ruvee

Hi,

In my highest gear i end up spinning out and can only go so fast. Anything I can upgrade on the bike to reach a higher top speed?

Downtube Nova CRANK Prowheel 170mm with 3/32" 46T chainring

-Ruvee

Yo Spiff

Pedal in a higher gear. Or am I misunderstanding what you are asking?

cplager

Ummmm... try switching to a higher gear?

Oh... that's probably what you meant.

You can put a double or triple crank on the bike with a front derailleur. Nicer tires with lower rolling resistance won't hurt either. Lastly, find a bigger hill to descend.

Cheers,
Charles

ruvee

My mistake, I meant highest gear.

Yo Spiff

That's what I thought you actually meant. If your highest gear still isn't high enough, You can swap out the cranks or chainrings for something larger.

ruvee

Any particular ones you can recommend which won't break the wallet?

fietsbob

count of teeth, "46"


a 60t chainring is available, if 53 is not high enough,
IDK if the crank you have offers a replaceable chainring.

If you pony up the cash a Schlumpf Speed Drive takes a 110 bcd chainring,
any size from 34t upward, then the internal overdrive gear multiplies that chainring size
by 1.6 X .. with a 34t thats 54.4 't' [works well on Brompton's 6 speeds]



then all you have to do is build a low racer recumbent; with the aerodynamics of a sharpened pencil.

bhkyte

53 tooth cog should be fine with jokacks would not cost much and go well..

BassNotBass

Jumping to a 53T chainring (in the case of the Nova I thinks that's a matter of having to get a whole new crank?) will get you up to 18.7mph from 16.2mph at a cadence of 90rpm. Jumping to a 60T chainring will allow 21.1 mph at 90rpm. Alternatively if you keep the stock crank and instead lace up a freehub and get a cassette with the smallest sprocket being 11T, you could hit 20.6mph at 90rpm.

Either way the bottom line is yet again (to a certain degree), "Speed is just a question of money... how fast do you want to spend?"

bhkyte

good quality cranks can be bought by hunting around

1nterceptor

Since we're talking about changing cranks,
I'm posting my latest video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...o8Ta8SBxE&NR=1

Dbybe@me.com

Simplist is to go to a larger chainring on the front and mount it on your current crankset. I am not sure what range of cogs you have in the rear. If the smallest is not as small as 11 teeth, that is another option. If you make the front chainring larger, this will raise your whole gear range, not just the high gear. Beyond that you would need a front derailer and two chainrings, which would then give you a lot more options. Use Sheldon Browns gear inch calculator to check out the relative differences of different combinations you try. I am running a 52 front with an 11 x 34 rear cassette, which gives me about a 28 inch low and an 88 inch high. (20" wheels) I still spin out at certain conditions, but at that point I just coast. The 28" low is working pretty well for climbing. (No load, but 6'5" and 230 lbs.)

ruvee

Thank you all for your advice.

I ordered a 11-28T Freewheel and Schwalbe Marathon tires. I will look into finding a new crank once I see how it feels with the new freewheel.

tcs

Very high quality & durable, but not considered a 'fast' (low rolling resistance) tire.

brakemeister

hmmm I would have changed the front crankset first with a 53 teeth ..... you will need a longer chain most likely as well ...
here is a selection for example
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...l_2e3sig7p0d_b

Now... you want 170 mm cranks if you tall u could get away with 172.5 mm ..not the shorter ones, and you need cranks only, than add a chainring with 53 teeth and you will need chainring bolts for single ( fixie ) Than its off to the dealer to pull the exiting crank and install the new one and switch pedals ... cut the new longer chain to perfect size ...

Best Thor

brakemeister

oh yah ..instead the puncture proof marathon..... the Racers are ok, the Kojaks would be much faster ...The marathons are good but not known to feel and be real fast ... .

bikebreak

The cheapest way to get a higher gear is switch the freewheel to something with a smaller cog.

The most expensive way is to buy a different bike or two to go fast on, and keep the downtube for casual riding. That's what I did.

ruvee

Thank you for the advice Thor.

I searched around for articles and threads regarding replacing my square taper 68mm bottom bracket and prowheel cranks to a better quality but could not find the information I was looking for.

Could i install something like this https://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cyclin...-crank-set.jsp onto the bike?

I believe my current BB size is 113mm.

ruvee

I ordered a freewheel with an 11T cog which should be coming in soon.

I was thinking of just buying another bike but I will probably get carried away with how much i spend on it .

bhkyte

I sold my timetrial racer after upgrading a 9ns to bullbars and briffers and shimano ugltera cranks. You don't need another bike to go fast. Upgraded Folders can really shift.

ruvee

bhkyte,
Which Shimano Ultegra crank and BB model did you use for your 9NS?

BassNotBass

A freewheel with an 11t cog? What make/model?

ruvee

Epoch DNP 7 Speed freewheel 11-28T

Saw a couple bad reviews online but not enough to deter me from purchasing it.

BassNotBass

Cool thanks. Last year I couldn't find any freewheels that had an 11t cog so I had to lace up a freehub from my parts bin and used a Shimano 11t-28t cassette.

Bill Fold

Yes, that is the freewheel with which I upgraded my Origami Crane. They also run 11-30 and 11-32 for 7spd and even 11-34 for the 8spd. They can be found here:
https://www.ebikestop.com/search.php . . . search for "DNP Epoch"