So many gears, pointless?

[Tigerbiten]

Put the two systems together and you can have the best, and worst, of both worlds.

I have up front with a Schlumpf HSD and twin chainrings.
A Rohloff is really a 7 speed with a 2.45x step down, which gives you the 14.
The HSD is a 2.5x step up which gives me 21 gears and the twin chainrings are spaced 1.466x apart or another 3 gears.
The extra drag from the HSD in overdrive mode is overcome by setting the shifting at +20 mph, at which point I'm going downhill.

 

[ilcaccillo]

I've tried a lot of different bikes, and personally I don't need more than 7 speeds

 

[SGG on a bike]

My old GT has 21 and I certainly don't use all of them. I could probably lose the middle ring without really noticing too much and even then, I doubt I'd be using all of the remaining 14.

 

[faster]

I've tried a lot of different bikes, and personally I don't need more than 7 speeds

Absolutely - agree 100%.

Having 11 at the back is miles better though.

 

[ilcaccillo]

I guess it depends on your uses and also the type of terrain you cycle.
For me 7 is more than enough, probably if I was riding more hills 11 would be more than enough. I would be happy with that

 

[JPBoothy]

I appreciate that the OP's question is more of a hypothetical one but, I think we are possibly overlooking the fact that unless we are building a bike from scratch, and/or have a nice fat box of spare bits, then the chances are that our next purchase will have 10/11 at the rear whether we like it or not. What we want/need and what we will get are probably not going to be the same thing.

 

[classic33]

I appreciate that the OP's question is more of a hypothetical one but, I think we are possibly overlooking the fact that unless we are building a bike from scratch, and/or have a nice fat box of spare bits, then the chances are that our next purchase will have 10/11 at the rear whether we like it or not. What we want/need and what we will get are probably not going to be the same thing.

If it's not what I'm after, it'll stay in the shop. And I'll be headed elsewhere.

 

[JPBoothy]

If it's not what I'm after, it'll stay in the shop. And I'll be headed elsewhere.

Absolutely but, my point was that we (or those of us less mechanically minded) are 'probably' going to end-up with the number of gears that come as standard on the bike as opposed to leaving the shop with the precise number/ratio of gears that we want. I can't imagine that many shops will accommodate somebody saying to them "I'll take that lovely looking Trek Domane please but, I only want a 7/8 speed cassette on the back".

 

[classic33]

Absolutely but, my point was that we (or those of us less mechanically minded) are 'probably' going to end-up with the number of gears that come as standard on the bike as opposed to leaving the shop with the precise number/ratio of gears that we want. I can't imagine that many shops will accommodate somebody saying to them "I'll take that lovely looking Trek Domane please but, I only want a 7/8 speed cassette on the back".

If it didn't match what I wanted, I'd walk away. Getting something that did, or at least came closer elsewhere. It'd be unfair to expect the staff to change a functioning item and then set the replacement up.

The 11 on the rear, with the single, often small, chainring on the front just doesn't look right longterm. Especially when the rear is larger than the front.

14 on the rear would look plain odd.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5954604

 

[a.twiddler]

If it didn't match what I wanted, I'd walk away. Getting something that did, or at least came closer elsewhere. It'd be unfair to expect the staff to change a functioning item and then set the replacement up.

The 11 on the rear, with the single, often small, chainring on the front just doesn't look right longterm. Especially when the rear is larger than the front.

14 on the rear would look plain odd.
View attachment 524768

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5954604

But surely, for someone for whom the set up does what they want, the looks will be irrelevant? There is resistance to every new thing. The first time I saw a bike with derailleur gearing I could not believe that it would work. All those cogs exposed to the wind and rain? They should be indoors, in a nice oil bath. And pre indexing, when you knew that you had changed gear successfully when the sounds of mass destruction from the rear stopped? It was an accepted thing. So this too could become a new normal.

As someone who is happy for someone else to be the test pilot for new ideas, until they become affordable to everyone, even I might buy one at some unspecified time in the future. Or It might not be the success that the marketing men hope, and it could become another design dead end.

It depends on enough riders buying them for long enough, and proving the reliability and durability.

 

[classic33]

Given that Shimano didn't follow up on the 14 speed cassette patent from 1999, I'd say they knew early on that it might be a passing fancy/fad.

 

[a.twiddler]

Given that Shimano didn't follow up on the 14 speed cassette patent from 1999, I'd say they knew early on that it might be a passing fancy/fad.

Well, there you go, perhaps it's just a last gasp attempt to reclaim the cost of their 1999 research. It does seem to be a lot of unbalanced metal to hang on one side of a hub, and as for what it must do to the wheel dishing....?

 

[Archie_tect]

View attachment 524768

Lovely drawing though.

 

[JPBoothy]

If it didn't match what I wanted, I'd walk away. Getting something that did, or at least came closer elsewhere. It'd be unfair to expect the staff to change a functioning item and then set the replacement up.

The 11 on the rear, with the single, often small, chainring on the front just doesn't look right longterm. Especially when the rear is larger than the front.

14 on the rear would look plain odd.
View attachment 524768

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5954604

I agree with you, and fortunately I have a bit of knowledge to be able to tinker myself these days. However, there has been the rare occasion in my 'pre-tinkering past' when I've seen a bike that has made my jaw drop and I've thought "wow, I'd like one of those" and, I'm pretty certain that the number of gears that it came with as standard would not have put me off as my youthful uneducated eyes were probably not looking beyond the nice shiney colour

 

[JPBoothy]

I removed the cassette from one of CX bikes yesterday to give it a thorough 'and long overdue' cleaning and it had me thinking as to why it is that only the last 2/3 sprockets that are separate on a cassette and the larger ones are in a 'block'? Surely separate sprockets would enable you to tailor your gears to suit your own personal needs. Although, I suppose if that option was available to us then the manufacturer/LBS would end up with a stack of the less popular sizes.