An 840 Speed Flight of Fancy

['72 Eliminator]

Bear with me a bit as I present an idea I've had kicking around in my head for a few years now. A possible way to achieve up to 840 speed gearing on a bike.

Certain old Sturmey hubs had threaded sprockets. You could theoretically thread up to a 10 speed freewheel on it. After changing out the standard single speed front sprocket to a indexed sprocket with three chainrings you could could then add a Schlumpf two speed internal front hub. You would end up with a 180 speed!

3X10X3X2=180

Now instead of the 3 speed Sturmey, imagine if you could come up with a way to mount a 10 speed freewheel to a 14 speed Rohloff hub. Your talking about an 840 speed!

14X10X3X2=840

Now I know most of the gears would be totally redundant but talk about the bragging rights! Not to mention the fact that even the biggest tank of a bike could climb Pikes peak like a billy goat if you mixed and matched the gears properly.

Just a thought...

[dumpster_diver]

That must be some goood Tenn. moonshine youre drinkin' up there!

If you could do such a thing, that would be awesome!! But where will you find a shifter.
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick
.....45th gear!
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick
102nd gear!!

[TornadoDave]

I saw a magazine article about the same principle a loooong time ago. It didn't go as high as yours did, but the idea was the same.

Theoretically it would work IF you could get all of the parts and pieces mated up correctly, AND you widened the frame to accomodate the extra width ofthe read -end assembly.

BUT... why wouyld you want to? According to Sturmey, of Sturmey Archer fame:

"While some think that 3 speeds are adequate for all riding conditions, I feel that 5 gears might be advantageous. Beyond that, I cannot see any benefit."

(Just kidding)

[Vroom]

I was talking to a guy who was in his '70's
and had a paper route when he was a kid .
He said on their bikes they had three speed hubs
and then they added multipule hubs to them.

I could not figure out how he did this, but now that
you point out the early hubs had screw-on cogs it makes
sense .

He said it made a BIG difference in those days,
boy he had some great bike stories.

Thanks for shedding some light on that, now
it makes sense.

Vroom

['72 Eliminator]

That must be some goood Tenn. moonshine youre drinkin' up there!

If you could do such a thing, that would be awesome!! But where will you find a shifter.
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick
.....45th gear!
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick
102nd gear!!

If you know the right folks it ain't too bad. 12 years old aged in a oak barrel... good times. Just don't ride a bicycle on it. Trust me, I have the scar to prove it. Heh

Shifters wouldn't be a problem. Standard rear hub shifter, one each for the front and rear derailluer, and the Schlumpf is activated at the crank with your heel.

However, the sound from all those shifts would drive you batty.

And to add to this, lets just say that you added yet another 10 speed cluster to an idler between the front cluster and the rear cluster. The numbers climb up to 1800 & 8,400!

Not practical by any means but for a show bike... Insta-Win!

[karfer67]

interesting idea similar to what 18 wheelers have. i think they have two sets of gears like a high and low range and totall there are 18 speeds. but with that numper of speeds how many would you actually use? some would be so low it is not funny and the otherway around.

[cman]

Sheldon Brown has a 63 speed bike and 50 speed tandem.

Read about it here: http://sheldonbrown.org/otb.html