30
HP
Velotechnik
Gear system
With the gear system you can adjust the ped-
aling frequency, i.e. means the number of revo-
lutions 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 retrofit the
gear range to your style of riding.
Your GrassHopper 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 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.
It is not possible to index the left lever so that
you have to adjust the front derailleur while
shifting 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 and
struggling with your balance.
You may only change the gears while you keep
pedaling, smoothly and without applying great
force, all the time that the chain is moving be-
tween 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 neces-
sary to select a gear and turn it back to the in-
dexed 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 with the smallest chain ring (the biggest
rear sprocket), the middle gears with the mid-
dle chain ring and the highest (fastest) gears
with the biggest chain ring.
The setup of the chain rings and sprocket
leads to an overlap of some gears.This means
that different combinations of chain rings and
sprockets can result in the same gear. It would
be possible to arrange a gear system so that
double gears do not occur but this requires 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
Danger!
Do 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 dan-
gers.