Who needs gears?

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silva

Über Member
Location
Belgium
Yes that has been the everlasting problem, I've been told that chain cases did not exist for the large chainrings I chose, and frame clearance not enough either.
And it's hard to make from scratch, one solution could be modifying an existing, if any avail.
As a better-than-nothing I hung a large epdm flap at the back of my front fender, and mounted near the bottom bracket a cover between the rear wheel/tire and the chain, because I noticed alot sand was deposited there.
All to protect the chain as much as possible.
It already proved itself as a serious improvement, alot less sand/mud on the chain.
Only trouble is in the case of wind that blows up sand clouds in the summer or road salt in the winter. Especially salt is a chain destroyer. Corrosion in a matter of hours, I had once a KMC Z1X stainless steel chain, but the pins of the links weren't stainless, and after wind blew up road salt, pin ends corroded so severely that the chain just felt off the sprocket while not pushing just slowly hobbling over bricks.
 
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Gearless

New Member
Location
LA
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rogerzilla

Legendary Member
A bike with a freewheel feels rather dead if you've been riding fixed for a while, especially up hills. The dirty little secret of fixed is that it does the whole "pedalling in circles" thing for you and you can just mash straight up and down like the pistons of an engine. Then you get back on a geared bike and the pawls in the freehub keep banging as they lose contact with the ratchet, because you have completely forgotten how to pedal.
 
Especially salt is a chain destroyer
Yes it is indeed, it seems to make a nice grinding paste as well. I am not too serious about making a completely sealed case, perhaps one day. The German product on offer, I can't remember the name is not really sealed, more like enclosed. I vouch it does some good but I can also see it being a reservoir for the grit that does get in so it still needs inspection maintenance and cleaning.
I am pretty sure I can modify an old Campag hub to give a lipped seal bearing on both sides. It is the drive crank that is the nightmare due to the crank arm of course. The only off the shelf candidate for modification I have found is by TA with a separate spider and crank. Without having one to inspect i could not say if it could be modified.
There is but one other solution and that is to use an industrial toothed belt. The ones I have seen applied to bikes with Rohloff hubs are not what I would use, they are mainly large pitch, large toothed and unnecessary. The friction from those type of belts is poor efficiency compared to a chain due to the too large contact area of the driving parts, they need to be finer pitched.
I'll stick with a chain and if I ever bother making a sealed enclosure you will see it on here.
 

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
A bike with a freewheel feels rather dead if you've been riding fixed for a while, especially up hills. The dirty little secret of fixed is that it does the whole "pedalling in circles" thing for you and you can just mash straight up and down like the pistons of an engine. Then you get back on a geared bike and the pawls in the freehub keep banging as they lose contact with the ratchet, because you have completely forgotten how to pedal.

Pushing big gears exacerbates that. Spinning high cadences, even if only downhill, encourages a smoother technique.
 

iandg

Legendary Member
A list of bikes I've owned/ridden since 2011 from MyCyclingLog (currently I only have the Henry Burton, Raleigh Professional, Cross-Check and Genesis Equilibrium). Columns are per bike - total time, total distance (km) average speed (kph) and number of rides. Fastest average speed is on fixed but average ride distance is less.

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mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
Fixed could well be faster. A fixie climbs like a rat up a drainpipe and you don't lose that much time on descents. I did the Dunwich Dynamo on fixed twice and those were the easiest and fastest runs of the lot.

Ive never ridden fixed but I heard that fixed could be faster because it doesn't lose momentum on that part of the pedal stroke when not much power is being applied. Is that right?
 
OP
OP
Sharky

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
Ive never ridden fixed but I heard that fixed could be faster because it doesn't lose momentum on that part of the pedal stroke when not much power is being applied. Is that right?
I think that is a bit of a myth. You certainly cant stop pedalling, but I think there are other factors.

The bike is lighter and with no gears, less friction. Riding style changes, so that your effective cadence range increases. By this, I mean you learn to take hills and go into winds using a much higher gear than you would with a geared bike and simarly you csn take tailwinds and descents using a lower gear.

As long as you can keep within a comfortable cadence range, a fixed is quicker, but if the hills are too steep, then the fixed slows you down.

