Hybrids - any thoughts on these..?

[Zoobax]

oops, forgot:

Edinburgh bikes do a hybrid with 8 gears, which seems
a pretty sensible number to me - 21/24/28 seems like
just too much!

Do you think it'd be possible to reduce the number of gears
on my choices?

Cheers, Mark.

[Ambrose Nankive]

In news:10bfh2ihjnmkaf3@corp.supernews.com,
Zoobax <zoobax@yahoo.com> typed:
> oops, forgot:
>
> Edinburgh bikes do a hybrid with 8 gears, which seems a
> pretty sensible number to me - 21/24/28 seems like just
> too much!
>
> Do you think it'd be possible to reduce the number of
> gears on my choices?

I'm not sure how suitable bikes with a restricted number of
gears are for everyone. I got one with a seven speed hub
gear for my about town and touring riding a year ago and I'm
not 100% sure I'm totally satisfied with it, and I thought I
knew what gears I liked riding in. Mind you, I knackered the
shifter yesterday, so now it's a singlespeed, which is
definitely far too few.

Anyway, the thing to remember is that you have 21-27 gears,
but you don't have to use them all. You do need a low gear
for hills (presumably you have to go up into town if your
LBS is Alpine Bikes), ideally low enough that you can turn
the pedals with very little effort when going up normal
hills (but turning them quite fast so there's a fair bit of
work going on), and you'll need a middle gear for cruising
around on the flat, and you doubtless want a high gear for
bombing down hills or sprinting.

The main thing that's going to be left out with a smaller
number of gears is the bottom range (partly because bikes
with a low top gear don't sell well, even if it's easy to
ride them to 25mph), which will probably be a problem for
the knees, especially in a hilly place like Edinburgh.

Anyway, lots of people do cycle around with not many gears,
but it's probably best to let you know it's not an
automatic choice and the standard range on an MTB/hybrid is
all useful.

A

[Pete Biggs]

Zoobax wrote:
> oops, forgot:
>
> Edinburgh bikes do a hybrid with 8 gears, which seems a
> pretty sensible number to me - 21/24/28 seems like just
> too much!
>
> Do you think it'd be possible to reduce the number of
> gears on my choices?

You could get the bike supplied with fewer gears (eg. with a
single chainset*) or get it modified afterwards.

But I recommend having a go with all those gears if you do
any hilly cycling. It's great to have a truly wide range
without excessively large jumps between gears. 27 gears is
not as ridiculous as it first sounds because quite a few of
those gears shouldn't normally be used (because the chain
is too crossed-over in them and the ratios are duplicates
of others anyway). Don't have to be terribly awkward to use
as you can leave it in the middle chairing most of the time
if you like.

* Leave front derailleur on as it will stop the chain from
coming off -- something that can otherwise happen when you
have lots of sprockets at the back.

~PB

[Peter Clinch]

Pete Biggs wrote:

> But I recommend having a go with all those gears if you do
> any hilly cycling.

See threads concerning topography of Norfolk for the
definition of "hilly"...

> It's great to have a truly wide range without excessively
> large jumps between gears. 27 gears is not as ridiculous
> as it first sounds because quite a few of those gears
> shouldn't normally be used

On a touringish setup I reckon you get about 2 and a bit
rear changes for a front change, giving you an effectiove 14
gears with a /big/ range. My cargo bike has 8 (widely
spaced) and that's good enough for Dundee which has Real
Hill (tm), probably same ballpark as Edinburgh (I lived in
Marchmont for a year and got about by bike, that's not a
wild guess) with 50 Kg of coal on board; unless you're in a
Big Hurry and want optimised close racing gears I really
can't see you'd need more than 8 as long as they're the
right 8. And nor do EBC, which is why their Courier moddel
practically designed for the place has 8 gears on a single
chainring.

Less money spent of transmission, less maintenance, less
chain dropping fiascos. Makes sense to me.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext.
33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177
Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

[Richard Lucas]

On Mon, 31 May 2004 10:34:13 +0100, Peter Clinch
<p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk> wrote:

>My cargo bike has 8 (widely spaced) and that's good enough
>for Dundee which has Real Hill (tm), probably same
>ballpark as Edinburgh (I lived in Marchmont for a year and
>got about by bike, that's not a wild guess) with 50 Kg of
>coal on board;

Have you been up the Hilltown with your 50 Kg of coal? Big
respect if you have!

--
Best regards Richard

http://www.ceresgames.co.uk/

[Peter Clinch]

Richard Lucas wrote:

> Have you been up the Hilltown with your 50 Kg of coal? Big
> respect if you have!

Wrong side of town for me. I don't think you'd need to
respect anything if I tried, apart from capacity for
stupidity... ;-) It normally goes up Blackness Road or Scott
Street with the coal load, which are Actual Hills but rather
gentler. I haven't felt the need to go via West Park Road
either, for some reason... ;-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext.
33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177
Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

[Roos Eisma]

Peter Clinch <p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk> writes:

>Richard Lucas wrote:

>> Have you been up the Hilltown with your 50 Kg of coal?
>> Big respect if you have!

>Wrong side of town for me. I don't think you'd need to
>respect anything if I tried, apart from capacity for
>stupidity... ;-) It normally goes up Blackness Road or
>Scott Street with the coal load, which are Actual Hills but
>rather gentler. I haven't felt the need to go via West Park
>Road either, for some reason... ;-)

Or to admire the view from the Law while you're at it?

Roos