If you forgo a derailleur, the whole point is to maintain the simplicity of a fixed gear or at least single speed drivetrain. So expect few alternative gear ratios. OTOH, fixed gear/ss aficionados with aging lungs and knees need help: solution? main, direct, cruising gear + climbing/bailout gear.
How to do this? Expensive and elusive SA 2-speed fixed gear hubs aside, much more available, slanted longish dropouts or the ENO hub. Many old road bikes have slanted dropouts; you can use the ENO eccentric axle hub on vertical dropout frames. Me, the whole point of fixed/ss drivetrains is lost if you try to get too many gears on a "ss/fixed" setup. After all, the derailleur has been perfected to the point that no other multigear system can compete -- unless you look at the alternatives as "expansions" of the ss/fixed drivetrain. I say this as someone who for personal arcane reasons loves SA hubs. (My reasons are logical.) All that to say that my experience leads me to really like the idea of combining old pre-susp but post-Repak mtb frames with ENO hubs. That very early '90s top-end Diamond Back with rigid (and, I have to say, very elegant straight-leg, finely tapered fork) with 60 mm Big Apples and 64" ss drivetrain (42 t Pro 5 Vis X 17 t fw, 170 mm arms) was almost perfect as a pavement/sandy-dirt all-rounder, tho' I think I'd gear it up today to 68" with a 16 t fw. Or, if I wanted some range, a 44 in place of the 42, and a 16/18 or for the weak 17/19 DOS fw. On Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 11:50 AM duh...@gmail.com <duh...@gmail.com> wrote: > George, I'll take a stab at answering this one for Bill. > > He has a double crankset (2 gears), and some combination of double cogs > and/or freewheels in rear resulting in 4 gears out back. > > On Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 6:01:37 AM UTC-7 George Schick wrote: > >> Bill - you say the Quickbeam is setup as "a 8-speed single speed," so I'm >> assuming an IGH? If so, what kind? A Shimano Nexus 8? Also, again >> assuming an IGH, how did you do the cable routing? I have a Surly 1x1 and >> I've been fantasizing turning it into an IGH, but I'd have to change bars >> and figure out how to route the shifting cable. >> George >> >> >> On Thursday, September 15, 2022 at 12:14:16 PM UTC-5 Bill Lindsay wrote: >> >>> I had been searching for quite a while for a single speed that enabled >>> some derailer-less gear flexibility. On one hand I searched for a 58cm >>> Quickbeam or SimpleONE. On the other hand I was/am waiting on the >>> RoadUNO. I was/am a huge fan of Rivendells rear dropouts with the angle >>> that allows a significant gear change while maintaining brake adjustment. >>> >>> In an absolutely perfect world, my Size Large singlespeed would also >>> have been 650B (for fat tires and no TCO). While I'm sitting here in >>> fantasy-land, I also would have waved my magic wand to have the bike be >>> belt-compatible, and would allow brakes, but have a discreet way to NOT run >>> brakes. >>> >>> Over the last 18 months or so, I've been working with placeholders for >>> these things. I bought a Crust Michigan Man right when they were released >>> and set it up as a strictly 1-speed fixie in my office in Wayne County, >>> Michigan. Will at Riv also has a Michigan Man. I also managed to acquire >>> a 58cm Quickbeam, and that is now in my garage as a 8-speed single speed. >>> I slowly acquired some of the parts for a 650B custom, including a pair of >>> Rivendell dropouts. I even had preliminary conversations with a local >>> builder, and have a tentative spot on his enormous waiting list. >>> >>> Then, totally by surprise, a new contender appeared. Crust released a >>> new variant of their single speed Lightning Bolt. It's 650B, with >>> clearance for 48mm tires and contemporary Randonneur geometry. It's >>> belt-compatible and has removable cantilever posts and cable guides. It's >>> almost exactly what my custom would have been except for the Riv-style >>> ends. >>> >>> It's 2022, and the lesson we've all learned is that if the thing you >>> want is available, you buy it, because it may never be available again. >>> So, I went ahead and bought it, and the frame should arrive today. I'm >>> pretty excited. >>> >>> Whether or not my new Crust will get replaced by a RoadUNO next year >>> remains to be seen. Will's email updates (plus simple geometry) make it >>> pretty clear to me that the RoadUNO will not have Riv ends. It'll have >>> some other svelte track ends, so easy gear changes with a rear brake won't >>> be part of the feature list, it seems. I'm still paying very close >>> attention, but the itch is getting scratched today. >>> >>> Bill Lindsay >>> El Cerrito, CA >>> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/db81dcf6-3fe5-4bea-a9e8-60fded9f7027n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/db81dcf6-3fe5-4bea-a9e8-60fded9f7027n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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