D-tek

[PloddinPedro]

I’d second Kim’s comment. Kevin is basically a ‘one-man-band’ sort of operation and has as a consequence to be very careful to conserve his time. If he had an ‘all-singing-all-dancing’ website and regular contact avenue, he’d spend all day chatting to enquirers and never be able to get anything done. On top of that, he has to spend a lot of time travelling far and wide collecting and delivering things.
 
He’d be the first to say - and he’s said it to me more than once - that if you know exactly what you want, you may as well go direct. Kevin most definitely is NOT a ‘bike shop’. However, if you need any help or knowledgeable direction, plus a high degree of helpfulness, he’s your man. I got my new ICE trike through him and it didn’t actually take any longer nor cost any more than going direct, plus I got a lot of helpful advice re. the odds and sods, little extras, etc. that I might not have thought of.
 
I’ve found over time that it never hurts to build good relationships with genuine enthusiasts in the bike trade, especially people with the knowledge that Kevin has.

[Quint]

I'll second and third that 

[loadsabikes]

Kevin had obviously checked his missed calls from Saturday because he rang me yesterday.
We had a very positive and useful chat.
I shall book a visit for further discourse and test riding before making a final decision and order.
I think the plan will be an Ice Sprint with a Rohloff drive train.

[Quint]

Kevin had obviously checked his missed calls from Saturday because he rang me yesterday.
We had a very positive and useful chat.
I shall book a visit for further discourse and test riding before making a final decision and order.
I think the plan will be an Ice Sprint with a Rohloff drive train.

          He will sort you out, have you riding everything I found myself on a Kett to my amazement 

[Tigerbiten]

Kevin had obviously checked his missed calls from Saturday because he rang me yesterday.
We had a very positive and useful chat.
I shall book a visit for further discourse and test riding before making a final decision and order.
I think the plan will be an Ice Sprint with a Rohloff drive train.

If you're going to run a Rohloff, then I recommend that you also fit a Schlumpf High Speed Drive to extend the gear range.
A Rohloff is really a 7 speed drive with an internal x2.45 step down to give you the 14 gears.
This mates up well with the x2.5 step up of a HSD to give you a range of 21 unique gears.
On a 20" back wheel I tried both 32/16 for 10"-130" and 32/13 for 13"-170".
The first combo gave me silly low first gear but the shift into overdrive was around 14 mph which was to low.
The second combo lost the silly low first gear but gave me a better speed for the shift into overdrive at around 20 mph.
I've ended up by roughly combining the combos, so I now run 53/38 chainrings to a 21 tooth sprocket.
Gives me 9.5" to 172 in 24 steps.
The only main downside is the spider is held onto the HSD by a circlip, so it's possible to pop it off when shifting chainrings under load.
When I started useing twin rings, I was popping it off around once a month.
Now treating it as just another hub gear and not shifting under load then it's fine I haven't popped it off for over 8 months.
 

[loadsabikes]

Thanks for that Tiger, have you any photos of the set up!

[Kim]

There's also the option of keeping the triple chainring with a hub gear (obviously a tensioner is required), which is how I believe Auntie Helen's is set up.

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=49256.0  refers.

[loadsabikes]

That was my original plan Kim but all for discussion with Kevin when we meet.

[Kim]

I think that's how I'd do it.  Don't see the need for the Schlumpf unless you want Tigerbiten's insane never-know-what-gear-you're in range

Tensioner gumming up from lack of use is probably the main issue, especially if it's a derailleur.

[Tigerbiten]

I thought of using a triple but I could not get the range I wanted easily with a 20" back wheel.
The front MTB mech on my old Q worked with a 48/36/22 triple just fine.
But a Rohloff steps the gearing down to much so that even with a 13 tooth sprocket is just to low, 8.8"-101"
The best chainring combo I got with a 20" wheel was a 52/40/26 triple again with a 13 tooth sprocket, 10.4"-110".
But then you have the fun of first finding/building a triple with those chainrings and then seeing if a front road mech will work with it.
Plus being disable I was trying to only have one shifter on my handlebars, hence going with the Schlumpf drive.
Took a bit to work out what I think is the best combo of chainrings and sprocket.
Started with 30t-16t. First gear was low enough but the shift into overdrive was at just to low a speed, around 14 mph.
Then tried 30t-13t. The shift into overdrive was in the right speed range at around 20 mph but I'd lost the silly low first gear.
I now run a 53t-38t double chainrings on the Schlump and a 21 tooth sprocket on the Rohloff. I keep the silly low first gear and the shift into overdrive is now at the right speed.
Plus it's only a 3-4 gear change going into/coming out of overdrive not a full 7, one twist of the wrist not two, which makes shifting easier.
Also the front mech shifter only has to cope with a single shift, so sits in the bottom hole in the handle bars.
To shift to the large ring I twist it down and to shift back to the small ring I lift it up.
I've a Toxiholic full hight twist shifter for the Rohloff, unfortunately Rohloff has changed their design for the shifter so the Toxiholic design no longer works and is no longer built.

Ps:- If you're any where near Northampton and want to see/try my setup, let me know by dropping me a PM.

[loadsabikes]

I am not far from Northhampton, so will be in touch to check out your setup.

[Mr Larrington]

What I got:

Speedmachine (26" rear wheel): TA Zephyr chainset (20-36-48), 105 triple front mech, SRAM gripshifts.
Trice XXL (20" rear wheel): Shimano 105 chainset (24-38-52), Ultegra triple front mech, Dura-Ace bar-end shifters.  24T ring crept out of a box in the Sheds; it's steel and has been around on various machines for at least 25 years.

Both have one of those gadgets fitted that stop the chain from overshooting on the inside after a bollixed shift on the Trice left me wearing a Belgian roadie for a hat.

Iddu otp has, or had, a Trice Monster (26" rear wheel) with a Mountain Tamer - this is a gadget that attaches to a triple chainset with a 74 mm BCD inner and allows a cassette sprocket to be used as a fourth, very ickle, chainring.  No longer in production, and he had to modify the front dérailleur to make it all jbex.  Some diddling with the BB may also have been needed.

I'd much rather err on the low side as far as gears are concerned, at least as far as road use goes.  When the Trice's front mech got semi-b0rked by an errant chain side-plate I had to do rather more than half the Cheddar Gorge 300 with a 70" top gear and didn't really miss the high end.  I ran my Kingcycle for a Several of years with an 83" top.  Spinning helps; back in them days I'd run a three-digit cadence until there were no gears left.

[Tigerbiten]

I agree about going for low gears, hence my 9.5" bottom gear.
And because I can now reach 20 mph before I need the the overdrive, most of the time I don't use it.

But it's "FUN" being able to kick into overdrive and pedal slowly downhill at +40 mph ...........

[Auntie Helen]

My set-up gives me a very good gear range. Now I have the Alfine tensioner (rather than a SRAM derailleur one) it works much better and I don't expect it to gum up. It was only £16 anyway and an easy fit so can be replaced if necessary. I like my system very much now