Coaster Brake Failure

On Fri, 1 Mar 2019 17:45:15 -0800 (PST),
jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 3:41:59 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/1/2019 5:33 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/1/2019 3:15 PM, wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 10:10:48 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:

I would still prefer my fixie for most rides. YMMV.

OK, now we know you ride on the flats and have a weight
problem...???????.

No mountains here and I'm 5'10", 150~155lbs.

I'm 5'9" and about 30 pounds jealous.

A fixie is almost the only type of bike I haven't ridden. (My
kid has, though, on Portland's Alpenrose velodrome. I'm
jealous of that, too.)

Andrew, how flat is it where you use the fixie? What gradients
do you have to deal with? And do you have caliper brake(s)
fitted?

For those watching at home, this is Alpenrose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnEY_xHtXRI Steep banks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8eVHE1kcuU

oops. That might be a hill I couldn't walk up!


It's not far from my house, and I rode over there on my track
bike for an event and picked up something in my tire and
flatted on the turn and fell down the bank. Civilians are
allowed on the track when there are no events, so you can go
over there and ride around on your road bike. They fixed the
transitions about 20 some-odd years ago, but before that
happened, you could basically ski jump off the top of the bank
coming out of the turn. You can also go rent a fixie on event
nights.

Yes, the Major Taylor in Indianapolis is the same. I've gone to
see a few nationals events, but never had the gumption to actually
ride it.

--
Ted Heise West Lafayette, IN, USA

On 2019-02-28 22:04, Tosspot wrote:
On 3/1/19 3:24 AM, news18 wrote:
On Thu, 28 Feb 2019 16:49:52 -0800, Joerg wrote:

If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend that on a
Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the complete gear range at very
low or zero speed which is very useful in MTB riding. To heck with the
extra weight.

Have they improved the reliability of Rohloffs now.
At one stage it came with a "too much force" caveat and I viewed it as
unreliable off road(real offf road).


https://www.rohloff.de/en/experience...pecifications/

130NM. I think this is to discourage tandem use. Mines on a cargo bike,
so far with no problems. All up wet weight likely 150kgs and add my
shopping to that :-)


Aside from the cost that would be my main concern because I am a heavy
rider with strong leg muscles. Even my MTB gets used for cargo trips,
kind of necessary in this area.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2019-03-01 07:34, wrote:
On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 5:05:52 PM UTC-8, John B. Slocomb
wrote:
On Thu, 28 Feb 2019 16:49:52 -0800, Joerg
wrote:


[...]


If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend that
on a Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the complete gear
range at very low or zero speed which is very useful in MTB
riding. To heck with the extra weight.

Good Lord! You have been talking about retirement, you own two
cars, You live in a gated community and can't afford a thousand
dollars? Look at it as an investment, after all you could change
the rear wheel when you change bikes.

The other day I was reading, in another group, about a guy that
was buying a cheap hand phone for a pre-teen kid and it was "only"
$180. I had assumed that all you "round eyes" were rich. --

Cheers,

John B.

In what world do you get the right to tell someone else how to spend
their money? You have to be one of the most contemptible people I've
ever had the misfortune to communicate with.


It might not fit Johns prejudice but there are "round-eyes" who are not
profligate spenders.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2019-03-01 16:00, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/1/2019 2:01 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
Frank Krygowski writes:

On 2/28/2019 7:49 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-27 14:47, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 08:09:04 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2019-02-25 11:42, Tosspot wrote:
On 2/25/19 5:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-25 07:29, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/reca...nd-aftermarket






Mysterious. How the hell did that happen in a design 100+ years
old?

They must have improved it.


In German there is the inofficial word "verschlimmbessern". It sums
up the action of "Here we have a working design but let's
optimize it
anyhow" and then it all goes to pots. A very common scenario in
software design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk


Sometimes those things happen for reasons Tom mentioned. People using
library modules that others have written, assuming everything in
those
we be just fine. And then things aren't.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer gear with the least amount of
electronics and software in there and, for example, will never be
caught
with electronic shifters on a bicycle.

True, but then people also have had the metal shift cables break and
been restricted to a single gear. It appears that everything is
subject to failure :-)


That is very rare, more so than a derailer ripped away by a rock.

Well, for me it's been rare, but it's happened maybe three times. It's
why my touring bike has a spare rear derailleur cable in among its
tools.

