Half-step plus granny report

Hello All!, I did it...it cost me some money...but I did it! My half-step plus granny crank
experiment with an 8-speed Mega-range 11-34T cassette is a success. The reason I did this was out of
respect for those Half-step touring people of the 70's, sometimes going back is the best experiment
with present components. Destroyed my left knee in a truck accident in 84, doc told me not to run
for long distances and to NEVER, EVER put side load stress on my rebuilt knee. Never had a problem
with my 28-38-48T 170mm arm length crank and 13-28T 6-speed cassette on my 88 MTB running slicks.
Blew out my left knee on a 24-34-42T 175mm crank arm length with an 11-28T recumbent though (700C or
622mm rear wheel) After a few years of thinking about half-stepping the rear cassette and actually
buying an 11-34T Megarange 8-speed cassette...I went for it. A TruVantiv Elita cold-forged 30-42-52
triple with 170mm arms, FSA Ultimax chro-moly ISIS bottom bracket and some tools (Race Face BB ring
tools rock) I slapped the mess together. To change to the half-stepping setup, went with a Salsa 45T
outer chainring (best, stiffest and stoutest chainring I have ever owned) to replace the 52T
stocker. Decided on a 28T Shimano Biopace chainring I had laying around for the granny. The 1999
Shimano RX100 Hybrid front derailluer was adjusted and everything was installed, time to take a spin
in COLD weather to see what she will do. The 42-45T shift is the quickest and most reliable crank
shift I have ever seen! Lightning quick with no problems (as expected from a 3T chainring shift) The
7.1% difference fits nicely between the 13.3% to 18.1% difference between the cassette ratios for a
sweet gearing range. I am presently adjusting to shifting the front derailluer for fine tuning the
ratios while riding in the ever-present winds of N TX. Ahhhhhhhhh, works great. The
fly-in-the-ointment is the 28T Biopace downshift, feels too lumpy. Guess I spin to fast for the
80RPM max cadence of the Biopace chainring. Time to pull the round 24T steel chainring off the old
crank and see what it will
do. I admitt, shifting from a 24T to a 42T is quite a jump, then again, with recumbents we can put
whatever we want on them without flack from roadies. (We are weird anyway riding a bent). I
will test out the 24T tomorrow, if it does not do the jump, time to order a 26T chainring. (I
am known as the odd recumbent rider that orders weird bike parts at the LBS). I am not done
screwing with the crank as of yet, but I can say that ISIS drive is awesome! Stiff, light and
moron-simple to install! It is good to see that some advancements in cycling equal easy
maintenance and installation. Another bonus is TruVantiv includes crank arm bolts with the
crank...FSA gives you crank arm bolts with the bottom bracket so I carry them as spares. Bonus!

All in all, the half-stepping of the 8-speed megarange cassette is a total success! It is great
to "trim" the rear cassette with the front crank (it sounds odd but it works) and still have
wide-range gearing. BTW, the 42T is a "normal" chainring size for the middle and 45T is the
"normal" size for junior racing with the 130/74mm "road" 5-arm crank. It will not go out of
style with all those odd-ball MTB chainring sizes. Life is soooooooooo good!

John H To hell with two step, give me half-step in N TX

 

I have been inspired by this report. I have a Rocket with a 20" back wheel so my intent is something
like a 52-49-30. I tried a moder 3 chainring front derailler, but they don't like the gears so
close. I put in an order for a $6.95 double Sora front derailleur. I plan to file down one of the
stops so I can get it to span 3 chainrings. Not sure what is going to happen, but I hope it goes as
smoothly as your experiment.

"BentHeadSWB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello All!,
...
>
> All in all, the half-stepping of the 8-speed megarange cassette is a
total
> success!

 

>I have been inspired by this report. I have a Rocket with a 20" back wheel so my intent is
>something like a 52-49-30.

A 30T to 49T jump? That is quite a jump but so is my attempting (tomorrow) a 24T to 42T jump.
Shimano only recommends a 14T difference between rings so I figure a 16T should be the max. I am
going for 18T just to see if it works and I have the 24T so it will not hurt anything. Riding in the
windy flat lands of N TX with half-step wide-range gearing seems to make sense to me. So far, it
works better than I expected with the quick gearing changes in the most used gears (42T and 45T)
Once I get the granny low of the triple worked out, life will indeed be good!

John H N TX

 

BentHeadSWB wrote:
>
> ... Time to pull the round 24T steel chainring off the old crank and > see what it will do. I
> admitt, shifting from a 24T to a 42T is quite > a jump, then again, with recumbents we can put
> whatever we want on > them without flack from roadies. (We are weird anyway riding a bent). > I
> will test out the 24T tomorrow, if it does not do the jump, time to > order a 26T chainring....

