Multi speed or single?
- Thread starter geohaydook
- Start date
I disagree about the drums. First, quality shoes won't wear out for a very long time. Second, I am running a front drum only, and I have no problems stopping with a 98cc cruiser. The key to getting good stopping power out of a drum is proper cable adjustment and a lever with good pull. I had a coaster brake in the rear, but the shoes grabbed so hard I would skid and fishtail, so I converted it to freewheel.
I can also agree to this with many fast , hard miles on my 99cc Pred which has for most of it's life had a Sturmey/Archer 90mm front drum brake handling the stopping chores and very well. I did add a jack shaft rear disc brake for "just in case", but I don't rely on it as the engine is a key part of my braking needs.
Yeah, coaster brakes can be hazardous to your health for the reasons you have stated......they were fine on my Stingray as a kid though....
I did not mean to imply drum brakes do not work, just that they do not work as well as Vbrakes. They can be perfectly adequate.
But they are far harder and/or more expensive to install compared to Vbrakes.
They hold a big advantage if you ride in wet conditions,(at first anyway, until they finally get wet)
As always, just my 2cents
But they are far harder and/or more expensive to install compared to Vbrakes.
They hold a big advantage if you ride in wet conditions,(at first anyway, until they finally get wet)
As always, just my 2cents
In my opinion there is no such thing as too may brakes on an MB, C-brakes, V-brakes, Drums, Discs and Coasters will all work but nothing leaves my shop with just one brake, and some end up with 3.
Dual C's on dual pull lever AND a coaster brake.
Again there is no such thing as too much braking power, take it from a guy that got really hurt because the bike would not stop fast enough to avoid an idiot driver.
I also highly recommend a strobing front light for daytime operation even if you have really great brakes, it helps to avoid those heart attack moments.
So true. Being able to pedal if you break down is a big benefit.I rarely pedal my motorized bikes, but...... I would not build a bike with the intention of never having to pedal it.
For one, if it can't be pedaled, it's not a bicycle. And two, when you run out of gas on the bike (which eventually you prolly will), you'll say to yourself......."what was I thinking"?
I fully agree! If possible, I prefer brakes that will lock either wheel with me sitting down.In my opinion there is no such thing as too may brakes on an MB, C-brakes, V-brakes, Drums, Discs and Coasters will all work but nothing leaves my shop with just one brake, and some end up with 3.
Dual C's on dual pull lever AND a coaster brake.
Again there is no such thing as too much braking power, take it from a guy that got really hurt because the bike would not stop fast enough to avoid an idiot driver.
I also highly recommend a strobing front light for daytime operation even if you have really great brakes, it helps to avoid those heart attack moments.
Too much braking is barely enough.
One thing I have noticed about single speed is the smallest gear is about 16(maybe 14 on certain BMX hubs).
Multi-speed get to 11. Making your top end faster with pedal power.
With 16/52 I run out of gears at 25 MPH, forget about pedaling up any hills without motor.
I ride an ebike with fat 24" tires (same size as 26").
I like the look of single speeds however I would build next bike with gears.
Multi-speed get to 11. Making your top end faster with pedal power.
With 16/52 I run out of gears at 25 MPH, forget about pedaling up any hills without motor.
I ride an ebike with fat 24" tires (same size as 26").
I like the look of single speeds however I would build next bike with gears.
There is a reason they don't make smaller gears for single speed. You could go a lot faster, but it's gonna be real hard to climb hills. If you still want or need to pedal any distance, a geared bike is the way to go. I made my pedal gearing as low as possible, going with a 36t front and a 23t rear. Of course, I'm not geared for pedaling over any distance, I'm geared to pedal assist my engine going up hills when necessary.
There's simply a limited amount of room, difficult to go smaller then this single speed 13t what with the freewheel in the way;
With a multispeed cassette, the freewheel is recessed under the larger cogs is all
...another concern is strength/longevity - the fewer the teeth, the greater the loading stress each one must take.
With a multispeed cassette, the freewheel is recessed under the larger cogs is all
...another concern is strength/longevity - the fewer the teeth, the greater the loading stress each one must take.
