Adding 3-speed gears to a single-speed bike

[Adrian Parkinson]

I've been thinking of adding 3-speed gears to my bike to make going up the hill towards the nearby shops easier. I had been thinking of using a derailleur, but then I started looking into internal hub systems and like the idea a lot. The problem right now is I don't know where I could find any of those components locally. Especially at my budget which is around R1000.

I have seen this one on eBay, would it be a good choice? Is it even likely to be successfully delivered?

Alternatively, does anyone know of a cheap supplier of either the hub gear or the derailleur locally?

Edited March 31, 2022 by Adrian Parkinson

[NotSoBigBen]

Look I'm an old timer and a bit set in my ways ... adding gears to a single speed is like when people put suspension forks, suspension seatposts and stuff on gravel bikes or other rigid bikes, it's just wrong. Bloody Philistines 🤪

Rather get a geared, suspended mountain bike and be done with it. 

BUT having said that one of those internal geared hubs would make a supercool bike so hope you can find one!

[Adrian Parkinson]

10 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

Look I'm an old timer and a bit set in my ways ... adding gears to a single speed is like when people put suspension forks, suspension seatposts and stuff on gravel bikes or other rigid bikes, it's just wrong. Bloody Philistines 🤪

Rather get a geared, suspended mountain bike and be done with it. 

BUT having said that one of those internal geared hubs would make a supercool bike so hope you can find one!

I've thought about that but I'd rather like the mechanical challenge of DIYing it. It also means that if I went the internal route, I could use the hub on other bikes in the future.

A mountain bike with suspension is also seriously overkill for me as the closest I get to off-roading is taking a shortcut through the dirt to avoid being seriously killed to death at the intersection at the end of my street.

[One Speed Wonder]

Maintaining chain tension is the biggest issue probably and, if you are changing the gears remotely, if there are enough braze-ons. One crazy sounding idea I tried was to make a 3x1 with a chain tensioner. So you add a front deranger and install a triple. that gives quite a large range of adjustment and worked well. I used an old bolt on downtube shifter.

[MORNE]

don't listen to @NotSoBigBen, he's the obvious philistine here....resistant to asking "why not?", instead opting for "why" 

 

Who cares about what OTHER people think about YOUR bike.

Do what you want, thats when cool things happen and sheeple eventually follow...because they are inherently suckers for peer pressure 😈

sounds like a cool project.

I'm the same in many ways. Sometimes it's the challenge and chase of making it work mechanically that drives my decision making. If you aren't a tinkerer...you wont get it. 

[NotSoBigBen]

As @MORNE  says I'm not a 'tinkerer' so best to just ignore my comments ...

[Adrian Parkinson]

7 minutes ago, MORNE said:

Who cares about what OTHER people think about YOUR bike.

Do what you want, thats when cool things happen and sheeple eventually follow...because they are inherently suckers for peer pressure 😈

Probably not because no one ever follows my ideas. But I don't care, I do them for me, not for anyone else.

Has anyone here had any recent experience with ordering stuff from China? How good are the chances of things actually being delivered? I had a book on the way from the US that according to the tracking has just been sitting in the Durban sorting office for weeks and I don't want the same thing to happen with a more expensive component.

[MORNE]

5 minutes ago, Adrian Parkinson said:

Probably not because no one ever follows my ideas. But I don't care, I do them for me, not for anyone else.

Has anyone here had any recent experience with ordering stuff from China? How good are the chances of things actually being delivered? I had a book on the way from the US that according to the tracking has just been sitting in the Durban sorting office for weeks and I don't want the same thing to happen with a more expensive component.

use aramex global shopper....and not SAPO

[dev]

Ordered hubs on alibaba Monday 21 March, shipping from China via Aramex.  Delivered this morning, 31 March.