I'm hoping someone can help me out here. I have a mid 90's Dyno beach cruiser that has a Nexus 4 speed hub. If you're familiar with the hub, it's geared very tall, like 1st gear is a 1:1 ratio, then 2, 3 and 4 are all harder to pedal. Since there are a ton of hills near my house I wanted to improve the gearing by swapping the one piece cranks over to a 3 pc set and just use the granny gear up front. I've done this, but the chainline is somewhat off, and it looks kind of funny with only the granny gear. The bike rides fine, but is there anything else I can do? The hub already has the largest cog available, 22T. I'm not sure what the front ring is (small!) but I like the gearing as it is now.

TIA

It should be noted that this may shorten the life of your hub, which was designed to withstand the torque generated by a certain small range of chainring options. That said, if it works, and the only problem is that it looks silly, just put a bash guard of some sort where the middle ring should be.

One last note: if you are using the original singlespeed chain, or any singlespeed chain, and the chainline is off, it will most likely lead to premature chain failure, as SS chains are not made to run at an angle.

Thanks for the reply X01. I'm leaning toward installing a larger ring on the middle of the spider. This will help the look, and the alignment/wear issues. It's just going to be a pain up the hills!

Or find a larger cog to put on the rear.

I have the largest that you can put on a Nexus, 22T. I put on a middle ring (36T) and it looks much better. Thanks for the replies.