Originally Posted by shecky
Eventually, this train of thought evolves back to full front and rear derailers.
However, the point is well taken. I personally would rather have five well selected gears than 24+ mostly redundant gears.
Indeed. Not evryone's as tough as us.
Much as I love my fixie, I can see its limits, like I imagine if I ever move back to Oregon I'll want another gear or two, not to mention touring.
Originally Posted by shecky
For a two speed, there are several routes to go. Dual (or triple) chainrings should suffice. But a tensioner is necessary. The cheapest and easiest tensioner solution may be a old derailer. Which means that it might be more sensible to implement the gearing at the rear hub rather than the chainrings (fewer parts). Two or three speeds could probably be hacked together easily with a freehub. Probably a bit more difficult with a freewheel. I think i saw a two cog freewheel in a pic from this years Interbike. And I think Suntour used to make a two cog freewheel/derailer marketed to BMX racers.
Keith Bontrager has a pretty good and typically cynical/funny screed on this.
bontrager.com/keith/rants.asp?id=8
There are an awful lot of ways to hack this. There must be three different hacked two speeds outside the physics building here.
Keep pedlin'