Last edited:
My concern is the additional weight of all that extra gearing and cogs, when running a sub 35 cc engine to pass under Oregon's less-than-25-mph and less-than-35-cc rules for powered bikes/scooters. We also cant have gears with this class of MaB.I'll never motorize a single-speed bike again. My current ride was my 3rd (and 4th) build and it was a single-speed chinagirl at first. Motor or not, there comes a time when the Chevrolegs need to be put to work on a bicycle. These little engines really get you moving when you have pedal torque behind em, too! My first two builds were high-geared Megarange-equipped multispeed bikes with single-speed 34T chinagirls and they were quite versatile from 15-40MPH, thanks to pedal power.
I now have a 5-speed shifter setup that is geared so that it features identical powerbands between engine and pedals, which results in amazing acceleration and fuel efficiency while pedaling. Cruise at engine torque peak with easy pedaling or storm at engine horsepower peak with big leg power. It will cruise at any speed from 5 to 35 with ease
If the bike isn't going to be cruising over 20 mph and your pedal rpm is starting to get a bit twerkish at that speed I can see having maybe 3~5 gears. I'd be perfectly happy with a lower ratio on a single speed that averages out at 14~16 mph. Getting an anaerobic workout on really steep hills @ 7 mph while assisting the engine, won't kill you.
To an extent I agree Citi-sporter, while nifty - below a certain level of available horsepower gearing the motor becomes more a cumbersome, complicated novelty then of any real assistance. A similar, perhaps even more profound example of this would be ebikes. A 1000w ebike makes a mere 1.3hp so while it seems gearing it would aid acceleration, in actual practice it'd take less time and provide even more acceleration to simply add a couple of pedal strokes.
Add in the parasitic losses of a complicated drivetrain, the friction & drag of the extra chains, bearings & cogs and the practical assistance of gearing such a small motor becomes negligible at best, particularly with electrics due to their "instant torque" characteristics. Add in the additional maintenance and the quirky peculiarities of derailleurs and it's worth becomes highly questionable. I suspect the growing commonality of geared mid-drive electrics has far more to do with the easy availability of inexpensive motors that can be used in such an arrangement and far less to do with preformance.
I'd suggest any motor of 2hp or less under your criteria would likely be better utilized as a single speed, geared tall & pedal assisted up to cruise. Admittedly two strokes have a very sharp, peaky powerband more difficult to gear for properly, so we may need four or five pedal strokes instead of just the two or three I apply to my ebike on takeoff lol
Add in the parasitic losses of a complicated drivetrain, the friction & drag of the extra chains, bearings & cogs and the practical assistance of gearing such a small motor becomes negligible at best, particularly with electrics due to their "instant torque" characteristics. Add in the additional maintenance and the quirky peculiarities of derailleurs and it's worth becomes highly questionable. I suspect the growing commonality of geared mid-drive electrics has far more to do with the easy availability of inexpensive motors that can be used in such an arrangement and far less to do with preformance.
I'd suggest any motor of 2hp or less under your criteria would likely be better utilized as a single speed, geared tall & pedal assisted up to cruise. Admittedly two strokes have a very sharp, peaky powerband more difficult to gear for properly, so we may need four or five pedal strokes instead of just the two or three I apply to my ebike on takeoff lol
... & jus' to be fair to shifters in general, my 3sp (SA IGH) Rollfast & 23sp (yea, 23sp lol) recumbent;
If anything, Oregon's MaB law makes a good case for running a geared bicycle, IMHO. Most of the <35CC setups are rear-mounted Friction Drive or LHS belt setups - so operate independent of bicycle gears anyway - exempting you from any legal restrictions on gears. Bicycle gearing adds very little weight considering the mechanical advantage it can give you up a hill, against the wind, or cruising at 20+MPH. Whether you have an assist engine on your bicycle or not, multiple pedal gears add versatility.
The beauty of having independent multi-speed pedal gears with a single-speed engine assist is that you can more or less dictate what pedal cadence your chevrolegs are running at while your engine does it's work. Pedaling can double (even triple or more) the amount of total torque output. With Oregon's rather restrictive engine output law, multi-speed pedal gears make far more sense to me than single-speed pedal setups.
To each their own of course. I don't like to stand and pedal. I've pedaled over 100,000 miles on multi-speed bicycles, single-speed bicycles did the most knee damage to me
