typing by shortening that to '2-speed'! I will never do an entire ride in the 42/29 unless someone transports me to the foot of a long 10+% climb which I then ride up and freewheel back down. If I do an entire ride in the 52/19, that is a singlespeed ride. If I use both gears, that is a 2-speed ride. Clever, huh?

Now then - important news. I put the ColinJ engineering team to work and they have come up with an impressive new shifting technology, optimised for 2-speed bikes. They found the materials for the prototype in the works canteen, but rest assured - when we go into production we will set up a truly professional manufacturing plant. 2-speed test rides were very successful, so the next step was to decide on a catchy name for this new technology.

I have ridden with Campagnolo Ergopower shifters on some of my bikes for over 2 decades. Our new shifters are a bit less 'ergo' and a lot less powerful, so we did think about calling them Ergopowerless, but a survey showed that the workforce were not happy with that name.

The next suggestion was inspired by Shimano STI ('Shimano Total Integration'). My reasoning was that if Shimano can get away with naming their kit after sexually transmitted infections, we would get away with calling ours UTI (Useful Tool, Innit?). That name was dismissed when someone pointed out that, unlike our shifters, a UTI is something that you definitely do NOT want!

Then our M.D. had a brainwave. SRAM make 'Double Tap' shifters. Our superior technology will henceforth be known as...







View attachment 642391

View attachment 642392

Single Hook!

Looks like you're using a "Spoon fed" system.

 

[ColinJ]

Before anybody suggests that I am completely mad for messing about like this when I already own good bikes with lots of gears...

1. I enjoy playing about with the bike, making cheap but effective changes to it.
2. There would be no point in spending lots of money on the bike since it would then compete with my multi-geared bikes.
3. If I tart the bike up too much then I will no longer feel relaxed leaving it locked up out of my sight in public places.
4. I ride the bike differently to my other bikes. Most of the time I am either slightly under-geared (which gives my legs a good spin) or very over-geared (which makes my short local shopping rides much more intense than they would otherwise be).
5. If you still think this is stupid... the rest of the forum is over there ---->!

Anyway - the state of play:

I had a into look into it myself, when I first built the single speed. I also considered a 3x1 setup, but that would have required a tensioner.

Yes, there IS a 3rd sprocket but it is only there for the lockring to tighten against. I did a few rides with the lockring tightened against the end spacer but it kept coming loose.

What you need now is a derailleur to replace the chain tensioner, and while your at it a front derailleur and a couple of down tube shifters, would be a good idea.

You can still just use the 2 gears with derailleurs, just stops the messing about changing by hand.

I have had a lot of experience with the bike since I made the original gearing changes...

I still do the vast majority of my rides in the 52/19 gear, but the 42/29 ratio has enabled me to do quite a few rides with lumpy mid sections. Which is nice...

I tried staying in the 42/29 between lumpy sections but the constant spinning out was annoying me so I had to stop more often than I had planned to and change back to 52/19 by hand. (Why hasn't somebody invented a mechanism to do this for us? )

Okay, yes - chain shifting by hand IS a right faff, so another version is being planned...

The plan was for a 1x2 using an old rear mech and a down tube friction shifter. I was going to use 42/15 and 42/29 gears. The stiffer gear is about 2% higher then the current 52/19, so that would be fine, and I would still have my easier climbing gear. Then I thought about it... I have a small serrated sprocket on the freehub which is currently only there to tighten the lockring against (having had the ring come loose on rides without that extra sprocket). I might as well use that too, and make the bike into a 1x3!

The little sprocket will be a 12. That will give me an optional much higher top gear of 42/12, good for 40 kph (25 mph) at my preferred maximum cadence of 90 rpm vs the 31 kph (19.5 mph) of my current 52/19. I will have my 42/29 gear for steep climbs. I will have a good gear for general riding - the 42/15 - and I will give that one a perfect chainline. The other gears will not be far off perfect chainlines either, since the 29 and 12 will only be 1 spacer away either side of the 15.

There is just one problem... The frame does not have friction shifter bosses on the down tube, and that tube is very oversized so the clamp-on bosses that I have seen will not fit. I might be able to attach a clamp-on boss somewhere else, such as the seat tube? Or perhaps make my own. I don't want to put an Ergopower brake/shifter on the bar because I really like the dedicated brake levers that I have now.

 

[mustang1]

I think it's called a Dinglespeed

I thought it's just called a geared bike

 

[DCLane]

Having read the thread I a) think it's an interesting experiment, part-way between gears and single-speed and b) prefer the term 'Dinglespeed'

 

[biggs682]

I keep thinking of doing something similar but have just never got round to doing it yet.

 

[Dogtrousers]

There is just one problem... The frame does not have friction shifter bosses on the down tube, and that tube is very oversized so the clamp-on bosses that I have seen will not fit. I might be able to attach a clamp-on boss somewhere else, such as the seat tube? Or perhaps make my own. I don't want to put an Ergopower brake/shifter on the bar because I really like the dedicated brake levers that I have now.

Bar end? Stem mounted? May be able to get an old stem-mount one off ebay or somewhere like that. It's going to be relatively infrequently used so doesn't need to be super ergonomic.
https://restoringvintagebicycles.com/2018/12/30/stem-mounted-shifters/

 

[ColinJ]

Bar end? Stem mounted? May be able to get an old stem-mount one off ebay or somewhere like that. It's going to be relatively infrequently used so doesn't need to be super ergonomic.
https://restoringvintagebicycles.com/2018/12/30/stem-mounted-shifters/

I already have an old Campagnolo friction shifter which I could use if I could find or make a suitable mount for it.

The bike has a chunky Ahead-style stem which I think would be tricky to mount to.

I think that I could perhaps find a clamp-on mount to fit the handlebar, just to the right of the stem. I will scour t' web later.

 

[Venod]

There are loads of down tube brackets for shifters both new and used.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/29418525...624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[ColinJ]

There are loads of down tube brackets for shifters both new and used.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/29418525...624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

There certainly are, but you missed the problem...

The frame does not have friction shifter bosses on the down tube, and that tube is very oversized so the clamp-on bosses that I have seen will not fit.

Though maybe one of those would work on the handlebar instead?

 

[Venod]

There certainly are, but you missed the problem...


Though maybe one of those would work on the handlebar instead?

You're right I did miss that, how big is the tube ?

https://problemsolversbike.com/products/shifters-derailleurs/downtube_shifter_mount_-_31244

 

[ColinJ]

You're right I did miss that, how big is the tube ?

https://problemsolversbike.com/products/shifters-derailleurs/downtube_shifter_mount_-_31244

I spotted those on a previous search.

The downtube is ovalised and 150 mm in circumference, so roughly equivalent to 48 mm diameter if it had been a circular cross-section!