A riding companion of mine has a 52-42-24 on a TiGRR (Suntour friction thumbshifter for the front
derailleur) and a 54-44-24 on a Lightning P-38 with Ultegra Bar-Con shifters. Both shift acceptably
well to and from the granny, though not as well as with a 30T ring.

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side) Various HPV's

 

John,

I've had a 24-44-48 crank on my old loaded touring bike for many years. Yes, the shift to and from
the granny ring aren't great, but shifting to that ring is usually an event you can plan on your
calendar. One trick is not to be spinning very fast when you drop down to granny. It's easy to dump
the chain with that much of a drop.

Rob "BentHeadSWB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >I have been inspired by this report. I have a Rocket with a 20" back wheel so my intent is
> >something like a 52-49-30.
>
> A 30T to 49T jump? That is quite a jump but so is my attempting (tomorrow) a 24T to 42T
jump.
> Shimano only recommends a 14T difference between rings so I figure a 16T
> should be the max. I am going for 18T just to see if it works and I have
the
> 24T so it will not hurt anything. Riding in the windy flat lands of N TX with half-step wide-range
gearing
> seems to make sense to me. So far, it works better than I expected with
the
> quick gearing changes in the most used gears (42T and 45T) Once I get the granny low of the triple
> worked out, life will indeed be good!
>
> John H N TX

 

>A riding companion of mine has a 52-42-24 on a TiGRR (Suntour friction thumbshifter for the front
>derailleur) and a 54-44-24 on a Lightning P-38 with Ultegra Bar-Con shifters. Both shift acceptably
>well to and from the granny, though not as well as with a 30T ring.

Thanks for the info, Tom, I will give it a shot today, it should work OK, and I already have the
ring. The 24T will not be used alot due to the rather flatness of N TX so as long as it does not
throw the chain, it will be a keeper. If it does not work well, maybe go with the 22-30-42-45T
Quad-ring setup. That would be a joy to get the front derailluer to agree with. I love my barcons!

John H N TX

 

>That is quite a jump but so is my attempting (tomorrow) a 24T to 42T jump. Shimano only recommends
>a 14T difference between rings so I
figure a 16T
> should be the max. I am going for 18T just to see if it works and I have the 24T so it will not
> hurt anything.

Easy Racers sells a 52/42/24, 11-34 combination as an option on the Expedition setup for TEs, so it
must not be much of a problem.

Regards -- DP

 

Hi, Rob, if you have trouble dropping your chain when going for Granny, you might want to try the
Jump Stop ( http://gvtc.com/~ngear/orders.html )

This makes downshifting a real breeze. Absolutely NO more troubles.

Lewis.

http://home.earthlink.net/~limeylew/index.html

..................

"Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> John,
>
> I've had a 24-44-48 crank on my old loaded touring bike for many years. Yes, the shift to and from
> the granny ring aren't great, but shifting to that ring is usually an event you can plan on your
> calendar. One trick is not to be spinning very fast when you drop down to granny. It's easy to
> dump the chain with that much of a drop.
>
> Rob "BentHeadSWB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > >I have been inspired by this report. I have a Rocket with a 20" back wheel so my intent is
> > >something like a 52-49-30.
> >
> > A 30T to 49T jump? That is quite a jump but so is my attempting (tomorrow) a 24T to 42T
> jump.
> > Shimano only recommends a 14T difference between rings so I figure a 16T
> > should be the max. I am going for 18T just to see if it works and I have
> the
> > 24T so it will not hurt anything. Riding in the windy flat lands of N TX with half-step
> > wide-range
> gearing
> > seems to make sense to me. So far, it works better than I expected with
> the
> > quick gearing changes in the most used gears (42T and 45T) Once I get the granny low of the
> > triple worked out, life will indeed be good!
> >
> > John H N TX

 

What is the make and model of your front derailleur?

"Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> John,
>
> I've had a 24-44-48 crank on my old loaded touring bike for many years.

 

How did you adjust the RX100? Was it a triple RX100 in the first place? Or was it a
converted double?

"BentHeadSWB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The 1999 Shimano RX100 Hybrid front derailluer was adjusted and
everything
> was installed,

 

>How did you adjust the RX100? Was it a triple RX100 in the first place? Or was it a
>converted double?
>

The RX100 is a stock triple derailluer. It is made to handle a 26T total differnce between
chainrings and works well. Adjusting it is very simple considering I use bar-con shifters, they are
not indexed (why the hell would you index a triple?) It makes fine-tuning very easy to do. I
absolutely HATE to adjust indexing on front cranks...what a pain.

