3 speed vs 6 speed

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PaulM

Guru
Location
Portsmouth, UK
Bought 3 speed and upgraded to 8 speed :laugh:
 

StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
3 speed low gearing 'cos I'm slow and mean. But I have done Welsh mountains on it.
Less to go wrong in poor conditions - the major selling point of a hub gear. Six speeders seem to get more issues - or do they just like fiddling with the changer?
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
6 speed. But London isn't very hilly so I generally only use the 3 hub gears in the top range. But it's nice to have the low gears to fall back on.
 

shouldbeinbed

Rollin' along
Location
Manchester way
Brompton: 3 standard ratio & standard front chainring. Edge of manchester /pennines I've had no problems at all.

Birdy: 5 speed Sturmey hub and I've downgraded the 18t sprocket to a 14t to make it a bit more zippy on the flat, standard 52T IRC front chainring. Formerly a SRAM dual drive 3 x 8 that was massively overgeared for what it needed at the bottom end

V old Dahon: 7 speed derailleur ~12-30 on a +/- 50t front ring

Why: because they were the spec on the bikes I bought / inherited and I found they worked for my mix of hilly & flat riding. The dualdrive was ridden to death and a combo of being too much gearing and very expensive fix prompted me to go for the SA 5 speed's gear ratios based on my experience with the Brommy 3 and my bigger wheel Alfine 8 bike
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
6 speed (now with the 44T chainring) .... I never knew where my Brommie was going to take me or how much load I wanted to carry.
After a few rides around the Bristol area and one cycle-camping trip it was clear the lower gears of the 44T set-up was more value than the top-end of the 50 which was only really useful downhill or on the flat with the wind behind me.

My next will be Titanium 2 speed .... maybe with a double chainset for a bail-out granny-gear option!
 
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