News

Freak Of The Week

March 2, 2009

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In a kind of reverse of Singletrack Magazine’s ‘Bike P0rn’ feature, we present ‘Freak of the Week’ bikes…
And to start us off is a creation from Fred Williams’ Cycles. Given a few idle days and some sprockets, the mentalists there couldn’t resist seeing what they could come up with with a chain guide and an extra long chain…

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For more on the world of the unbalanced singlespeeder, have a look at the 1FGear website.

 

Apparently, there’s also a track version of this that has already done a few laps of the Manchester Velodrome under Rob Hayles. Suggestions on how exactly it works are welcome below (we reckon we’ve worked it out)… Enjoy your Monday.

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Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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31 thoughts on “Freak Of The Week”

  5. I think ‘just because we can’ is probably the answer to that Michael. You’ve probably never spent a quiet, wet Tuesday afternoon in a bike shop. Things tend to get crazy…

  6. “is it one of those bikes where you pedal backwards and you can climb hills in a lower gear?”

    That’s exactly what it is. One of the freewheels is reversed so whichever way you’re pedalling, one freewheel is engaged while the other ‘freewheels’.

  9. You slow your forward pedalling motion until you are no longer pedalling, and then either immediately or after a delay of your chosen length, you begin to pedal backwards.

  11. A far as I can work it out both free wheels are normal in the way that they rotate and you can freewheel just like normal. If you pedal backwards you get an easier gear. Pretty simple really. Might be fun over bumps with the chain coming off the chainring at two very different angles and no guide to keep it in place.

  13. I know exactly the thought process leading to something like this..
    “You’ve probably never spent a quiet, wet Tuesday afternoon in a bike shop. Things tend to get crazy…”
    Yup, many a time… Weirder things than this have come out.. DIY quill seatposts and so on

  15. I’ve seen Rob Hayles use that (or at least, a track bike similarly equipped) at Manchester Velodrome, it took a couple of minutes for me to work out why it looked odd!

  19. Now I think about it, I kind of like it. The statement “one of the freewheels is reversed” threw me – actually the chain direction to the inner fw is reversed. So, if you’re pedalling fast enough to engage the outer fw then you drive that. Stop pedalling and both fws fw. Pedal back fast enough to engage the inner fw and you drive that. With a bigger difference in fw sizes it’s worth a go for shits and giggles….
    Cheers, al.

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