On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 5:36 PM, charlie <charles_v...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > I think the Quickbeam concept of a non derailleur or hub gearing > system is appealing to many, myself included. It is simple and solves > the problem of adequately handling varied terrain without too much > convenience. I like the ability of making it a four speed for that > occasional long steep climb up towards our local mountain or the > ability to add a slightly higher ratio for a ride such as Seattle to > Portland. When I get enough money together I would like a QB as my > poor mans version of it is not ideal. > The problem with just adding a three cog in the back is that you won't > get the wider range of ratios that you would using that 32 tooth up > front with perhaps a 22 tooth on the flip side or a fixed 14 tooth and > the 40 tooth for flat rides. the neat thing is the QB allows one to > set it up as they prefer for their type of terrain. If a guy has > Charles 'Atlast' legs and an ideal power to weight ratio he can often > get away with just one gear. An IG hub is nice but is still more > complicated and fragile at least in one respect. For riding off road > I'd rather have a freewheeling non derailleur setup. As a road > commuter bike it would make more sense to have an internal HG if your > route was hilly. Most city commutes however are fairly flat so one > gear seems enough unless it starts or ends flat or with a long section > of climbing or high headwinds. I just think the QB is kinda cool so I > want one. > My poor mans version exists at www.cyclofiend.com Well put, except that your URL leads to an icon menu and not your particular bike. If I regularly rode more than 30 miles at a stretch, I'm sure I would, in my condition, be screaming for multiple gears. But still, if the QB allows an 8 tooth gap in chainrings, it will allow an 8 tooth gap in cogs, and each tooth difference in your cogs will make much more of a ratio difference than a tooth dropped from or added to a chainring. This evening as I hauled a 15 lb load home from the grocery store on my 69" fixed Riv commuter, up a 2 mile incline against a 3/4 headwind (NW gusts to 21, I heading West then North), trying to approach 15 mph, the desirability of a lower gear option struck me with, you might say, a painful slap. But then I realized that all I had to do was pedal more slowly, so I backed off and let my speed slide down to a 10-13 mph slog that made things much easier. But of course, a 6 mile grocery run return leg is far from a loaded tour or even an all day hilly gravel run. Of which thinking: back in the Uniglide days, when lockrings were screw on small cogs, someone made a portable device for touring kits that allowed you to use the wheel and frame themselves as levers to remove the locking small cog. Would that not work for fixed cogs, too? Not that I'd care to use it for routine en-route gear changes, but I'm curious if it might work for roadside repairs for the fixed gear tourist. Another meandering thought: Mitch Harris of the Boblist and of much experience riding fixed gears said that old tourists in Britain routinely used 72-78 inch fixed gears for touring, which I suppose means, not carrying 40 lb across the Sahara but a loaded Nelson from hostel to hostel. Still, 78" seems pretty darn high for long distance riding, unless you are much younger than I am. What gears do y'all of longer distance fixed or ss riding (let's say 40 miles or more at a stretch) favor, and over what terrain? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
