Riding Backwards
 

Hey. I know this may be a dumb question but I was wondering... I watch the show DropIn all the time and sometimes when they are doing some street riding, some of them seem like they are able to peddle backwards and their bike goes backwards too. I was wandering, is it possible to get something for your bike to allow you to ride backwards when you peddle? or is it just a skill that some have, to be able to ride backwards well? I'm guessing it's just that they are really good. Thanks.

a fixed gear would do this, but i doubt the drop in guys are running one, what you are seeing is them carring speed back wards, and when the bike goes backwards the pedals gi back wards too

Thanks. Is it possible to have a fixed gear and still have your normal gears? would you be able to just put one on and then if you choose, you can use it, or your regular gears?

No, it isn't possible to have a fixed gear that shifts (at least not by a derailer mechanism). The reason is because the rear wheel can't coast freely. This means that the chain is turning CONSTANTLY when the rear wheel is moving, so derailing the chain would introduce a lot of weird stresses and would jam up the rear wheel (probably causing a crash), if the shift weren't incredibly fast. Moreover, you can't pedal backwards if you have a derailer because the derailer is not designed to experience stress in that direction. It will get bent out of shape if it is highly stressed in that way.

Waaay back in the day, Sturmey Archer made a 3-speed internally geared hub that gave you 3 speeds on a fixed gear. This was like 50 years ago. Maybe they'll make 'em again someday.

In any case, a fixed gear is a ton of fun. I built one for cheap and now ride it pretty much everywhere!

(I should mention that most fixed gears have flip flop hubs. This setup allows you to take the back wheel off, flip it around, and have a different gear on the other side. I don't use it, but the option is there!)

I can probably design you a mechanism that uses a freewheel hooked up to 1 gear and a solid drive shaft hooked up to another cog and a derailleur that locks itself in 1 gear and is free in another so you can shift between freewheeling and fixie... but... no it's not currently possible.

What I think would be sweet is a lockable freewheel bearing... you'd have some kind of trigger lever and when you hit it, *blam*, freewheel bearing locks up and you're riding a fixie. Then flip the trigger back and you can coast again. This would be nice for my commute, where I want to be riding fixie except on the downhills.

I'm probably asking for a lawsuit :)

There is some Japan imported hub that coasts when you ride backwards or forwards, but you can still pedal forwards. I have no idea how it works, but its really cool. There is a BMX guy that lives by me and he has one on his bike. BTW, he is insaneley good.

All I know is that it is red, and has Japanese characters written on it.

dirtjump is right. It's simply the bike rolling backwards. Because of the way the pawls in a freewheel work, you can only freewheel in one direction. Thank goodness because otherwise you wouldn't be able to pedal forward and go anywhere. However, since you can pedal forward to move and freewheel in the same direction, the opposite is true in reverse.

You can pedal backwards to freewheel but if you coast backwards the pawls remain engaged and rotate the cranks.

Go try it to see.

Dude, that's awesome. If you happen to find out the name, please post it. I'm guessing it has some kind of mechanism like a coaster brake, which can coast, but also activates a brake when you pedal backwards slightly.

Next time I see him, I will ask more about it. Its probably like a coaster brake, but alot crisper and not as loose and crappy as a low end coaster brake

its called a free coaster alot of bmxer use them

Do you know anything about how it works? If I understand correctly it allows you to pedal forward and backwards AND to coast forward and backwards?

freecoasters evolved from coaster brakes hubs.

with a coaster brake hub, you pedal forwards and the bike goes forwards. but when you pedal backwards, the brake mechanism will engage. however, if you roll the bike backwards, the pedals will stay in the same place and not go backwards like a normal cassette or freewheel hub would.

not having the cranks move while rolling backwards helps alot with flatland freestyle. but coasterbrakes suck, so what they did was simply remove the brake pads from the hub and put in some washers to take up the space.

now when you pedal your coasterbrake hub backwards, there are no brake pads so your cranks can pedal backwards just like a cassette/freewheel. when you pedal forwards, the bike goes forward.

the current versions of freecoaster hubs are much much better then the older converted coasterbrake hubs. but they work in the same mechanical matter.


the downside to freecoasters is there is a small amount of play. when you go from pedaling backwards to pedaling forwards, it takes the hub awhile to engage. with the new hubs, you can adjust this but you can't ever really get it to be as quickly engaging as a cassette/freewheel.

That would be a Nankai freecoaster; they have a variety of different models. Odyssey and Sym, among other companies, also make them.