The worst event was on an 80 mile, super-hilly ride I used to lead. My
cable snapped at the shifter just as I was starting the toughest
climb. I did make it to the top, then pulled over to change the
cable. I found to my dismay that my spare cable was too short. (My
touring bike has a long wheelbase, and I run the cables from the
bar-end shifters under the handlebar tape. I need a cable longer than
73".)

So I decided to run the new cable from the shifter, and tie it to the
remains of the old cable, knotting it along the down tube. That's when
I found that it's about impossible to tie two cables together using
knots. I eventually did it, but my friends had to wait 20 minutes or
more.

Do you remember how you knotted it? I wonder if there is a recommendable
knot for small twisted steel cables -- fisherman's bend?

All I remember about the resulting knot was that it was big and ugly,
more of a tangle than a knot. ISTR mis-using some tool as a crude set of
pliers to get some help. I couldn't do it with bare hands.


Aha, your first McGyver steps. Pretty soon you'll discover the
ground-off nail and rock method to fix a chain.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2019-02-28 18:31, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/28/2019 6:49 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-27 14:47, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 08:09:04 -0800, Joerg

wrote:

On 2019-02-25 11:42, Tosspot wrote:
On 2/25/19 5:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-25 07:29, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/reca...nd-aftermarket






Mysterious. How the hell did that happen in a design
100+ years
old?

They must have improved it.


In German there is the inofficial word
"verschlimmbessern". It sums
up the action of "Here we have a working design but
let's optimize it
anyhow" and then it all goes to pots. A very common
scenario in
software design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk


Sometimes those things happen for reasons Tom mentioned.
People using
library modules that others have written, assuming
everything in those
we be just fine. And then things aren't.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer gear with the
least amount of
electronics and software in there and, for example, will
never be caught
with electronic shifters on a bicycle.

True, but then people also have had the metal shift cables
break and
been restricted to a single gear. It appears that
everything is
subject to failure :-)


That is very rare, more so than a derailer ripped away by a
rock.

Main thing is, with batteries the number of available shifts
per charge is finite. I was told that front shifts are
especially hard on the battery and on mountainous
singletrack that's used a lot.

If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend
that on a Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the
complete gear range at very low or zero speed which is very
useful in MTB riding. To heck with the extra weight.


Old fashioned junk. Try to keep up:

https://bikerumor.com/2019/02/24/rot...pset-at-1785g/


13-speed, yikes. When that has run it's course they'll offer 14-speed.
When will we have CVT for bicycles?

I recently installed a longer rear derailer, a hanger extender and a
11-40T cassette. I hacked it to fit the old 6-speed road bike, now
7-speed. For a guy getting older and having moved into hill country that
makes a major difference. The only downside with such a large cassette
for me is when I stop pedaling too suddenly or pedal backwards a little
to level the cranks for a water crossing. Then the chain slaps violently
and hits the right chainstay. Happens only when on the smaller
sprockets, due to the flywheel effect. So now there is a piece of slit
pool sweep hose on top of that as "sacrificial material".

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 2:33:19 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/1/2019 3:15 PM, wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 10:10:48 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/1/2019 11:49 AM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 11:27:17 AM UTC-5, Ralph Barone wrote:
Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 6:19:03 AM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 1 Mar 2019 02:17:00 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 4:12:51 AM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 1 Mar 2019 00:29:21 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 9:31:16 PM UTC-5, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/28/2019 6:49 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-27 14:47, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 08:09:04 -0800, Joerg

wrote:

On 2019-02-25 11:42, Tosspot wrote:
On 2/25/19 5:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-25 07:29, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/reca...nd-aftermarket





Mysterious. How the hell did that happen in a design
100+ years
old?

They must have improved it.


In German there is the inofficial word
"verschlimmbessern". It sums
up the action of "Here we have a working design but
let's optimize it
anyhow" and then it all goes to pots. A very common
scenario in
software design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk


Sometimes those things happen for reasons Tom mentioned.
People using
library modules that others have written, assuming
everything in those
we be just fine. And then things aren't.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer gear with the
least amount of
electronics and software in there and, for example, will
never be caught
with electronic shifters on a bicycle.

True, but then people also have had the metal shift cables
break and
been restricted to a single gear. It appears that
everything is
subject to failure :-)


That is very rare, more so than a derailer ripped away by a
rock.

Main thing is, with batteries the number of available shifts
per charge is finite. I was told that front shifts are
especially hard on the battery and on mountainous
singletrack that's used a lot.

If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend
that on a Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the
complete gear range at very low or zero speed which is very
useful in MTB riding. To heck with the extra weight.


