Originally Posted by
Paul Braithwait
I do think that we tend to get a bit obsessed with gears sometimes. When I bought my Swift, I was not sure if I could cope with only eight cogs and one chainwheel as my touring bike had ten cogs and three chainwheels. In practise I have had no problem with eight gears. I did lower the gearing by fitting larger cogs on the rear wheel (a straight SRAM replacement cassette) but I have never used the top two cogs (7 & 8) on the road - even downhill. The Swift is a great bike and, if you browse previous postings you will see that I have played about with my bike as much as anyone on this forum. However, the Swift is a great riding bike that happens to fold and at some point you have to accept that it will not be able to do all the things a large wheeled (700c) bike can do. It's my favourite bike by far and is always first choice when the open road calls but there is a limit to what you may expect of it - even with all kinds of mods.
I see where you are coming from, but...
For my needs / wants, I'd use my swift more often if it had a wider gear range. I like options, and since a front derailleur doesn't add a lot of weight / complication / expense for me(I've got plenty of spares just waiting to be used), Why not? Different strokes, and all that. Xootr giving people the option can only be a good thing.