campagnolo has released 11 speed grouppos for 2009. that means the max number of cogs you can now have on a rear road cassette is up from 10 to 11. so you can have anywhere from 5 to 11 cogs on a rear hub. or 3 internal gears. or a single gear.
on the front chainring, you may have 1, 2, or 3 chainrings.
a friend of mine recently built a bike with 2 front rings and 1 rear cog. it was a 2x1. totally ridiculous. on the same bicycle, he also built a wheel with 2 different lacing patterns on the same side of each hub. so 2 sets of 4 spokes did one thing, and 2 sets of 4 spokes did something else. ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE HUB. weird.
that being said, these are the possible number of speeds or gear combos you can have on a bicycle:
1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 30, 33.
with that in mind, over the last few days, i've been asked some pretty unpossible questions.
yesterday:
guy #1: "what if i just want to make it a 4 speed in the back? what is best way to do that?"
me: "there has never been a 4-speed freewheel or cassette made for a bicycle. ever."
and today:
guy #2: "yeah, so i know a little about bikes from working on them myself. . ."
me: "well, how many gears are there?"
guy: "its a 17 speed."
me: "oh yeah, 17 speed. . .cool!"
4 comments:
4 speed freewheels definitely exist!
i haven't seen 4 speed freewheels but the there are 2 speed freewheels that white industries makes and i've seen them on bikes that have two front chainrings essentially creating a 4 speed although you have to manually change the gear by removing the wheel... a mechanic named kevin in portland rides a quicksilver like this that has really long horizontal dropouts that curve up at the ends to achieve better luck at fitting all of the different ratios with the same chain....
4 spd freewheel?! if i ever find that unicorn, i'm going to make it into a lovely necklace. . .
ah yes, a 2x2. i forgot about that oddity.
from sheldon brown
"The first multiple-speed freewheels had 3 sprockets, using the traditional 1/8" chain.
In the 1950s, narrower 3/32" sprockets and chains were introduced, permitting the move to 4-sprocket freewheels within the then-standard 114 mm frame spacingn
5 Speeds
In the late 1950s, spacing was widened to 120 mm to permit the use of 5-speed freewheels. This required adding spacers to the right-hand end of the axle to keep the chain from rubbing on the frame. The added spacers requried additional dish to the spokes, causing wheels to become somewhat weaker. "
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