Old fashioned junk. Try to keep up:

https://bikerumor.com/2019/02/24/rot...pset-at-1785g/

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Plus it's not expensive at all.

From the linked page:

"A complete groupset of shift & brake levers, brake calipers &
rotors, and the new 13-speed rear derailleur sells for $1830 / 1667€
(cranks, chainring & chain excluded). Add in another $415 / 380-400€
extra for the 13-speed cassette (plus the need for a specific hub) or
$365 / 334-350€ for a 12-speed version to work with your existing
Shimano freehub wheels."

A groupset that does NOT include the crankset, the chinrings, the
chain, the cassette or the hubs? Doesn't sound like much of a groupset to me.

$415.00 US JUST for a 13 gear cassette? Bring back the old 14 speed 2 x 7 setup! LOL

Cheers

BUT! It's NEW!

Actually I have 9 speed cassettes on two of my three bikes with either
dual or triple chain rings which gives me either 18 speeds or 27
speeds at a much, much lower price.

The third has a 10 speed setup because I got a pair of 10 speed STI
shifters almost free so cobbled up a 10 speed cassette and to be frank
I really can't tell the difference between 9 and 10 speed.

--
Cheers,
John B.

I too have a couple of bicycles with 9 speed x 3 chainrings. One is a 9
speed Veloce 30 - 42 - 52 set with a Veloce rear derailler and Mirage 9
speed shifters (ratchet left shifter) because the Mirage was the same
inside as the Veloce but a lot less $.

To keep selling components or frames even, manufacturers MUST come up
with NEW stuff and Marketting has to convince bicyclists that the
bicyclist MUST HAVE this latest doo dad.

On one of my bicycles I have a 9 gear 11 - 19 teeth corncob cluster on
it that I made up for fun from some 9 speed cassettes plus one cog from
an 8 speed cassette. It shifts just fine with the friction shifters I'm
using on that bike.

Cheers

It's been a few (more than a few) years but when I had a 7 speed with
2 chain rings I can't remember ever feeling that I needed more.I can
see the possibility of someone who raced wanting very close spaced
gears but for the average Joe I really doubt that they would average
any faster on, say a 2 hour ride, with a seven speed as opposed to a 9
or ten speed.

As far as cassettes go, I did the same thing on my "Bangkok bike".
Bangkok is built on an alluvial plain and there might be one tooth
difference in riding north as apposed to riding south and the only
hills are bridges. On a 20 km ride I might shift once. I built a 13 -
25 cassette as you did out of a bunch of loose cogs. With 50-42 chain
rings I've never wanted for more.

--
Cheers,
John B.

it would not surprise me to see the next great thing in bicycling being
an internally geared bottom bracket. Then you could have the equivalent
of at least three or four chainrings with nothing exposed.

You know, it's be interesting to calculate the gear jumps on that 13
speed cluster and then compare those with the jumps on a 7 or 8 speed cluster.

Cheers

"Internally geared bottom bracket"? You mean, like a Schlumpf drive?

http://www.schlumpfdrive.com/index.php/home-en.html

I wonder what would happen if you coupled that with the 13 rear cogs system mentioned upthread?

Cheers


I would still prefer my fixie for most rides. YMMV.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

OK, now we know you ride on the flats and have a weight problem...….


No mountains here and I'm 5'10", 150~155lbs.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Yeah, but since you're the closest thing here to Shelton Brown making fun of you is good for the soul.

On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 5:45:17 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 3:41:59 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/1/2019 5:33 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/1/2019 3:15 PM, wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 10:10:48 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:

I would still prefer my fixie for most rides. YMMV.


OK, now we know you ride on the flats and have a weight problem...….


No mountains here and I'm 5'10", 150~155lbs.

I'm 5'9" and about 30 pounds jealous.

A fixie is almost the only type of bike I haven't ridden. (My kid has,
though, on Portland's Alpenrose velodrome. I'm jealous of that, too.)

Andrew, how flat is it where you use the fixie? What gradients do you
have to deal with? And do you have caliper brake(s) fitted?


For those watching at home, this is Alpenrose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnEY_xHtXRI Steep banks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8eVHE1kcuU

It's not far from my house, and I rode over there on my track bike for an event and picked up something in my tire and flatted on the turn and fell down the bank. Civilians are allowed on the track when there are no events, so you can go over there and ride around on your road bike. They fixed the transitions about 20 some-odd years ago, but before that happened, you could basically ski jump off the top of the bank coming out of the turn. You can also go rent a fixie on event nights.

