Components help

[Grldtnr]

Thanks guys. The rear changer is the one that bothers me most, also I wanted to get a bar end mirror in there. Changer's a bit scuffed up (not me honest, I haven't come off.........yet) and it's hard to see any markings on it. I'll have another look at utube.
What mirrors does anyone use? I'm used to a nice big Mirrycle bar end mirror.

I use motorcycle bar end mirrors on my Azub Tri-tris, they are cheaper, stronger,and come as a pair, the way the gear/ brake levers are fitted to the bars made it relatively easy to buy the motorcycle bar end mirrors on, I will try to post a pic, but I never been successful before.

[Grldtnr]

Hello everyone, my first post.
After 60+ years of cycling I've bought a StreetMachine GT. So, all sorts of new learning on the go !
My machine has 3 up front and 7 at the back (shimano) operated by bar end friction shifters. With all the strangeness I'm dealing with the changers are just a bit too much faff.
Is there some sort of indexed or trigger shifter that will work for me on my underseat bars?
Also I have a hardshell seat with a new Ventisit pad I've bought. Think it'll work but I need a head/neck support. 'Cos I'm a short buttock the back of my head is just below the top of the seat.
Anyone got any pointers.
Thanks in advance.
Ben

Regards gearing, I run a single ring up front, with a Sturmey 3 SPD /derailleur on the rear ,CS-RK3, the advantage is you can change down to a low ration if coming to a unplanned stop, if you do that on conventional set up , you are sometimes in too high a gear to pull away,, you have to get off or somehow change to smaller rings, not always easy.
The SA hub is easy to index, but you need compatible trigger shift, which does work , if you buy from Sturmey Archer.

[Beninwales]

Ok, time to come clean. I need to keep the 7speed freewheel and 3 upfront for two reasons.
1 It's very hilly here in West Wales.
2 I'm going to be fitting a hub motor to the rear wheel - I know, take me out and shoot me now However, in my defence, I am 70 and trying to ride something totally new to me.

[a.twiddler]

Interesting that you are considering going electric. I used to live in West Wales in the years when I did my most intensive cycling so I know where you're coming from. Whichever way I went from my front door I was confronted with a climb. Where ever I went there were hills. I was never the world's most powerful climber so I used the technology of the time to fix myself up with a good set of low gears. This was before the era of mountain bikes with off the shelf low gearing. I found that I could twiddle up just about anything. I became a twiddler from then on.
I was 68 when I bought my Linear LWB and as it turned out it was a good if accidental choice. After a period of adjustment and adaptation it suits me well. My familiarity with low gearing fitted in well with the way you ride a recumbent. As you can't stand on the pedals to give yourself a boost if you find yourself in the wrong gear, you tend to change down well before you would on a diamond frame bike, and spin the pedals more. I will be 71 soon, and had Idly considered electrification for the future myself. Living in Cheshire it is by no means flat but it doesn't compare with the hilliness of Wales. With a gear range of 17.5 to 110 I can get up most things. I can certainly pedal up extreme slopes where the forward speed falls below what is needed to maintain steering. This is where a boost might be useful, to maintain steerage way.

I don't know what your gear range is but I would suggest holding off adding electric power until you've ridden it a bit, got comfortable with it and sorted out your adjustments. It'll be a very different beast from what you're used to, and it will be different again with the changed weight distribution and responses when electrified.

[Grldtnr]

Interesting that you are considering going electric. I used to live in West Wales in the years when I did my most intensive cycling so I know where you're coming from. Whichever way I went from my front door I was confronted with a climb. Where ever I went there were hills. I was never the world's most powerful climber so I used the technology of the time to fix myself up with a good set of low gears. This was before the era of mountain bikes with off the shelf low gearing. I found that I could twiddle up just about anything. I became a twiddler from then on.
I was 68 when I bought my Linear LWB and as it turned out it was a good if accidental choice. After a period of adjustment and adaptation it suits me well. My familiarity with low gearing fitted in well with the way you ride a recumbent. As you can't stand on the pedals to give yourself a boost if you find yourself in the wrong gear, you tend to change down well before you would on a diamond frame bike, and spin the pedals more. I will be 71 soon, and had Idly considered electrification for the future myself. Living in Cheshire it is by no means flat but it doesn't compare with the hilliness of Wales. With a gear range of 17.5 to 110 I can get up most things. I can certainly pedal up extreme slopes where the forward speed falls below what is needed to maintain steering. This is where a boost might be useful, to maintain steerage way.

I don't know what your gear range is but I would suggest holding off adding electric power until you've ridden it a bit, got comfortable with it and sorted out your adjustments. It'll be a very different beast from what you're used to, and it will be different again with the changed weight distribution and responses when electrified.
[/q
Wise words Twiddler ,but I live on the flat earth of East Anglia, I have dabbled with electrics but found they are not for me, aesthetic reasons mainly of being on a bike, I found myself racing around everywhere ,drunk on my sheer power & speed !.
I appreciate the OP wanting retain, the clanger up front,& the changer at the back, but if it were me ,I'd probably choose a bottom bracket motor mounted in the chain set, and a hybrid hub / derailleur in the rear, to maintain the ease of use/ rapid down shift of the gearing, with 'Power aguementation' not having multiple chainrings isn't so important,, the weak point will be the chain, it's awfully long, and a lot of torque will be going through it, for that reason a hub drive front or back would likely be best, a front hub drive perhaps , then you would have a 2 -wheel drive bike!

