Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

VARIABLE GEAR DEVICES I2I a price for the convenience which the variable gear gives him—that is, on any position of the mechanism in which extra rotating working parts are brought into play, there is an increase in friction and a consequent loss of energy. On only one gear is the drive “ solid ” or, in other words, is it as direct as in the case of an ordinary fixed gear. All variable-gear devices give a free-wheel effect, and most of them give it in almost any position of the mechanism. In the coaster hub type, not only is there a free-wheel device, but there is also a self-contained brake automatically operated by a very slight back- ward pressure of the pedals. Recent years have seen the popularising of this type of brake, which has now been developed and brought to such a state of perfec- tion that complaints are few and far between, providing, of course, the hub is kept clean and well lubricated. Individual taste must be consulted as to the three gears preferred in a variable-gear device, but it may be helpful to say that 53, 70, and 93 give general satisfac- tion after the cyclist has become used to the two ex- tremes. The bottom gear is so low that there are very few hills on the open road in Great Britain that cannot be climbed by its means. When a two-speed gear is chosen, the normal gear should be that which the cyclist can best manage on an ordinary fixed-gear machine. Assuming it to be about 78 or 80, then the lower gear may be, say, 57. “Two-Speed” Yariable Gears.—The “Eadie” two- speed hub (Fig. 54) includes a free-wheel, but not a