Phil: sorry to hear about the knee -- I gather from what you say that you have been an inveterate fixed gear rider. My knees are to this point fine, though I have to be careful about pushing them too long and hard and often over long inclines, but as most of my riding is short distance -- say 11 miles out and back -- this hasn't been a problem. My main reason for thinking of gears and freewheeling is simply energy: I no longer always feel compelled to exert the energy required even to push a 70" gear several miles uphill against a headwind with a load -- something much of my riding requires. And I must admit that there is something to be said for flying downhill in a tuck without having to flail my feet.
I have heard good and bad things about the S3X, but I've decided that if I do go with multiple gears it will be with the addition of a freewheel; the coaster brake addition will be simply to avoid having to re-rig the rear calipers on whatever bike or bikes I so convert -- my goal is one or two additional, coastie/gearie rear wheels that I can, almost, just slap on and ride. The S2C interests me but the gear difference is only 38%, meaning that a 70" high would leave me with only a 50" low. We'll see. It may come to converting the Joe-built, gofast fixie, that doesn't get ridden much, into a dedicated geared bike -- the '03 Curt will stay as my main, load/light equipped fixed runaround. On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 12:59 PM, Phil Bickford <[email protected]> wrote: > Patrick, > > It's a switch to hear you talking about gearing, although I've noticed > over the last few years snippets of discussions of Sam Hilbornes and > the Fargo, etc. > > I've had a more deliberate change in my use of fixed and single > riding. Osteoarthritis discovered in my right knee not so long ago > keeps me from standing and walking very far, standing in the pedals or > pushing to hard on the flats. It's a MAJOR bummer. I spent twenty > years working on the floor building sails so it's not exactly a > surprise. > > Anyhow since my round town errand bike was a flip flop fixed coasting > number I swapped over to 1x8. But I've been thinking about how all I > use are 2 or 3 gears, and I would like to try fixed occasionally. > > So what about the fixed 2x and 3x hubs from Sturmey and Sachs? One of > the attractions for me is the hub can accommodate a thread-on > freewheel thereby giving you an option to a coastee. But I think that > puts the cabosh on a coaster brake yah? > > Anyone have experience with these hubs? I was hoping to score a cheap > rear facing rear drop-out bike > > Phil B > > -- 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.
