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Gear system and chain
Handling of the gear system
With the gear system you can adjust the ped-
alling frequency, i.e. the number of revolutions
of the crank per minute, to the terrain and
the desired speed.
Your pedalling frequency should stay between
80 – 100 revolutions per minute and not fall
below 60 while going uphill. If necessary, con-
sult your local dealer and have him adapt the
gear range to your style of riding.
Your recumbent tricycle comes standard with
a derailleur gear or with an internal hub gear
system. The following section refers to the
derailleur 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 pedalling.
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.
Attention!
Under no circum-
stances allow the tricycle to roll back while
changing the rear gears, or try to pull the
tricycle backwards when the gear shifter
lever has been moved, as this will damage
the rear derailleur.
You should only change the gears while you
keep pedalling, 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 under 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 setup of your gears, please consult your
local dealer.
Danger!
Practice shifting gears
on a traffic-free street. In the course of this
make yourself familiar with the functioning
of the bar end shifters. Doing this in traffic
could distract your attention from possible
dangers.
