Re:New front gearbox design for bicycle
by jdietrich on Sunday December 16, 2012 @06:59PM
(#4930124)
Would people from outside the bike industry please stop trying to reinvent the wheel?
There's a much better internal gearbox already available. The three-speed planetary gearhub has been in production since 1936 and continues to work brilliantly, essentially unchanged since. It's cheap, light, phenomenally reliable and highly efficient. They're ubiquitous on European utility bicycles, because they will run for years without any sort of maintenance or adjustment. You can have one in a variety of ratios, with a coaster brake, roller brake or disc mounts, or even with a standard cassette spline, allowing you to use any derailleur system in addition to the internal gearhub. At the expense of some efficiency and durability you can have eight speeds built into your rear hub; At the expense of about €1000 you can have a 14-speed Rohloff, as favoured by most round-the-world cyclists.
People from non-cycling cultures seem convinced that the key impediment to widespread cycling is technical and tend to jump on any supposed "innovation". The truth is that cycling development is primarily a social issue and requires no new bicycle technologies or special infrastructure. It is for this reason that the promotion of cycling is both much easier and much harder than most believe.
There's a much better internal gearbox already available. The three-speed planetary gearhub has been in production since 1936 and continues to work brilliantly, essentially unchanged since. It's cheap, light, phenomenally reliable and highly efficient. They're ubiquitous on European utility bicycles, because they will run for years without any sort of maintenance or adjustment. You can have one in a variety of ratios, with a coaster brake, roller brake or disc mounts, or even with a standard cassette spline, allowing you to use any derailleur system in addition to the internal gearhub. At the expense of some efficiency and durability you can have eight speeds built into your rear hub; At the expense of about €1000 you can have a 14-speed Rohloff, as favoured by most round-the-world cyclists.
People from non-cycling cultures seem convinced that the key impediment to widespread cycling is technical and tend to jump on any supposed "innovation". The truth is that cycling development is primarily a social issue and requires no new bicycle technologies or special infrastructure. It is for this reason that the promotion of cycling is both much easier and much harder than most believe.