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Clarification on Coaster bike vs non-coaster and the act of "coasting"

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Clarification on Coaster bike vs non-coaster and the act of "coasting"

Old 09-23-13, 07:24 PM
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Clarification on Coaster bike vs non-coaster and the act of "coasting"

I've been cycling for over a year now and am trying to learn everything I can about all the different types of bikes etc. However, one thing that is confusing are Coaster bikes. I understand these are the old school fixed gear bikes that brake by peddling in reverse, and therefore you don't need any cables, levers etc, but because of this the crankset is always rotating, whether going forward or back. So my question is, I read that you cannot "coast" on these bikes, is that when for example, you go down a hill and let your legs rest until you need to start peddling again? but on a Coaster bike you constantly have to keep pace with the speed of the crankset or get your legs cut up? Basically you cannot "coast" on a Coaster bike?

Some clarification would be great. thanks.
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Old 09-23-13, 07:31 PM
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No.

I don't know what the crap a coaster is other than something to keep condensation rings off your coffee table.

'Fixed' gear bicycles have the cranks and pedals fixed to the wheels. The bike moves, the pedals move.

E: coaster brakes are like what you had on that huffy bmx as a kid- coast (bike moves, pedals don't) and rotate the cranks backwards for a brake.

Fixed gear bikes have pedals that move whenever the bike is moving; freewheeling bikes (coaster brakes are part of this) can roll without the pedals turning.
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Old 09-23-13, 08:46 PM
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Fixed gear is where the rear cog is fixed solid with the wheel - when the wheel turns, the cog turns and vice versa. Because the cog is linked by a solid chain to the cranks, when the wheel turns, the cranks turn ... and vice versa.

Coasting is when you're riding along but not pedaling eg, just rolling down a hill. This can't be done with a fixed gear because, when the wheels are turning, the cranks are turning. However, there are a variety of rear hub systems where the cog can spin backwards regardless of what the wheel is doing. These have the generic term, freewheel - you can pedal forward but can stop pedaling if you want to and the bike just keeps rolling.

The coaster brake allows you to coast ie, stop pedaling with the bike in motion but when you turn the pedals backwards, you engage a roller brake in the rear hub to slow you down. You can pedal forwards to go forwards, you can stop pedaling to just coast, you apply backwards pressure to engage the rear brake.

Which is just what Ithadan said in different words.

Freewheel setups come in all sorts of styles. Typically, you've got the single speed BMX setup, which has the freewheel built into the cog and the multi-geared setup where the bit all the cogs slide onto has the freewheel arrangement. Old time gears had a cassette of gears similar to the BMX arrangement. There are a variety of names for the different types of arrangement.
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Old 09-23-13, 09:21 PM
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Yeah, Dan and Europa explained it. If you want a good resource to learn as much as you can from a single internet source, read these and keep browsing Sheldon's site:

https://sheldonbrown.com/coaster-brakes.html

https://sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html
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