AG: Aunt Granny's Advice, or How to become an elderly cyclist:

The more unlikely term is "chainwheel". I'd say that's pretty
rare in BrE, foreign-sounding even. It's usually "chainring"
for the cogs at the front
"chainwheel" is used by the British company Brompton Bicycle Ltd.
It is used to refer to the whole "wheel" to which the pedals are
attached. The "chainring" is the replaceable outer part of the
assembly.

I've only ever known "chainwheel" as the word for that, too.
All standard books on bicycles use it (like Richard's Bicycle
Book, written by an American but first published in the UK,
where he lived).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07895 860 060 http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin

Peter Duncanson [BrE]:

"chainwheel" is used by the British company Brompton Bicycle Ltd.

Indeed, a reputable firm, but still only one example.

It is used to refer to the whole "wheel" to which the pedals are
attached. The "chainring" is the replaceable outer part of the assembly.

Confusingly, they - the supplier quoted below, that is - appear to be
using both "chainwheel" and "chainring" to refer to the same thing, the
cog itself. The unit comprising the cog and cranks (to which the pedals
are attached) is called a "chainset" or, as they call it, "crank[ ]set".
(I'll give them that: "crankset" is a reasonably common variant of
"chainset".)

For instance:
http://brilliantbikes.co.uk/brompton...hainwheel.html

44T Brompton BLACK edition crank set (left and right complete) - the
Brompton "spider" crankset
....
This is the BLACK edition crankset - with black chainwheel and
cranks
....
The "spider" crankset has a few advantages over the older fixed
crankset:
The chainring protector is held on with screws rather than plastic
lugs so is less liable to falling off
The chainring can be changed without the need to replace the crank
as well (making it easier to change gear ratio)

I've no doubt "chainwheel" is used in the UK (to refer to individual
cogs), but it's not the usual term, and I still think it's rare. All the
major suppliers, such as Chain Reaction Cycles or Wiggle, will use the
term "chainring". Even the supplier above does, on their website's menu.

--
John

On 2017-07-09, Duane wrote:
Paul Carmichael wrote:
El 09/07/17 a las 10:46, John Dunlop escribió:
Joy Beeson:

I'm tempted to cross-post this to alt.usage.english -- I dithered
so over whether to say "unshipped" "shipped" or "re-shipped". The
incident was unshipping, but it was shipping that got my fingers
dirty.

You could carry a pair of latex gloves for those on-the-road
repairs. They take up almost no space, and if you're careful
they're reusable dozens of times.

On an international forum, I suspect that my best bet would be to
get wordy and say "I had to put my chain back on the chainwheel".

"Unshipped" would be understood in BrE too, but I'd be more likely
to simply say "my chain came off".

The more unlikely term is "chainwheel". I'd say that's pretty rare
in BrE, foreign-sounding even. It's usually "chainring" for the cogs
at the front

Front sprocket to me. Maybe from owning motorcycles.



Never heard it referred to as anything but a chain ring. Maybe it's a
local thing.

I'm sure it's down to the sort of bike. Single-speed or hub gear
roadsters have a chainwheel - one piece, attached to the shaft which is
driven by the pedals. Cheaper models may even have the pedal crank and
chainwheel cast as one piece. Bikes with derailleur gears can have more
than one 'chainwheel', and logically it makes sense to have a 'spider'
fitted to the pedal shaft with attachment points for two or more 'chain
rings'.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:36:10 +0100, "Peter Duncanson [BrE]"
wrote:

"chainwheel" is used by the British company Brompton Bicycle Ltd.

It is used to refer to the whole "wheel" to which the pedals are
attached. The "chainring" is the replaceable outer part of the assembly.

That explains why I say "big ring" and "small ring", but my internal
editor balks at "chainring".

Just checked: the larger chainwheel on my Fuji is all one piece, and
the small ring is bolted to it.

Really small; the mechanic told me that it was supposed to be the
inmost ring of a triple crankset. It makes shifting touchy for the
first few weeks after I've been shut in for a while, but it made it
possible to ride in Albany County, New York, and is even more
important now that I don't run up and down stairs several times for
every meal, and have to spend the winter inside. (Ob AUE: is the
comma after "meal" necessary?)

It seems to me that "ring" for "wheel" is standard metonymy, like
"wheels" for "car", "blade" for "knife", and "spare tire" for "spare
wheel". In each case you refer to the whole by the name of the
important part.

I think "crankset" a superior term to "chainset"; a person
encountering "crankset" for the first time would need very little
context to deduce that it's a pair of cranks with some necessary parts
attached, particularly if he's familiar with "frameset". "Chainset"
could easily mean the entire drivetrain.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 22:52:09 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:36:10 +0100, "Peter Duncanson [BrE]"
wrote:

"chainwheel" is used by the British company Brompton Bicycle Ltd.

