the Way of the Turtle

A LITTLE WORK ON THE FAT BIKE...
Monday, January 9, 2017

Tonight I swapped out my Shimano megarange freehweel (which has a 34 tooth lowest gear for easier climbing) for a Sunrace 8 speed freewheel, also with a 34T low gear. I did this because the Shimano has a large jump between the two lowest gears (24 to 34) where the Sunrace has a 28T cog in between. The tradeoff is I won't be able to use the highest gear... but I've never used that anyway.

While I had the rear wheel off I noticed the hubs were pretty tight, so I loosened them up and gave them a good shot of grease, and the wheel seems to be spinning much more readily. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to find myself using some of those higher gears after all... I really wanted to take it out for a test ride, but hopping on the bike at 7:30 at night when the windchill is down in single digits just doesn't seem like a good idea... especially since I'd need to drive for 20 minutes or so to get to a trailhead that I can access at night.

Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday I can test out the results of tonight's work...

JMH