Retro-Direct gearing for bikes
10-speeds? fixed-gear? internal planetary transmission? there's another option that i'd never heard of or even thought of before:
The Retro-Direct arrangement has effectively 2 different speeds: one for when you are pedalling forwards, and one for when you pedal backwards. the design is over a hundred years old, and, uh, not in widespread production.
Pretty cool, though. This would make an interesting project to build.
That's an interesting idea fo
Submitted by dkg on Wed, 2005-08-31 00:59.
That's an interesting idea for exercise, hsk. i just hope yer not doing it on busy roads, though... hobbling around my apartment after the snake bite definitely gave me an appreciation for using muscles i wasn't terribly used to, but i've never tried to do the backwards thing. is this something you plan on keeping up?
good work on the rear brake of that bike, too! it's funny how often that sort of process clears up a problem. i recently "fixed" some computer RAM that way, actually.
As one who generally thinks 2
As one who generally thinks 2 bike speeds should be enough, I love this idea. For the inexperienced, however, I'm not sure that pedalling bkwds will be easy for very long.
In the past few weeks, I have experimented with WALKING bkwds. I did it up small hills both in Maine and Atlanta. The muscles employed are rather different from the conventional ones that help me walk fwd. I like the feeling of engaging muscles that don't usually get exercised. Interestingly, my back felt strangely relaxed and comfortable after about 5 min of uphill bkwds walking. But my thighs noticed a mild strain. With daily exposure, it has become much easier.
Let me know if you ever get working on this project.
(As for our Maine bikes, I "fixed" the remaining rear brake caliper simply by disassembling, cleaning, & reassembling it. Seemed to work fine afterwards......)