Hub Gears in Everyday Use
- Traditional hub gears are indexed at the shifter making operation dependent on correct cable tension (and lubrication thereof). In practice, gear-jumping and consequent internal damage are unusual except in high-mileage units. Modern hub gear-units incorporate the indexing in the unit itself and are therefore unaffected by shifting malfunctions caused in this way.
- The Sturmey Archer and Fichtel & Sachs 'Torpedo' systems defaulted to top gear at slack-cable, which could make the bicycle usable for long distance travel in flat terrain even if a fault developed in the change mechanism (rather like a derailleur system, which can be manually set to a high gear in case of a similar fault). Some modern hub gear systems (e.g. 7-speed Shimano) default to bottom gear and are thus more dependent on the cable-pull.
Read more about this topic: Hub Gear
Famous quotes containing the words hub, gears and/or everyday:
“When I was growing up I used to think that the best thing about coming from Des Moines was that it meant you didn’t come from anywhere else in Iowa. By Iowa standards, Des Moines is a mecca of cosmopolitanism, a dynamic hub of wealth and education, where people wear three-piece suits and dark socks, often simultaneously.”
—Bill Bryson (b. 1951)
“Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)