-- Jay Beattie.
We have another track in San Jose but not with a banking like that.

On 3/2/2019 8:04 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-28 18:31, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/28/2019 6:49 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-27 14:47, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 08:09:04 -0800, Joerg

wrote:

On 2019-02-25 11:42, Tosspot wrote:
On 2/25/19 5:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-25 07:29, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/reca...nd-aftermarket







Mysterious. How the hell did that happen in a design
100+ years
old?

They must have improved it.


In German there is the inofficial word
"verschlimmbessern". It sums
up the action of "Here we have a working design but
let's optimize it
Â* anyhow" and then it all goes to pots. A very common
scenario in
software design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk


Sometimes those things happen for reasons Tom mentioned.
People using
library modules that others have written, assuming
everything in those
we be just fine. And then things aren't.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer gear with the
least amount of
electronics and software in there and, for example, will
never be caught
with electronic shifters on a bicycle.

True, but then people also have had the metal shift cables
break and
been restricted to a single gear. It appears that
everything is
subject to failure :-)


That is very rare, more so than a derailer ripped away by a
rock.

Main thing is, with batteries the number of available shifts
per charge is finite. I was told that front shifts are
especially hard on the battery and on mountainous
singletrack that's used a lot.

If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend
that on a Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the
complete gear range at very low or zero speed which is very
useful in MTB riding. To heck with the extra weight.


Old fashioned junk. Try to keep up:

https://bikerumor.com/2019/02/24/rot...pset-at-1785g/



13-speed, yikes. When that has run it's course they'll offer 14-speed.
When will we have CVT for bicycles?

I recently installed a longer rear derailer, a hanger extender and a
11-40T cassette. I hacked it to fit the old 6-speed road bike, now
7-speed. For a guy getting older and having moved into hill country that
makes a major difference. The only downside with such a large cassette
for me is when I stop pedaling too suddenly or pedal backwards a little
to level the cranks for a water crossing. Then the chain slaps violently
and hits the right chainstay. Happens only when on the smaller
sprockets, due to the flywheel effect. So now there is a piece of slit
pool sweep hose on top of that as "sacrificial material".

They make modern rear derailleurs with a "clutch" in/on the jockey
pulley to avoid just this chain-slap problem. Example:
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/produ...-RX800-GS.html
The described "on-off switch" is for the clutch.

Mark J.

On 2019-03-02 08:28, Mark J. wrote:
On 3/2/2019 8:04 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-28 18:31, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/28/2019 6:49 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-27 14:47, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 08:09:04 -0800, Joerg

wrote:

On 2019-02-25 11:42, Tosspot wrote:
On 2/25/19 5:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-25 07:29, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/reca...nd-aftermarket







Mysterious. How the hell did that happen in a design
100+ years
old?

They must have improved it.


In German there is the inofficial word
"verschlimmbessern". It sums
up the action of "Here we have a working design but
let's optimize it
anyhow" and then it all goes to pots. A very common
scenario in
software design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk


Sometimes those things happen for reasons Tom mentioned.
People using
library modules that others have written, assuming
everything in those
we be just fine. And then things aren't.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer gear with the
least amount of
electronics and software in there and, for example, will
never be caught
with electronic shifters on a bicycle.

True, but then people also have had the metal shift cables
break and
been restricted to a single gear. It appears that
everything is
subject to failure :-)


That is very rare, more so than a derailer ripped away by a
rock.

Main thing is, with batteries the number of available shifts
per charge is finite. I was told that front shifts are
especially hard on the battery and on mountainous
singletrack that's used a lot.

If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend
that on a Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the
complete gear range at very low or zero speed which is very
useful in MTB riding. To heck with the extra weight.


Old fashioned junk. Try to keep up:

https://bikerumor.com/2019/02/24/rot...pset-at-1785g/



13-speed, yikes. When that has run it's course they'll offer 14-speed.
When will we have CVT for bicycles?

I recently installed a longer rear derailer, a hanger extender and a
11-40T cassette. I hacked it to fit the old 6-speed road bike, now
7-speed. For a guy getting older and having moved into hill country
that makes a major difference. The only downside with such a large
cassette for me is when I stop pedaling too suddenly or pedal
backwards a little to level the cranks for a water crossing. Then the
chain slaps violently and hits the right chainstay. Happens only when
on the smaller sprockets, due to the flywheel effect. So now there is
a piece of slit pool sweep hose on top of that as "sacrificial material".

