fietsbob

Dervla Murphy wrote in her book * 'Full Tilt' Ireland To India that for reliability Her bike had just 1 'speed' ..

it was a 3 speed .. * as I recall ..

Dervla Murphy

In Britain If it doesn't have a Motor .. it's a 'Push Bike' ..

Miele Man

Dervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published in 1965.

Wikipedia has: 'Murphy is best known for her 1965 book Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, about an overland cycling trip through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India."

Cheers

Miele Man

when I lived in Toronto Canada as a young man i had a 3 speed bicycle that i rode everywhere. That was before i had the money to afford a better bike and was also before the craigslist, kijiji or the web. I rode that bicycle to Barrie and other places.


If i could only have a three speed now I'd probably change the stem and bars to alloy and drop bars. that's just to be able to get a lower more aerodynamic position into the wind and to have optional hand positions. What i did with my 3 speed was reverse the handle bar so that the ends pointed forwrd. That may or may not work for you depending on the shape/style of your bar.

touring on a 3 speed can be done but ]I'd recommend keeping the weight of your gear as light as possible.

There's nothing wrong with walking up a hill except that it might be hard to push the bike. However it does give one a chance to enjoy the scenery and use different muscles than riding ones.

Cheers

Tourist in MSN

Just because it is not the latest carbon 1X11 hydraulic brake wonder bike that you think is perfect, you don't have to belittle the discussion.

wahoonc

I have done it a couple of times. I find it easier to just swap on the cog I need. I have done a double chain ring set up too. With the two rear cogs they have to be 4 teeth or less apart and both need to be dished cogs. You remove the spacers, put the cogs back to back and put the clip back in. I have had a couple of bikes where something didn't line up quite right and I had to drop down to a 3 tooth difference to make it work.

Aaron

wahoonc

And what ridiculous number of gears do you have on YOUR tour bike?

To each their own. I have met people touring on fixed gear, single speed coaster brake bikes with a big basket. Both were having fun and enjoying the ride. I met one guy recently on a Surly Long Haul Trucker and he was completely miserable, hated touring, hated where he was touring, hated the food and hated life in general. Asked why he was touring and his answer was because he couldn't afford not to after spending all the money on the bike and gear.

Aaron

aidy

I've toured parts of Western and Central Europe on a three speed (NL->Rhine->Bavaria->Prague->Budapest). It worked great and I had lots of fun!

I had to walk about three short hills that were too steep, but other than that the gearing was sufficiently low to be able to ride up most hills and sufficiently high for a comfortable pace on the flats. The top speed I could maintain was about 40km/h if I recall correctly. I even had a 240km day once along the Rhine due to uninteded detours

I did have drop bars though, so it might be worth changing yours out. They're a great help.

AZORCH

I'm very happy to have stumbled across this conversation. I've a drop bar road bike I converted to three-speed IGH a few years ago. I prefer riding drop bars over distance, and I've found the combination of bars, lightweight steel frame, and IGH works exceptionally well for my own particular riding style and philosophy ("Take the slow path whenever possible.") In my part of the world there are a lot of rolling hills - some steep climbing, but few hills that are longer than a mile and a half. With standard S-A gearing (.75/Direct/1.33), a 42 front ring and 18 in back I wind up with gear inches of 39/47/63. No, not especially low, but I very seldom have to walk my bike...and it doesn't really bother me when I do. I've done a lot of long distance riding on this rig, some moderately loaded (front bag and panniers, and a saddle bag) and some with only a large Carradice saddle bag. This rig has worked really well for path touring - I've done end-to-end on the KATY Trail several times for instance, which is over 500 miles albeit mostly flat. It does remarkably well for s240 tours, which tend to involve a combination of gravel and paved roads, and a lot of hills. And more traditional touring, over three or four day period works well also - bearing in mind I'm not in the mountains. One important caveat: the bike fits me just about perfectly, which is a key (at least for me) for riding distance.

