Shifting 11 speed with a friction shifter?

[Will1985]

I'm almost certain that the OP wants to apply this to a recumbent - is it worth it with 11 speed chains at about £45 each? I believe Auntie Helen told me her 'bent uses 3 chains - won't they wear out quickly as well?

 

[MartinC]

Jimbo and Will. You're both making the point I was trying to make. Using a friction shifter is stretching the envelope at all sorts of points to give you 11 gears. There's a perfectly sensible option that can give you 27 gears and the total cost of ownership might be less.

 

[Andy 71]

Well the Dual drive is £235 with out ANY of the bits (rods£3, cables£18, shifters£46, cassette£16 going upto£60+ wheel building £40) I think the way he said I could do it for under £50 just to get it to work.

The older Sachs 3 x 7 versions of these often pop up on eBay for around £40-50 - I have one and they are they are virtually the same design and spec, just rebadged as SRAM. They have a standard cassette body, so could handle a 8 or 9-speed block.

The three speed hub indexing is compatible with the old Sturmey Archer shifters - these can be had new for around £8. The rod is around £3 and a SA cable clamp can be used - I paid £2.50 for one recently. All you then need is a length of standard gear outer plus a cable.

Mine gets fitted to my folder in a couple of weeks. I shall let you know how I get on.

 

[LeeW]

I went for 10 speed in the end. One reason is with 10 speed I can use a chain with a powerlink rather than campags single-use pins and stupidly expensive tool. I can also use a Sram 11-28 cassette rather than a stupidly expensive machisio unit.
Yep, it's for a racing recumbent. A dual drive won't fit as it is front wheel drive and the front hub has been narrowed to fit in the fork..