Handling instructions
23
HP
Velotechnik
28
Gear system
With the gear system you can adjust the ped-
aling frequency, i.e. the number of revolutions
of the crank per minute, to the terrain and the
desired speed.
Your pedaling frequency should stay between
80-100 revolutions per minute and not fall be-
low 60 while going uphill. If necessary consult
your local dealer and have him adapt the gear
range to your style of riding.
Your Gekko fx comes standard with a de-
railleur gear or with a internal hub gear sys-
tem.The following section refers to the de-
railleur gear system only. Please also refer to
the manual of the gear manufacturer.
You operate the gear changer with the grip-
shifters or bar end shifters on the handlebars.
The right lever for the rear derailleur has an
index derailleur system that positions the
chain always on the chosen sprocket, so that
you don't have to "search" for the gears.
The left barend shifter is not indexed so you
have to adjust the front derailleur while shift-
ing by slightly moving the shifter to stop the
front derailleur from dragging against the chain
while pedaling.
Riding a recumbent requires foresighted gear
shifting. Before stopping you should timely
change in a low gear to make it easy to start
off again, without having to pedal heavily.
You should only change the gears while you
keep pedaling, smoothly and without applying
great force, all the time that the chain is mov-
ing between the sprockets.
Due to the long cables that expand under
pressure and the housing that compresses un-
der pressure it may be helpful for changing
gears quickly to turn the bar end shifter a little
bit farther than necessary to select a gear and
turn it back to the indexed position once the
chain has properly shifted ("overshift").
When the chain length has been properly ad-
justed you can choose every combination of
front chain rings and rear sprockets to shift
gears. However, it is useful to ride the lowest
gears (the biggest rear sprocket) with the
smallest chain ring, the middle gears with the
middle chain ring and the highest (fastest)
gears with the biggest chain ring.
The setup of the chain rings and sprockets
leads to an overlap of some gears.This means
that different combinations of chain rings and
sprockets can result in the same gear ratio. It
would be possible to arrange a gear system so
that double gears do not occur but this re-
quires a lot of concentration when you shift
gears while riding, since you will always have to
change the rear sprockets as well as the front
chain rings. If you would like to change the set-
up of your gears please consult your local
dealer.
Gear system
Caution!
Under no circumstances allow the
trike to roll back while changing the rear
gears, or try to pull the trike backwards
when the gear shifter lever has been moved,
as this will damage the rear derailleur.
Danger!
Practice shifting gears on a traffic-
free street. In the course of this make your-
self familiar with the functioning of the bar
end shifters. Doing this in traffic could dis-
tract your attention from possible dangers.