Squeezebox

In '81 I spent 2 weeks in Holland on a rented 3 speed Dutch bicycle. after my good bicycle was stolen in Dover, England. I lived. but probably did not do 100 ft of elevation change. It would have been better on a better bicycle.

martianone

When I was working on the set up of a custom steel bike, I looked at the most common great ratios I used. Turns out they were about 37, 49 and 65 gear in, these are very close to the ratios of a three speed IHG.
just have to lower sprocket and chain wheel combination

Miele Man

Apparently some people are putting 650B rims, tubes and tires onto their 3-speed hubs. The size is so close to 26" that they can use the same brakes and fenders. It also gives them more tire choices.

Cheers

rhm

I realize that this isn't quite what you're asking, but when you put two cogs on the driver, as you describe, you also have the option of using a derailleur. You typically do this to get the in-between gears, so you don't increase the overall range all that much, but the six evenly spaced gears are good for most riding.

tcs

Folks started touring on three speed cycles around 120 years ago, and have ever since. For much of that time, it was a mainstream thing to do.

Heinz Stucke cycletoured on a three-speed bike between 1962 and 2004. Continuously between 1962 and 2004.

There remain groups and organizations and societies and leagues focused on using these bikes for getting out and about.

fietsbob

Add a Mountain Drive crankset/BB and you have a low range of 3 more speeds below the lowest in The Hub..


mountain drive


I Have a 2 speed Swiss Mountain Drive Crank* , so In Low Range , I go thru My 3 speeds twice , for a total of 6.

cog & chainring the 2 gear, 1:1 in the hub is 58", low gear in low range is 17"

* mine in a Brompton..

MixedRider

Been touring exclusively single speed for years now. 42x16 on 700cc rims. fully loaded front and rear panniers. Very rarely need to walk, however, it is something that you can't just jump into and requires training rides in a variety of terrain to be comfortable and learn you strengths and weaknesses.

My mantra is 90% of the time it is the wrong gear, but that 10% when it is the correct gear is so worth it!

tcs

The Sturmey driver was designed for a cog and two thin spacing washers to fine tune the chainline (which, as it turns out, is not that big a deal). Anyway, two back-to-back dished cogs will fit many models.

Esoteric and not original: you can fit two cogs and two chainwheels. You use, oh, say 42/18 for general riding, but move the chain (loosen the axle nuts or unclip the master link) to the 38/22 combination on the day you have a hellacious headwind or a series of short, steep hills (coasting down!)

adventurepdx

Yep! The British three speed came standard with 26" x 1 3/8" tires and wheels, which is also the same as 650A, or a bead seat diameter of 590 mm. 650B has a bead seat diameter of 584 mm, so very small difference there. Brakes should be easily adjusted, and the outer diameter of 650A. And 650B tires are roughly the same outer width (as long as you aren't going much bigger than 37 mm width on 650A and 42 mm width on 650B) so fenders don't need to be changed or adjusted.

servalan73

Absolutely go for it! 3-speeds are built for riding all day.

mdilthey

I'm currently touring on a singlespeed...

claudia52

Rob, just discovered your post. I am considering either Shimano 8 or Nuvinci. Can you tell me which of those is geared lower i.e, handles hills easier? Thanks very much.

tcs

The NuVinci N360/380 has a lower low ratio than the Shimano 8s. Fitting a lowest robust primary drive ratio (chainwheel x sprocket) is something of a black art, but FWIW NuVinci 'recommends' a lower minimum input than Shimano (1.8 vs 2). So in answer to your question, in hard numbers the NuVinci N360/380 can be geared lower than a Shimano 8-speed IGH.

The best science I've seen says the Shimano is somewhat more efficient in its lowest ratio than the NuVinci CVTs.

Rob_E

They both have almost the same low range for the same cog/chainring combination. So if you swapped a Nuvinci for an Alfine, without changing anything else, the low gear would be almost the same.