They make modern rear derailleurs with a "clutch" in/on the jockey
pulley to avoid just this chain-slap problem. Example:
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/produ...-RX800-GS.html

The described "on-off switch" is for the clutch.


Interesting! However, that derailer retails north of $100. My solution
with a $20 derailer and a chunk of plastic hose with three cable ties
leaves $80 to spend at bicycle gas stations, a.k.a. brewpubs :-)

An upside is that such kludges along with mud caked onto the frame and a
hose clamp fix on the steerer greatly reduce the chance of this bike
being stolen while in a city.

http://www.analogconsultants.com/ng/bike/Hoseclamp.JPG

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 3/1/2019 10:28 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/1/2019 9:03 PM, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
On 3/1/2019 2:38 PM, Ralph Barone wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 9:51:53 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Friday, March 1, 2019 at 9:40:38 AM UTC-8, Ralph Barone wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/1/2019 4:12 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 1 Mar 2019 00:29:21 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 9:31:16 PM UTC-5, AMuzi wrote:

Old fashioned junk. Try to keep up:

https://bikerumor.com/2019/02/24/rot...pset-at-1785g/


--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Plus it's not expensive at all.

*From the linked page:

"A complete groupset of shift & brake levers, brake calipers &
rotors,
and the new 13-speed rear derailleur sells for $1830 /
1667€ (cranks,
chainring & chain excluded). Add in another $415 /
380-400€ extra for
the 13-speed cassette (plus the need for a specific hub) or
$365 /
334-350€ for a 12-speed version to work with your existing
Shimano freehub wheels."

A groupset that does NOT include the crankset, the chinrings, the
chain, the cassette or the hubs? Doesn't sound like much of a
groupset to me.

$415.00 US JUST for a 13 gear cassette? Bring back the old 14
speed 2 x 7 setup! LOL

Cheers

BUT! It's NEW!

Actually I have 9 speed cassettes on two of my three bikes with
either
dual or triple chain rings which gives me either 18 speeds or 27
speeds at a much, much lower price.

The third has a 10 speed setup because I got a pair of 10 speed
STI
shifters almost free so cobbled up a 10 speed cassette and to
be frank
I really can't tell the difference between 9 and 10 speed.

I've only ridden a modern 1x gear train one time, borrowing a
friend's
bike. It worked fine, but nothing so amazing as to want me to
replace
what I have on any bike.

Please correct me if necessary, but as I understand it, the
benefits are
1) you don't have to think about shifting the front, because the
front
doesn't shift; and 2) the shifts are a little bit better because
the
chain slack doesn't change from big ring to small ring, so the
derailleur is in a more constant position.

Beyond those two, there might be microscopic benefits regarding
aerodynamics, weight, and maybe feng shui...

But I think this all shows how deep the bicycling world has sunk
into
diminishing returns. Those who are entranced by the slightly better
shifting seem like pianists who say "I play only on Steinways,
their
action is so much better than Baldwins."

Sheesh! It's a bicycle! You're shifting gears, not playing Bach.


On a rear derailleur, the shifting occurs on the untensioned part
of the
chain, while the front derailleur has to shift the tensioned part
of the
chain. Therefore front shifting will always be worse than rear
shifting.
That's what a 1x system aims for. However, the front shifting on
my 3x9
system, while worse than the rear, is still "good enough", and in
return I
get a wide hearing range.

The indexing of the front derailleur is what is all screwed up. A
hydraulic front shifter could be arranged to be a lot better and gain
alignments as accurate as the old friction shifting.

Di2 takes care of that by automatically trimming the FD.* FD
shifting is
one of the big selling points of Di2. What I don't like is the
lock-out
of the last two cogs while on the small ring which, AFAIK, cannot be
overridden by the consumer. Those are usable cogs on my cable shift
bikes.* The FD also will not shift down if you are in the last two
cogs in the big ring.


I've always thought that it would not be difficult to build a mechanism
that clamps onto the rear derailleur shift cable and uses the rear gear
selection to trim the front derailleur. You don't need a CPU to pull
off
that trick.

http://www.velobase.com/ViewComponen...3-2787beac2bb0





Brilliant, just freaking brilliant.


Yes Junzo Kawai was that one-in-a-million guy.

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/inte...4#.XHn4Ekq99PI


I didn't know about him. Sounds impressive! Thanks.

He was a 15-year old Kamikaze trainee when the war ended.

I'm glad both he and my dad - who might have been his target - survived.

--
- Frank Krygowski