HAMMERSCHMIDT, anyone ridden one??

jayson

Ive been saving for a while now and im hopin in the next couple weeks to go shopping for a new bike now the sales are appearing everywhere.

I thought i'd settled on a bike but then i took a ride over to my local Evans to have a look and they had a Felt Redemption in there that was reduced to £1500 which is a great price when its should be £3k. It has a hammerschmidt front transmission though which until that day i'd never even seen in the flesh let alone actually ridden so im torn between this or the other bike i was thinking of.

I fully intend to get over there again next week and see if they will let me have a spin on it to see whats what but in the meantime im afta some opinions of peeps that have actually ridden one and their views.

MacAndCheese

I rode a Coilair supreme at Bikeradar live with Hammerschmit and liked it, great for the extra clearance and the gear ratios worked well (I ride a double and bash anyway so used to only 2 cogs upfront). There is a very slight extra resistance in the harder gear but it really is hardly noticeable and the smaller gear felt just like a normal chainring to me.

EDIT - forgot to mention, shifting was very quick and crisp!

Almightydutch

I rode one at Bikeradar demo day in Cannock Chase. Supersmooth shifting, and great for chain tension but not sure if it justifies the extra cash over conventional mech's.

jayson

Thank Mac, Ive read alot of reviews and the slight drag in the big ring gear concerns me a little and the fact its roughly equivelant to a 36t ring when ive been riding 32 for a long time also bothers me a little.

Im hoping a ride will help me decide whether its actually worth a punt or not cos its great bike for that kind of money.

Is it actually possible to internally change the gearing to give a smaller gear than 36t does anyone know? from what ive seen of hammerschmidt its very complicated so prob not but u neva know if u dont ask

nicklouse

you have two cog sizes to chose from 22 and 24 that is the only changes possible

ratio info etc http://www.sram.com/truvativ/products/t ... m-crankset

jayson

I thought as much, maybe sram are actually workin on a 3 ring equivelant somewhere deep in their R+D labs....

Kiblams

So the chain is running at all times on a 22T chainring? Won't that wear down awefully quickly? :?

nicklouse

why its steel.

jayson

Kiblams wrote:

So the chain is running at all times on a 22T chainring? Won't that wear down awefully quickly? :?

Correct there is only 1 ring, all the witch craft goes on inside using planetry gears to give the other ratio.

Dont ask me to explain how it all works cos im not an engineer and a 'planetry gear system' sounds alien to me im afraid!!

MacAndCheese

Now I feel like a retard for saying "the smaller gear felt just like a normal chainring to me."...because it was...d'oh!!