Nuvinci has a published, allowable ration of 1.8 between the chainring and cog. The Shimano ratio is something I've heard referenced, but have never seen is any official Shimano document. I feel like the Shimano 8 speed is popular with the relatively small group of IGH using mountain bikers. I feel like gearing it lower than that 2 to 1 ration is common for that application. But then people have been ungearing their Nuvinci hubs as well.

I've always kept my Nuvinci within factory specs. It's too expensive to break, and this way I don't void the warranty when I do break it (which I have done). The Shimano I would be more willing to set up with a lower, low gear because I can't find a published minimum, and because it would cost less to replace if I did break it and they denied me a warranty replacement because of my gearing.

But in practice, the low gear is very similar for both of them. I found them both to be adequate. On my 700c wheels, I would sometimes wish for a little lower gearing on the bottom with the Nuvinci. With the same gearing on a 20" wheel, I found the whole thing geared too low. So I guess it's pretty close to right where I'd want it, based on wheel size. With the Alfine 8, I considered dropping it down to a slightly lower gear, but I've gotten used to where it is now, which is the same 2-to-1 ratio I was using on the Nuvinci. Although the wheels are 26" now (but fatter, so practically the same diameter as the 700c).

In practice, the lower weight of the Alfine does seem like it makes a difference. Or maybe it's that "efficiency" figure that seem hard to pin down. But then I went from a Nuvinci to an Alfine with the same gearing, so the only real difference to notice was the weight. Otherwise it might not have been as noticeable.

So, basically, if I were choosing between the two hubs, I don't think I'd make "lowest low gear" a selection criteria as they are very close. Likely neither will give you the best low gear for a long, steep grade, but that's okay. Sometimes I like to stretch my legs (is what I tell myself, anyway).

Other differences:
Weight -- the Nuvinci is definitely heavier
Shifting -- I love the continuous shifting of the Nuvinci
Gear range -- The Nuvinci provides more overall range.
Maintenance -- The Alfine was easier to set up. The wheel is easier to remove and reinstall. The shift cable replacement was dream compared to the Nuvinci.
Expense -- Unless you find a good deal, the Nuvinci will run a fair amount more.

I keep the Nuvinci on my folding bike, now. I switched my main bike to the Alfine for a number of reasons, a big one being that I wanted to have more than one wheelset for my main bike, and buying a new Nuvinci hub for every wheel seemed too expensive. But, while I miss the awesome shifting of the Nuvinci, I don't regret the switch. The Alfine has been a great hub so far.

tcs

SRAM officially announced the discontinuation of their G8 and G9 IGHs around a year ago. A few retailers still have stock, if anyone wants a rare, interesting orphan hub with no spare parts support.

The SRAM i9 IGH was discontinued several years ago, and their respected T3, P5 and S7 hubs were discontinued about that same time or a year or two before.

SRAM currently offers only 2- and 3-speed IGHs.

acantor

In 1968, when I was 12 years old, my parents bought me a two-speed bicycle (a "Charger," manufactured by CCM, with high-rise bars and a black-and-white checkered banana seat!)

I thought it was the coolest bike in the world, and I rode it everywhere. But when I was 13 or 14, I went riding with a fellow who had a 10-speed racing bike. Despite his being younger and smaller than me, I couldn't even begin to keep up. From that point forward, I wanted a ten speed, too!

In my opinion, a multi-geared bicycle is a better "tool" for the "job" of touring than a three-speed; but there is nothing wrong with a three-speed, provided there is no pressure to keep pace with others.

PS. I bought my first "real" touring bike, a Miyata 1000, when I was 28. I still ride it. It was (and is) a great bike; but when I reflect back on my twelfth and thirteenth year, I had as much fun on my CCM Challenger. The difference is that it was a pleasure touring with my 1985 Miyata in the Vosges mountains of France. Had I ridden a 1968 CCM Challenger, my body would have been more sore, the trip would have taken longer, and I would have pushed my bike up a lot of steep hills.