Possible Upgrades for Vitesse p18s
 

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have a 2010 Dahon Vitesse P18. I feel like I can only max out at around 14-15mphs. I'm not too experienced with bicycles, so I need your help in what I can do to upgrade my ride to make it go faster. Everything is pretty much stock other than the bike rack i installed on it.


Lmk your thoughts :thumb:

This probably isn't the answer that you want, but...

Ride more. You just need to condition yourself to be a stronger rider. (At least it's free :thumb: )

Having said that,

When you say you max out at 14-15 MPH, do you mean at that speed that your legs are moving so fast you have trouble keeping them on the pedals? Or, do you mean you feel like your legs can't 'push' enough to go faster?

If it's the former, and you are in the highest gear on the bike, you could change your gearing to get some more speed. At 14-15 MPH, I suspect you still have a few more gears left, so I seriously doubt that's the issue.

Can you ride significantly faster on another bike?

14 miles down the road in an hour is a reasonable distance,
ride for 6 hours at that pace and you are almost 85 miles from where you began.

I feel like the gearing is too low. I have pretty decently strong legs, so i can pedal out a constant 14-15mph. What brand of cassette / gearings can i get to improve the ratio to my bike? preferably something that fits. I'm not too familiar if Dahon can support standard sizing.

Schlumpf High Speed drive is a planetary overdrive, so a 27t chainring
becomes a 67t chainring, in high range,
but physically it's still a small 27t chainring.

that should be high enough for anyone..

the Swiss company also makes a 1:1.65 overdrive too, using a 110 bolt circle
to fit common chainrings.

chainrings turn faster than the crank-arms when planetary is engaged.

I just did a quick input on Sheldon's gear calculator:

At a cadence of 80 rpm in top gear you should be doing something in the neighbourhood of 21-22 MPH on your bike.

Are you talking about your top speed or average speed?

My top speed is rather low. I feel like I'm pedaling pretty fast for the highest gear.

Forgive me if you already know this stuff, I'm going to proceed being extra explicit.

Next time you are out on your bike:
Get into the highest gear (that's the biggest ring up front and the smallest in the back).
When you get to your top speed, count the revolutions of the crank for 15 seconds. (For instance, the number to times your right knee is at the highest point)
Multiply that number by 4. That's your cadence.

One of the more common mistakes that new cyclists make is that they push too tall a gear at low cadence. Most people will find their most efficient cadence to be somewhere around 70-90 rpm.

As I mentioned before, at a cadence of around 80 in top gear you will be doing around 21 MPH on your bike.

If you are going slower than that, then your cadence is probably too slow and higher gearing isn't going to make you go any faster. You just need to ride more and get your muscles conditioned to bike riding.

Sorry to beat a dead horse with this stuff. I just think it would be a shame for you to spend on changing gearing and not go any faster in the end.

For more on cadence and gearing, take a look at Sheldon Brown's site: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

Hope that helps...