You just need to try it.
 

mangid

Guru
Location
Cambridge
I think that is a bit of a myth. You certainly cant stop pedalling, but I think there are other factors.

The bike is lighter and with no gears, less friction. Riding style changes, so that your effective cadence range increases. By this, I mean you learn to take hills and go into winds using a much higher gear than you would with a geared bike and simarly you csn take tailwinds and descents using a lower gear.

As long as you can keep within a comfortable cadence range, a fixed is quicker, but if the hills are too steep, then the fixed slows you down.

You just need to try it.

This ....

In rolling countryside I'll often be passed going down hill by groups of riders on road bikes, but on the next up slope I'll rapidly gain, and often pass. It does seem to be far easier to maintain momentum.

On an absolute basis though my road bike is faster over the same course (on a good summers day maybe 2mph), this is more because of the ability to maintain a higher top speed for longer on the flat because of the extra gears.
 

12boy

Guru
Location
Casper WY USA
I am so looking forward to some dry roads, or at least non-icy. Just got an 18T cog and am itching for a 48/18 ride on slick tires as opposed to my old Centurion with studded Schwalbes and 42/18. I've always gone with 48/16 but the combo of headwinds and hills encourages me to see how my Steamroller goes with about 10 less gear inches.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Its all down to terrain, hills that are long and steep enough to slow pace and cadence down to lets say 50rpm or less a single speed or fixed bike will be slower potentially unless you're willing to monster it up the hill and risk blowing the legs. Geared bikes allow the rider to be in their most efficient zone.

Saying that I've just got my first single speed, but I live in a flat part of the country and like the simplicity of trying out a single speed. If it becomes apparent that it pushes me too far outside my comfort zone, I'll fit an Alfine hub
 

Whorty

Gets free watts from the Atom ;)
Location
Wiltshire
Its all down to terrain, hills that are long and steep enough to slow pace and cadence down to lets say 50rpm or less a single speed or fixed bike will be slower potentially unless you're willing to monster it up the hill and risk blowing the legs. Geared bikes allow the rider to be in their most efficient zone.

Saying that I've just got my first single speed, but I live in a flat part of the country and like the simplicity of trying out a single speed. If it becomes apparent that it pushes me too far outside my comfort zone, I'll fit an Alfine hub
You'll be fine Andy ! Welcome to the club :okay:
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
I have a series of training loops, ranging from10 to 25 miles and some of these quite lumpy. For the first half of the year, have been using my geared bike with typical wide range of gears. On these loops, I achieve around 13mph avg and occasionally just pip the 14.

Well for the last few weeks, have been using my SS with a 68" freewheel and today my ride was 14.7 avg and was my top ride this year on these lumpy loops.

It seems to defy logic that a low SS can be faster than a geared bike.

But it really hurt. Out of the saddle on the climbs and freewheeling the descents.

Just proves to myself again that it doesn't matter how fast you go on the fast sections, it's how fast you go on the slower sections
Not on a fixed but some years ago when I was actively trying to up my average speed on my normal 50 mile loops, attacking the inclines, the slowest parts of my ride, was very and instantly effective in raising average speed.
Attack the hills (where prudent, we don't have proper hills here) then cycle steady and recover asap once I'd topped the Incline, then resume normal cruising speed.
 

Emile Flournoy

Formerly known as Yellow-Road
Location
Covington
I have a series of training loops, ranging from10 to 25 miles and some of these quite lumpy. For the first half of the year, have been using my geared bike with typical wide range of gears. On these loops, I achieve around 13mph avg and occasionally just pip the 14.

Well for the last few weeks, have been using my SS with a 68" freewheel and today my ride was 14.7 avg and was my top ride this year on these lumpy loops.

It seems to defy logic that a low SS can be faster than a geared bike.

But it really hurt. Out of the saddle on the climbs and freewheeling the descents.

Just proves to myself again that it doesn't matter how fast you go on the fast sections, it's how fast you go on the slower sections

^ The exact reason why I moved to single speed. I never used more than three gears and usually only two so a SS is just lighter, simpler and faster.
 
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