8 or 9 speeds

A number of folding bikes use a single chainring and an 8 or 9 speed cassette. This can provide a
fairly decent range of gears for riding in not too hilly terrain. It also has the advantage of
simplicity, saves a little weight, and avoids unusable gear combinations. Bike Friday is promoting a
line of "minimalist" folding road bikes with this setup.

I've also seen low end comfort bikes with just a 7 speed cassette and one chain ring. These

Just out of curiosity, does anyone use this setup on an ordinary (non-folding)road bike? How does it
work for you?

Please respond to newsgroup. If you use the Email address it will probably be accidentally deleted
along with tons of spam.

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 18:34:01 +0000, Kaputnik wrote:

> Just out of curiosity, does anyone use this setup on an ordinary (non-folding)road bike? How does
> it work for you?

I tried it, but with not such great success. The problem is that the chain is somewhat more prone to
coming off the chainring if no derailleur is present. Most of the single-chainring setups you
mentioned have "guide" rings (also functioning to protect pants cuffs from the chain) to keep the
chain from coming off. But, IMO, if you are going to need either two extra chainrings w/o teeth, or
a front derailleur, anyway, you might as well have the gears. Perhaps a "chain watcher" would be
enough, but I haven't tried that.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I can _`\(,_ | assure you that mine
are all greater. -- A. Einstein (_)/ (_) |