Change to gears

[TPMB12]

My current recumbent has a 52/39/32 i think triple with a 12/32 or 34 cassette,  8 or 9 speed I think. I will need to check on that.

My issue is I'm not using the top end but am struggling on hills especially with a trailer. It's my main tourer and this year I may well be towing a dog in a trailer too.i doubt my lowest gear willbe low enough for a full load.  I managed a steep hill with trailer but it was short, sharp and much longer is have needed to walk! For me that's bad news.

What is it best option? How will it need adjusting, the chain length,  dérailleurs, etc?

I've recently had a full refurb so chain's,  cassette, chainrings  cables, etc are all brand new and with very low mileage on them. Maybe 4 or 5 short rides that's all.

I'm guessing lower to a 48 big ring or similar and drop low to 30 or less small ring. Then get a 12 to 34 or 36 if it'll take it.

Can I just change the chainrings or how much other adjustments are needed? What's your opinion on what I should do?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Swap the small ring to a 26t. A 24t ring is at bigger risk of chucking the chain off. A Jumpstop or similar would be good. Changing the big ring might cause more troubles than it solves. When touring, you’d mostly be in the middle ring anyway.

[TPMB12]

Thanks. Will it need much playing around with the cable or derailleur? I've always stuck with what the bike came with except once going to a 32 from 25 big cog on the cassette

[PaulM]

Assuming you have a 74/130 crankset, then changing rings to 26/38/48 will work nicely. Otherwise go with a cheap as chips Spa XD-2 74/110 crankset with rings of your choosing.

For the rear, most old 9-speed RDs won't play nicely with more than 34T. I like 9-speed, 12-36 cassettes but they need a shadow RD.

[Lightning Phil]

What make and model of crank do you have, and do you know the make and models of your FD and RD?  I run 24/32/46 up front on my recumbent but it’s a mountain bike crank with 64/110BCD. I suspect you have a road crank with 74/130BCD.

[Tigerbiten]

The max capacity of a long cage rear derailleur is around 48 teeth.
So splitting it 50/50 front/back with a triple gives you something like 48/36/24 front and 12-36 9 block on the back.
That gives you a 6x range, so roughly 18"-108" range with a 27" back wheel without any nasty big steps in the range.
Some things to think about.....
Your most commonly used gears are probably in the 40"-80" range.
Try not to get an extra wide step between gears in that range.
I think an ideal touring setup has twice as many gears below 40" as above 80", not counting overlap/duplicate gears.

You can go for a wider range but you then probably need to add hub gears into the mix.

Luck ........... 

[TPMB12]

This is all adding complexity that if I'm honest I'm not the sort to get that deep into. Embarrassed smellie!

Bottom line,  assume stock kit on a streetmachine gt from 20 years ago in terms of crank length, dérailleurs, etc. What chainring and cassette setup would fit someone who's coming back into recumbent riding but has not got the legs in yet who will be touring fully loaded,  possibly with dog in a towed trailer,  in Scotland?

I'm thinking 18 gear inches at the bottom and freewheel down hills. So long as I don't run out of gears on flat or undulating cruising speed the bottom end is more important. Bear in mind my touring is with family. 9 year old and my partner who is even slower than the 9 year old! It is likely that we'll be cruising at 8 to 10mph tops!

I can ride with what I have but I don't want to wreck my legs on hills. I don't give up so will grind it out. I once had to cycle on mull with my big chainring at 50 with an 11 to 25 cassette.  I rode all those hills on not even 50 to 25 because that didn't run with cross chain issues. Fully loaded with a single wheel trailer on my upright.

I don't want that struggle which I'm feeling a little with these gears.  So if anyone can keep it simple for me and suggest best gearing option I'd very much appreciate it. As they say on reddit, ELI5!

[Kim]

IIRC my Streetmachine has 26-36-50 and a 10-speed 11-36 cassette.  Short cranks, so the gain ratio isn't as impressive as the gear inches might imply.  That's right on the limit of what the front mech will tolerate, and the chain (sized so that big:big works without drama) goes slack in small:small.

You can stay in the middle ring for most normal riding.  Granny ring only usually comes into play when luggage or knee problems are involved.

The big jump between the middle and big ring can be a bit clunky, but is okay with friction shifting.  As well as descending gears it gives more intermediate ratios for windy flatlands.


It's a touring bike: Get the bottom end as low as you can balance, and go up as far as is reasonably practical (but you want to avoid too many front shifts in normal riding).  No point in pedalling above 30mph.

Stainless steel 26T granny ring would be a good start...

[cycleman]

The lowest I can currently get on tricon trike which is 26" wheeled is 44-32-22 with a 11-36 9 speed cassette. Apparently the 9 speed rear mech cannot cope with a bigger cassette than a 36 tooth. The  bigger cassettes are only 10 speed compatible and will only work with a single chainring. That's more expensive and will wear out quickly. So much for modern cycling technology 🙄

[Mr Larrington]

Puzzled as to why these new-fangled side-plate-sized cassettes and accompanying disraelis only claim to work with a single chainring.  Doubly so on a recumbent where the cranks are usually in a different postal district.

[Kim]

Lack of take-up capacity, presumably.  But you can usually take liberties with that sort of thing onna 'bent.

[Blodwyn Pig]

One could of course get the rear wheel rebuilt around a Sturmey Archer 3 speed cassette hub, plus 3 up front. That would give one a multiplissimo of gears, for relatively little outlay, coupled with much more favorably priced cassettes of say 12/32 flavour. I believe  SJS were selling them.
OR fit the 3 speed cassette hub, and either run one ring up front, as low as you want, or two rings, and change manually when needed, by moving the chain tube by hand, as the front lever will be working the hub.

[Tigerbiten]

You don't need to go for something as complex as a SA hub.
It's a bike not a trike, so you're not going to balance it with a first gear much below 20".
If you don't intend to pedal downhill fast then a top gear of around 100"-120" is fine, The slower our natural cadence then the more towards the top of this range I'd go.
This gives you roughly a 6x range which is easy to do with a MTB triple and a wide cassette.

The backs easy.
I think the best wide 9 speed cassette is the 12-36 one as all the steps between the gear are fairly even. This makes the effort needed to go from one gear to the next very predictable.
The only downside is you may need to use something like a Roadlink/Goatlink mech extender to use the 36t sprocket.

The fronts a bit more tricky.
Find your BCD and use this page -> https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-bcd.html to find the minimum size of chainring that will fit you spider.
Ideal would be something like of 50-38-26.
If you want to workout the minimum inner chainring then the chain drops by 2mm per tooth reduction.
Put the chain on the small chainring and measure the gap between it and the bottom of the cage.

In theory you can use an 11-42 cassette with a sub-compact double.
But it gives no greater range than the above setup.
Plus I think the best 11-42 cassette is the SRAM 11 speed.
So more hassle than it's worth.

Luck .............