John H N TX

 

BentHeadSWB wrote:
>
> The RX100 is a stock triple derailluer. It is made to handle a 26T total differnce between
> chainrings and works well. Adjusting it is very simple considering I use bar-con shifters, they
> are not indexed (why the hell would you index a triple?) It makes fine-tuning very easy to do. I
> absolutely HATE to adjust indexing on front cranks...what a pain.

I do not find adjusting indexed front shifting to be a problem once the front derailleur is in the
correct position and the shifter cable length is in the general ballpark, as long as a shifter with
intermediate positions is used, e.g. higher level SRAM twist-shifters. Shimano Rapid-Fire shifters
are another story - but I would not put these on a bike by choice.

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side) Various HPV's

 

Lewis,

Once I began slowing my cadence down when downshifting to the granny, I never dumped the chain.

This thread is kinda humorous for me. I bought my Vision 40 to replace my old touring bike, and here
I am on this group discussing the old touring bike.

I'm actually very excited about the prospect of doing some local touring once the snow melts and the
temps rise. I'm a fulltime seminary student, so I'll really be looking forward to the summer of with
the bicycle.

Rob

"Lewis Campbell" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi, Rob, if you have trouble dropping your chain when going for Granny, you might want to try the
> Jump Stop ( http://gvtc.com/~ngear/orders.html )
>
> This makes downshifting a real breeze. Absolutely NO more troubles.
>
> Lewis.
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~limeylew/index.html
>
> ..................
>
> "Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> > John,
> >
> > I've had a 24-44-48 crank on my old loaded touring bike for many years. Yes, the shift to and
> > from the granny ring aren't great, but shifting to that ring is usually an event you can plan on
> > your calendar. One trick
is
> > not to be spinning very fast when you drop down to granny. It's easy to dump the chain with that
> > much of a drop.
> >
> > Rob "BentHeadSWB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > >I have been inspired by this report. I have a Rocket with a 20" back wheel so my intent is
> > > >something like
a
> > > >52-49-30.
> > >
> > > A 30T to 49T jump? That is quite a jump but so is my attempting (tomorrow) a 24T to
42T
> > jump.
> > > Shimano only recommends a 14T difference between rings so I figure a
16T
> > > should be the max. I am going for 18T just to see if it works and I
have
> > the
> > > 24T so it will not hurt anything. Riding in the windy flat lands of N TX with half-step
> > > wide-range
> > gearing
> > > seems to make sense to me. So far, it works better than I expected
with
> > the
> > > quick gearing changes in the most used gears (42T and 45T) Once I get
the
> > > granny low of the triple worked out, life will indeed be good!
> > >
> > > John H N TX

 

Ed,

It's the old Deore touring group with a decal on the front derailler that says "for
half-step gearing."

Rob "Edward Ing" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> What is the make and model of your front derailleur?
>
>
> "Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > John,
> >
> > I've had a 24-44-48 crank on my old loaded touring bike for many years.
>
>

 

I concur. I have a rocket with SRAM 7.0. The Front shifter has reasonable micro-indexing.

"Tom Sherman" <tsh[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> BentHeadSWB wrote:
> >
> I do not find adjusting indexed front shifting to be a problem once the front derailleur is in the
> correct position and the shifter cable length is in the general ballpark, as long as a shifter
> with intermediate positions is used, e.g. higher level SRAM twist-shifters.

 

I read about those. I guess it is ancient history.

"Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:1%t1a.743$%[email protected]...
> Ed,
>
> It's the old Deore touring group with a decal on the front derailler that says "for half-step
> gearing."

 

I did try 28-48 on my upright for a while, but the front mech - an indescribably aged Deore - was
never happy with the jump. It's OK with the current 28-44 setup, though.

Dave Larrington - http://legslarry.crosswinds.net/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

"Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<1%t1a.743$%[email protected]>...
> Ed,
>
> It's the old Deore touring group with a decal on the front derailler that says "for half-step
> gearing."
>

Dang... that's at least 12 years old. If it's the Deore "touring" group (pre-index, DynaDrive
pedals) it's almost 20 years old.

The late '80's Deore and Deore XT front derailleurs came in both "half-step" and "alpine" versions.
A warehouse nightmare, but lots of choices for the gearhead.

Jeff

 

circa 1985.

Is that old?

Rob "Jeff Wills" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Rob Kopp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<1%t1a.743$%[email protected]>...
> > Ed,
> >
> > It's the old Deore touring group with a decal on the front derailler
that
> > says "for half-step gearing."
> >
>
> Dang... that's at least 12 years old. If it's the Deore "touring" group (pre-index, DynaDrive
> pedals) it's almost 20 years old.
>
> The late '80's Deore and Deore XT front derailleurs came in both "half-step" and "alpine"
> versions. A warehouse nightmare, but lots of choices for the gearhead.
>
> Jeff