Interesting tale; thanks. 34", 53" and 72" sounds about right; I'd gear it for 3d/cruising -- have done this before, actually, tho' without a coaster brake. Does the coaster brake mechanism add drag to that of the planetary system?
I'd love to see photos. Too bad the kickback hub doesn't have a wider gear difference; on the order of those bb drives, 1:160 or so, instead of 1:138. On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Tim McNamara <[email protected]> wrote: > About 10 years back, when I stopped track racing, I built up a single > speed coaster brake wheel for my track bike (using a ca. 1938 Bendix hub > that I found in a box in my basement and have no recollection of buying; it > was smooth as silk after rebuilding it). That worked great except the bike > wasn't very comfortable to ride on city streets. So I sold that and then I > built a single speed frame a few years back around that wheel, with no > accommodation for a rim brake on the back. My friend Mike Pofahl, who > builds frames in Faribault MN, walked me through it; it was a lot of fun, > very interesting and made it clear that I would not want to try to build > frames for a living. To do it right is a *lot* of fiddly detail work with > files and grinders and test fittings, etc. If I had been paid the US > median wage I'd have had about $800 in labor alone into that frame. > Building that frame really made me appreciate > Waterford/Joe/Curt/Match/etc. It also put me in awe of Tom Ritchey, who > has said that he can start with a set of tubes first thing in the morning > and have a frame ready for painting by lunchtime (the result of personally > building thousands of frames- a lot of my time was spent learning how to > miter and align and then doing the mitering and alignment, plus filing > lugs. Hours filing lugs). > > That was fun for a year or so but I decided gears would be nice. Jim > Thill set me up with a Sachs/SRAM 3 speed coaster brake wheel about 4 1/2 > years ago and it has worked great. Like many 3 speeds, though, the jump > between gears is really wide. Too wide, really, as it mimics the Sturmey > Archer AW gearing pattern. I think an AM style spread would be better. > The difficulty becomes choosing the gearing. Do you gear it so that 2nd > or 3rd is about 70"? If you choose 2nd, then 3rd is going to be about 90" > and 1st is going to be about 42". > > After puttering around with different options, my current setup is a 42 x > 21 resulting in gearing of 34", 53" and 72". I find this works fairly well > although top practical speed is about 20 mph. Steep hills aren't a > problem. This isn't a bike I tend to ride in a hurry, though, as I mainly > use it for commuting and pottering about. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW http://resumespecialties.com/index.html -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
