[Yak] Rolf Prima Accel 406's

[alex wetmore]

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, John S. Allen wrote:
> At 17:52 8/1/2005, bikefridaywalter wrote:
>> The real bummer part about those wheels is that they use a standard rear 
>> hub, which means to make for an overall fast ride, you ideally need to use 
>> large chainrings which shift really really poorly.
>
> Is that necessarily so? Why would they have to shift poorly? I have had a 
> 58-52-34 (with a 14-17-21-26-32 sprockets -- half-step gearing, front-drive 
> -- this is old stuff!) on my big-wheel tandem, 
> http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/tandphot.htm and it shifted well. The trick 
> was to add thin washers to adjust the spacing between the chainwheels so that 
> the chain falls directly over the next chainwheel when shifting.

It is true with modern front indexed systems.  They are designed for
very specific gearing to get the best shifting.  If you want to use
STI you'll get the best results if you use the chainrings that come
with the crank and a matching front derailleur and shifter.

You can make it work if you use barend shifters or Campy Ergo or other
non-indexed front shifting (which I prefer to indexed front shifting
anyway).  My NWT has 56/46/32 chainrings and shifts as well as any of
my other bikes.  I use an 11-28 cassette to get a 97" top gear and 22"
low gear.  In an ideal world I'd have a slightly higher top gear, but
I rarely use the one that I have anyway.

The large outer chainring does require me to remove the crank to pack
the bike.

alex