Originally Posted by
Tony N.
Love my Helios. All 17+ pounds of her. I want to make her faster by adding compact gearing to chainring and pedal upgrades. Oem pedals just dont cut it for me. I like to have my feet fasten to pedals by clipless or Power Strap. What pedal upgrades do you use and how would be the best way to add small chainring and what front deraillure?
I'm not sure if ThorUSA sells the adapter to add a front derailluer for the Helios, but he sells one for the Speed and Mu series of bikes. I have one of that installed on my Mu SL so I can run a double chain ring on my Mu SL with a double shifter. Then for the rear hub, you can go either with a Capreo hub and a 9-28 cassette or a road cassette with tighter spacing. That gets you either 16 (if you have 8 speed rear) or 18 speeds if you have a 9 speed rear. That's enough gears to get you fast while reserving the second chain ring for bail out situations.
In regards to pedals. If you want clipless, you can either go with the MKS version that Thor sells that is removable for ease of folding. The cleats are different from Shimano ones. I just use Shimano types and they are good and been using them for a long time on my Mu SL. I also have Power Grips (or power straps) on my Dahon Speed DUO cause I wear street shoes and need straps to fasten to my pedals and they are cheap and work good. MKS sells something better of course for a price.