[Beninwales]

I agree, having the extra torque of a crank drive motor going through such a long chain is not appealing. Plus, in my experience, crank motors are not as reliable as hub drives.
The bike has a son dynamo in the 20" front wheel. Not sure of the weight distribution on the GT, but have ridden a standard bike with front hub and know that they are prone to scrubbing on hills with greasy or loose surfaces. You stand or lean forward to combat this. Also a motor in such a small wheel tends to lead to radial spokes which never looks right and, I would think, would give a harsher ride.
So that leads to the rear hub. Motor is around 160mm diameter so no bigger than the disc fitted. Have already selected the motor for rev range and torque for hill climbing.
Reason I'm here is because I realised that there are a lot of 'non standard' things about the equipment on a bent. So I came to tap into the experience and product knowledge of those who jumped a lot earlier.

[hercule]

I’ll also chip in that I’m thinking of putting a front wheel motor on my Fuego… we have some really steep hills locally that simply induce panic in me as I have repeatedly stalled on them and fallen over. Fortunately though narrow traffic is very rare. I already have the motor, controller, and battery fitted to my Kettwiesel, that hasn’t worked as well as I’d hoped as lightly laden front wheel means I have to turn down the assistance on hills as otherwise it just spins. On the flat the Fuego rolls easily above the 15.5mph assistance limit so I suspect the motor is only going to be running some of the time… at my current level of bike fitness it’s hard to get the Kett up to those sorts of speeds.

[Grldtnr]

I’ll also chip in that I’m thinking of putting a front wheel motor on my Fuego… we have some really steep hills locally that simply induce panic in me as I have repeatedly stalled on them and fallen over. Fortunately though narrow traffic is very rare. I already have the motor, controller, and battery fitted to my Kettwiesel, that hasn’t worked as well as I’d hoped as lightly laden front wheel means I have to turn down the assistance on hills as otherwise it just spins. On the flat the Fuego rolls easily above the 15.5mph assistance limit so I suspect the motor is only going to be running some of the time… at my current level of bike fitness it’s hard to get the Kett up to those sorts of speeds.

As I divulged earlier, I'd given up on electrical assistance, purely on the fact I can ride at 15 mph, so negated the point of it, but when I was working the night shift, it took me home at 15 mph, with just lazy pedalling on the pedals, after a long shift, last thing I wanted was to be wide awake and not so bushey tailed, trying to get some sleep!
That's where I found it good, to have a motor, it depends on your choice of motor , there are 2 basic types to choose from , one sensed when your pedalling, and depending on how your power setting was , powered you along as long as you turned the pedals it powered the bike, the other system was/ is more natural , it reacts to your input and gave assistance, these are fitted to centre drive/ bottom bracket motors, mostly the hub drives were the emotion sensed, the centre drives were mostly Torque sensor , probably the hub drive is the one to choose for recumbents.
Perhaps best to look at the pedelec/ electric forum on this site.

[UpWrong]

The SA hub is easy to index, but you need compatible trigger shift, which does work , if you buy from Sturmey Archer.

The SA hub uses a standard Shimano MTB shifter, unlike the SRAM dual-drive.

[UpWrong]

I agree, having the extra torque of a crank drive motor going through such a long chain is not appealing. Plus, in my experience, crank motors are not as reliable as hub drives.
The bike has a son dynamo in the 20" front wheel. Not sure of the weight distribution on the GT, but have ridden a standard bike with front hub and know that they are prone to scrubbing on hills with greasy or loose surfaces. You stand or lean forward to combat this. Also a motor in such a small wheel tends to lead to radial spokes which never looks right and, I would think, would give a harsher ride.
So that leads to the rear hub. Motor is around 160mm diameter so no bigger than the disc fitted. Have already selected the motor for rev range and torque for hill climbing.
Reason I'm here is because I realised that there are a lot of 'non standard' things about the equipment on a bent. So I came to tap into the experience and product knowledge of those who jumped a lot earlier.

What motor? What is the hub spacing? Most are 140/142mm so you need to force the chain stays wider to fit. Some electric hub motors will accept a cassette rather than a freewheel.

[Beninwales]

It'll be an AKM128. According to the spec this has a hub spacing of 135.5mm. It is a freewhweel version, and is a geared hub.
The bike currently has a motor fitted (the last owner used it for commutting) but it is a Dillenger direct drive. Great for high speed on the flat but too inefficient for hill climbing. Also way too fast for me, on the stand the motor is registering 45kph on top assist setting. So as well as being illegal it's a big, black, obvious dinner plate of a motor, whereas the AKM is only 144mm, so smaller than the rear disc.
Any way all the technicals have been discussed at length on Pedelcs here:
https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/thread ... ion.45129/

[hercule]

There’s a lot more weight on the front wheel of a SWB recumbent so I wouldn’t anticipate that wheel scrub would be much of a problem with a front hub motor. My investigations also suggest that 135mm OLN hub motors are not too hard to find…

[UpWrong]

The Woosh XF08C is misdescribed as 135mm when it isn't. The Bafang motors I have looked at have all been wider too.

[Beninwales]

Having finally had time, I've just tried setting up the rear changer only to find, that when set to SIS, it is indexed for 5 speed.
So I've re-set to friction, which I really don't like, and I'm now in the market for a 7 speed bar end changer. Looks like it's going to have to be 8 speed and restricted.

[Beninwales]

Just been for a 'round the block' tootle near home and I've realised a few things.
Replacing the front 140mm disc with a 160 and new pads was a really good move - it's epic.
The Dillinger motor is definitly NOT a hill climber.
My left thigh is still hitting my thumb, despite having moved the bars significantly to the left. Not sure what's going on.
I need a new set of muscles