We’ve been away for a couple of weeks while many of the Singletrack podcast team were on holiday. But we are back now and we’ve recorded a bit of a three way ramble about bikes, events, Red Bull Rampage and how grownups don’t play enough on their bikes.
It’s a three way chat with Mark, Hannah and Charlie. Have a listen and tell us what you think about rear mechs. Do you play enough on your bike?
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Doesn’t play or download for me. “Missing file”
How about now?
Working for me.
Totally agree with more playing on bikes. Our Friday night Strava routes almost always include a round and round in circles section where we are just messing about. It’s best done with friends; falling off is so much more fun with background laughter.
Yes. I’ve been moaning about my lack of ability to wheelie for decades. The few hours I spent on my holiday just messing around have moved me on more than I’ve done in the last decade. Make time to piss about – Pissing about on a bike is important 🙂
A boxer putting his testicles on their chin and climbing into the ring sums up my attitude to rear mechs 100% 😀
For all everyones whinging about mechs, and gearboxes being the future, they need to go out an actually buy them for the manufacutrers to take notice and develop them further. Deviate sold more Highlanders (140mm 29er with a mech) in a month than they did the Guide (160mm 650b with a gearbox) in a year, so they’ve simply stopped production of the gearbox bike (which is a shame, because its an incredible bike).
Sadly, mech are good ‘enough’ for most people, most of the time. it would take a HUGE investment to beat that stranglehold, which would only be forthcomeing if there were massive actual demand, not just people moaning on the internet
The industry beat the front mech into submission and that went down with a lot of fighting by those that (still) think it’s a good idea :-).
The thing is that even though it’s a common assumption that the bike industry is out to extract every last penny from us all, it does tend to evolve in the right direction. It’s us consumers that cling on to the past like it’s a life belt 🙂
If you still think a rear mech is a good idea you’re not being adventurous enough where you take your bike.
I rode a gearbox bike once. It was horrible.
I think the problem with gearbox bikes is that the torque at the cranks is higher than at the rear wheel of a convention set up.
I haven’t studied them closely, but gearbox bikes seem to take the drive direct from the crank rather than reducing the torque by using an intermediate gear set up to speed up the rotation, and hence reduce the torque, prior to feeding it into the gearbox. This means they need cogs capable of taking a massive amount of torque.
If you look at something as simple as a S-A 3 speed, it will still be working fine after close on 100,000 miles, but put the same mechanism as a direct drive from the cranks, and you’ll likely have crunchy fun in no time.
It is even more so with a higher gear count, which is why the likes of Rohloff require a a minimum allowable ratio front to rear.
[TIC] The obvious answer is for the cycle industry to stop pandering to the flamingo legged, and revert to single speed. [/TIC]
TIC = Tongue In Cheek (firmly, I might add) 🙂
I had a Grifter with a Stemey Archer 3 speed hub and to my recollection it lasted no time at all. At seven I wasn’t the most sympathetic or understanding which may have had something to do with it, but I certainly wasn’t laying down loads of torque.