Re: [CR] very small chainrings [was: Campy Band-On Front Derailleur (Triple)]

(Example: Component Manufacturers)

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:45:46 -0400
From: "Joseph Bender-Zanoni" <joebz@optonline.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] very small chainrings [was: Campy Band-On Front Derailleur (Triple)]
In-reply-to: <9327C3B25BD3C34A8DBC26145D88A9070641B4@hippy.home.here>
To: Mark Bulgier <Mark@bulgier.net>
References: <9327C3B25BD3C34A8DBC26145D88A9070641B4@hippy.home.here>
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Woops. 26T it is.

Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ

Mark Bulgier wrote:
>
> Joe B-Z wrote:
>
>
>> I tend to use TA Cyclotourist rings with a tiny 24 or 22 ring.
>>
>
> The smallest ring made by TA for the Cyclotourist is 26 as far as I
> know. To go beyond that limit, I once made an adapter to use (steel)
> freewheel cogs as granny gears, with TA middle and outer rings - I used
> as low as 18 teeth. This was before the Mountain Tamer and other
> commercially-available versions were around. The adapter attached to
> the crank (to the, what is it? 49mm diameter bolt circle?) not to the
> other chainrings. Joe, do you use some sort of aftermarket adapter to
> get your low gears?
>
> I saw one big problem with it: very high chain tension due to the
> extreme leverage ratio. This caused fast wear on the rings (aggravated
> by their small size - just fewer teeth to share the wear) and fast wear
> on the chain. Also increased incidence of chain breakage, which of
> course should ideally be near zero. I broke a couple freewheels too -
> the "guts" (pawls shattered).
>
> Because of those problems I eventually took the adapter off and went
> back to stock chainring sizes, with suitably larger rear cogs.
>
> Mark Bulgier
> Seattle WA USA