Curious about Retro direct, two speed drivetrains… Anyone use them in MTBs?

there’s a really neat 4 speed setup Here.
You’ll find that you can’t really pedal backwards as hard as you can forward though so backward is usually the cruising gear…

Nice one cheers for that. I was thinking of modding a freewheel to fit on a splined cassette free hub, but for some reason the guy in the link said he had issues with that design.

it’s very difficult to machine/modify a freewheel as they’re usually hardened steel and a different diameter to the freehub body. I always theought that a shimano hub with a shimano fixxer would be a good start.

nope

Would it be possible to have 2 chainrings, 2 chains (1 crossed) and 2 freehubs all on one side?
That way you could use an existing triple chainset and have a much bigger difference between ratios for mountain biking?

That was what I way thinking about doing anyhow.