simple lil ole question

deacon · #1 (**permalink**) 06-28-2008, 02:38 PM

For those of you gear changers answer me this question please.

When you coast down a hill and the bike slows down on the way up the next hill, if you want to keep the speed up, do you use a higher or lower gear to catch up to the free wheel...

I'm asking because I have this friction drive bike with a twenty inch bike chain ring. It has to get really slow before I can catch up to the free wheel device. I need to know if I should change the chain ring back to a large one in order to be able to keep the speed up.

thanks guys I have no idea about gears ect.

deacon · #2 (**permalink**) 06-28-2008, 05:01 PM

One of the mods can remove this thread if they need space. I had an hour to kill so it just switched out the chain rings. Now I know why a mountain bike is a good choice for a friction drive bike.

I went from a 6" chain ring to a 7 1/2 chain ring. The bike caught up sooner and I could kick up the speed by pedaling a few strokes so that was good. I tried to start from a dead stop with the motor shut down and it was miserable. A mountain bike would be much better. Start in the lower gear then use the higher gears to catch up with the freewheel.

With the china girl kit the gears are pretty useless, except that you do have that lower gear to start off with. That is what I would use if for nothing else. The 6" chain ring on the china bike works really well, but on the friction drive I think a mountain bike would be better.