Originally Posted by
darukhan
I'm toying with the idea of reducing the number of speeds my Birdy has as a winter project. My Birdy currently has a Sram Dual Drive 3 x 8 hub (with a Sram 11-32) cassette. When paired with the 58 tooth chainring I have on it, the bike is capable of a ridiculously massive gear inch range which is fun, but ultimately, it's a setup that is completely unnecessary. (...I mean, I can't even use the top gear unless I'm going downhill.... but when I can, I easily can hit 34mph! Going uphill is ridiculously easy spinning out in lowgear!)
So... with my current gearing, I can tackle virtually any hill up or down and have a multitude of speed options in the flats.... HOWEVER.... since my Birdy is used 99% of the time for commuting to work, I find myself ever only using THREE gears!
This has me thinking... "simplify".
I'm considering actually going in the complete opposite direction and dropping my number of gears to match the purpose of this bike, and if I'm going to change the hub, why not consider losing the excess cabling and consider a coaster brake.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU ALL!
1) I'm curious if anyone has ever tried using a coaster brake hub (any speed... single, two, three, seven, etc.) on their Birdy?
2) If so, what was your experiences with a coaster hub on a Birdy?
Interesting prospect to minimize gearing on a Birdy ..
I've had a few Birdy bikes through the years, both with the excellent Sachs 3x7, the SRAM Dual Drive, as well as straight derailleur gearing...
If you went with a small IGH 2 or 3 speed (any hub with more gears gets to be a pretty heavy wheel, although Birdy does offer a Rohloff version), you would still need a chain tensioner to handle the excess chain when folding as well as maintaining normal riding tension to compensate for the vertical dropouts .. coaster brakes don't work well with spring loaded tensioners or derailleurs ..
If I wanted to reduce gearing and convert a Birdy to IGH to use as a commuter, I'd consider a 3 speed non-coaster with small chain tensioner .. you'd lose the weight of the cassette, large derailleur and one shifter/cable combo.. I ride a Moulton 3 speed IGH all the time and find the gearing sufficient for moderately hilly Marin county roads..