Riding with the Nexus
My last two days riding with the Nexus hub and my new 17t sprocket have been great. Just as planned, I spend most of my time in 5th gear. Shifting is super smooth and almost imperceptable except for 5th gear where I can feel the click of the gears locking to give me the 1:1 ratio. I am very happy I made the switch to the internal hub.
The gear ratios I get are perfect for my current riding level, so I don't think I'll need to tweak the gear ratios any time soon. To test it out good I rode 17 miles on the way to work yesterday and 12 miles home. Today I rode 27 miles to work (by way of going around the mountain). I had lots of good uphills and downhills to test on.
In 5th gear (using the Schlumpf overdrive in front) I comfortable ride between 16-21 mph with a usual speed of about 18-19mph at a 70rpm cadence. On flat terrain this is my usual cruising speed. On today's mountain climb I found that as I steadily downshifted I was in first gear (still with overdrive on) fairly quickly. I just barely got the nerve to take this trike up hills, so it should get better as I condition myself more. In first gear I was still doing 10mph, but it was still to hard to maintain a good cadence, so I had to shift out of overdrive. My next gear ratio down without the overdrive is actually about 5th gear in the rear, so very quickly I clicked the Schlumpf shift button and twisted the grip to 5. Perfect dual shifting action. The hill climbing went on for a while, but I was able to maintain a speed of above 5mph for the duration. Yea!
By the time I got up the top of the mountain I saw the big road heading east towards the freeway and knew I was going to have to book it if I was to make it to work on time. So, after I drank a whole 20oz bottle of Gatorade I set downhill. I love going fast downhill. I wanted to go as fast as I could so I kept pedaling and upshifting. When I got to 8th gear I was going 38mph (my new speed record) and decided that was enough pedaling. I coasted for about 5 minutes above 30mph and started pedaling in 7th gear. One thing I really like about this hub is that I can shift while I am coasting. I was able to stay above 25mph until I hit the next hill in Payson. This time going up the hill was not as smooth. When I was in first and went to downshift the Schlumpf and upshift the hub, my left foot unclicked from the pedal and I had to stop to click back in and shift out of overdrive. Bummer.
Overall, I am very pleased with the combination of the Schlumpf High-Speed Drive and the Nexus 8 Hub in the back. According to Sheldon Brown's calculator I have a combination of about 15-120 gear inches with only one overlapping gear ratio giving me 15 usable gear combinations. This should be enough to climb about any hill and go as fast as I want to.
The gear ratios I get are perfect for my current riding level, so I don't think I'll need to tweak the gear ratios any time soon. To test it out good I rode 17 miles on the way to work yesterday and 12 miles home. Today I rode 27 miles to work (by way of going around the mountain). I had lots of good uphills and downhills to test on.
In 5th gear (using the Schlumpf overdrive in front) I comfortable ride between 16-21 mph with a usual speed of about 18-19mph at a 70rpm cadence. On flat terrain this is my usual cruising speed. On today's mountain climb I found that as I steadily downshifted I was in first gear (still with overdrive on) fairly quickly. I just barely got the nerve to take this trike up hills, so it should get better as I condition myself more. In first gear I was still doing 10mph, but it was still to hard to maintain a good cadence, so I had to shift out of overdrive. My next gear ratio down without the overdrive is actually about 5th gear in the rear, so very quickly I clicked the Schlumpf shift button and twisted the grip to 5. Perfect dual shifting action. The hill climbing went on for a while, but I was able to maintain a speed of above 5mph for the duration. Yea!
By the time I got up the top of the mountain I saw the big road heading east towards the freeway and knew I was going to have to book it if I was to make it to work on time. So, after I drank a whole 20oz bottle of Gatorade I set downhill. I love going fast downhill. I wanted to go as fast as I could so I kept pedaling and upshifting. When I got to 8th gear I was going 38mph (my new speed record) and decided that was enough pedaling. I coasted for about 5 minutes above 30mph and started pedaling in 7th gear. One thing I really like about this hub is that I can shift while I am coasting. I was able to stay above 25mph until I hit the next hill in Payson. This time going up the hill was not as smooth. When I was in first and went to downshift the Schlumpf and upshift the hub, my left foot unclicked from the pedal and I had to stop to click back in and shift out of overdrive. Bummer.
Overall, I am very pleased with the combination of the Schlumpf High-Speed Drive and the Nexus 8 Hub in the back. According to Sheldon Brown's calculator I have a combination of about 15-120 gear inches with only one overlapping gear ratio giving me 15 usable gear combinations. This should be enough to climb about any hill and go as fast as I want to.
posted by Ashley Guy at 1:01 PM
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