Alt Bike Culture - Can I add a cassette or some kind of gearing system?

I’m setting this up for my wife and I (grocery getter) and would like to give it some gears.
Can that be done?

Please give me some ideas (pictures would be great!)

Thanks


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BianchiDave,

Maybe check out some delta trike pictures at Utah Trikes http://www.utahtrikes.com/ . One of the Sun recumbents has a freewheel or a cassette on the axle. Utah trikes does a lot of mods, so maybe ask them some questions how they would go about it. They have a quad kit for a tadpole that might be able to be adapted...but be warned, that will cost more than your trike did! Most of the low rider bike shops carry bolt-on trike kits, but I think they are just single speeds. http://www.bicycledesigner.com/ (http://www.bicycledesigner.com/) At Station Inc. they carry jackshaft freewheel adapters that will take up to, I think, a 7 speed freewheel. http://www.staton-inc.com/home.shtml (http://www.staton-inc.com/home.shtml) It would go onto the axle just like the jackshaft sprocket is there now. Then you'd have to figure out how to put a derailleur on it. Maybe Station Inc. would have a suggestion.

Bob

I don't think this can be done without some parts fabrication. You might look on atomiczombie.com for ideas, as most of their delta trikes are built to use derailleur gearing. Their forums are quite good.

Yeah, he will need to fabricate something. If he were to try the freewheel jackshaft adapter from Station Inc., he could weld a tab to the rear axle tube that's drilled and tapped to accept a rear derailleur.


Bob

Sturmey archer produce a couple of jackshaft variants of their 3-speed hub intended for trike use. There is a sprocket mounted on the shell of the hub which is used to drive the trike's differential. The hub must be securely bolted to the frame, so you'll need to fabricate a pair of dropouts to secure the hub somewhere inside the rear triangle. I would mount it fairly close to the rear axle. You'd then have a chain going from the crankset to the drive sprocket of the hub, and a second short chain running from the hub shell to the rear axle. Some versions also include a useful reverse gear- pedalling backwards will move the trike backwards in the same ratio as low gear. I've seen a couple of commercially built trikes with this setup, and it looks very neat.