It is used to refer to the whole "wheel" to which the pedals are
attached. The "chainring" is the replaceable outer part of the assembly.

That explains why I say "big ring" and "small ring", but my internal
editor balks at "chainring".

Just checked: the larger chainwheel on my Fuji is all one piece, and
the small ring is bolted to it.

Really small; the mechanic told me that it was supposed to be the
inmost ring of a triple crankset. It makes shifting touchy for the
first few weeks after I've been shut in for a while, but it made it
possible to ride in Albany County, New York, and is even more
important now that I don't run up and down stairs several times for
every meal, and have to spend the winter inside. (Ob AUE: is the
comma after "meal" necessary?)

It seems to me that "ring" for "wheel" is standard metonymy, like
"wheels" for "car", "blade" for "knife", and "spare tire" for "spare
wheel". In each case you refer to the whole by the name of the
important part.

I think "crankset" a superior term to "chainset"; a person
encountering "crankset" for the first time would need very little
context to deduce that it's a pair of cranks with some necessary parts
attached, particularly if he's familiar with "frameset". "Chainset"
could easily mean the entire drivetrain.

I suggest that it is a matter of terminology and common usage.

If, for instance you went into a motorcycle shop and asked for a
"front chain wheel" for a Harley 74 you'd probably get some strange
looks and if you went to some commercial companies and asked for a
"chain wheel you would get something that looked like
http://www.trumbull-mfg.com/products...le-chainwheels
And of course if you visit your LBS and ask for a front sprocket you
may get corrected.

But by the same token a "yard of cloth" is not necessarily the same
width as a different yard of cloth :-) and if a traditional cook a
small woman's "pinch of salt" is not always the same as a big woman's
pinch :-) and even worse, some measure their cooking ingredients by
"about that much" or "just the right amount" :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

For AUE consumption,
Jack Campin noted that:

The more unlikely term is "chainwheel". I'd say that's pretty
rare in BrE, foreign-sounding even. It's usually "chainring"
for the cogs at the front
"chainwheel" is used by the British company Brompton Bicycle Ltd.
It is used to refer to the whole "wheel" to which the pedals are
attached. The "chainring" is the replaceable outer part of the
assembly.

I've only ever known "chainwheel" as the word for that, too.
All standard books on bicycles use it (like Richard's Bicycle
Book, written by an American but first published in the UK,
where he lived).

The one I have is
URL:https://www.amazon.com/Anybodys-Bike-Book-Original-Bicycle/dp/0898150035
but I my copy is in storage, so I'm not quoting from it yet.

/dps "the spoke tightening discussion is amusing"

--
"I am not given to exaggeration, and when I say a thing I mean it"
_Roughing It_, Mark Twain

Joy Beeson:

That explains why I say "big ring" and "small ring", but my internal
editor balks at "chainring".

Over here we sometimes say "granny ring" for the wee ring.

--
John

On 11/07/2017 2:20 AM, John Dunlop wrote:
Joy Beeson:

That explains why I say "big ring" and "small ring", but my internal
editor balks at "chainring".

Over here we sometimes say "granny ring" for the wee ring.


I've heard hammer ring and spin ring. But mostly big/small chain rings
on the crank set.

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 07:20:40 +0100, John Dunlop
wrote:

Over here we sometimes say "granny ring" for the wee ring.

I've heard "granny" only in "granny stop" and "granny gear". A granny
gear was an extra gear below your shifting pattern. You might, for
example, have an inmost sprocket a couple of steps bigger than the
next-larger sprocket (I think we called them "cogs" back then: more
metonymy) and set up your preferred pattern on the remaining four or
five sprockets.

I use a modified crossover -- big ring with the outer five sprockets,
small ring with the inner five sprockets -- and no granny. But upon
climbing Ninth Street for the first time, I said (after we
congratulated each other.) "But I did hit granny.", meaning I'd used
my lowest gear. (Sigh. I'd forgotten that I used to be able to climb
Ninth Street.)

I've forgotten what other shifting patterns were popular. I do recall
that "alpine" came only on department-store bikes, and "half-step"
used two chainrings that differed by half as much as the cogs. I
suppose half-step might achieve a granny gear by adding a wee third
ring.

--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

On Fri, 14 Jul 2017 00:32:38 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 07:20:40 +0100, John Dunlop
wrote:

Over here we sometimes say "granny ring" for the wee ring.

I've heard "granny" only in "granny stop" and "granny gear". A granny
gear was an extra gear below your shifting pattern. You might, for
example, have an inmost sprocket a couple of steps bigger than the
next-larger sprocket (I think we called them "cogs" back then: more
metonymy) and set up your preferred pattern on the remaining four or
five sprockets.

I think it was originally a term used in the trucking business where
it referred to the lowest gear ratio, and thus lowest speed,
available.

It probably referred to the speed that Granny walked :-)

--
Cheers,

John B.