nhawlman

Is this a collectors item or a junker?

If I appear stupid- Iconfess; I'm not a biker, I'm a Beekeeper.
https://www.solitary-beekeeper.com/
RossBikeEuroTourRx-S7215.jpg

I bought this bike at auction just for the front wheel.
But the tires held air and it rides decent, so I may polish it up.

My question:
The right hand grip has numbers "1, 2, 3"
It has 2 cables going to the bkack box, which I assume is a transmission of sorts.
But I'm unable to rotate the grip to change numbers.
What might be wrong?

What's inside the Box?
Does it contain lubricant?
Are there adjustments in it?

Thanks a bunch,
Nevin

Bill Kapaun

Nice picture of the black box!
Never seen one of those, but then I'm just a kid!

I would think you could put on a "more traditional" crank & FDER and have a functional bike.

The rear should still give you a few gears, since it appears "conventional.

Airburst

Intriguing, I've never seen anything like that, at least not on such an old bike.

I'd imagine the box contains some kind of gearing mechanism, but whether it's planetary gears (as would be the norm on a bike with an internal gear system on the rear) or something more like a manual gearbox on a car, I can't say.

As I've never seen one, I'd say keep it, it's probably fairly unusual. I assume someone older than me who's seen this sort of thing before will know what it is...

Homebrew01

No idea. You could try the Classic & Vintage forum.

TireLever-07

I'd suspect this was the 3 speed, Raleigh Sports fighter. Wasn't the "Gran Tour" a drop bar, 10 speed bike? Classic & Vintage might be more help.

goatalope

I had a Eurosport with the Shimano system where the freewheel mechanism was in the front hub. However, it didn't have one of those front covers. When you pedal backwards where does the clicking sound come from?

StephenH

My brother bought a 3-speed adaptor that was like that. It went in place of the front chainring, had 3-speed gearbox built in, and used a small chainring. It worked okay, it was just a do-it-yourself approach to making a single-speed bike into a 3-speed. What's wrong is anybody's guess, maybe a bunch of WD-40 and elbow grease would fix it, maybe not. If it's like my brothers, you could remove it and convert the bike back into a single-speed, but that would involve rounding up a crank, chainwheel, bearings, and new chain.

FastJake

Is the chain derailed? Or is that the smallest chainring ever? No idea on the black box, open it up and see. The bike is lower-end so I don't think you'll ruin anything.

nhawlman

Are you saying that all these parts were changed to accommodate the box?
and the original bike was a single-speed ?

Thanks

nhawlman

Chain is not derailed.
The small chain sprocket is not fastened to the pedal crank.
It rotates on the crank, but seems connected to whatever's inside the box.

nhawlman

I don't hear a clicking sound.
No wonder I'm confused; I didn't know it had Reverse !

Airburst

I don't think it was a singlespeed, it seems to have a standard rear derailleur.

As for the Front Freewheel System that Shimano used to make, that didn't have a box on it, as I recall. I saw one a few years ago fitted to a bike that was for sale, I didn't really look at it, but there definitely wasn't a box.

It also can't have a reverse gear. Leaving aside how hard it actually is to ride a bike backwards, sprung-arm chain tensioners like the one in a rear derailleur only work with one-way drive. They can't maintain chain tension under reverse drive.