Cyclist30923

My Fito Madena came with a 44t chainring in the front matched with a Shimano 7 speed freewheel, 14 to 28t. After riding it a bit, I swapped out that way-too-big chainring with a Lucky 7 36t. This combo works way better for me, and I am able to use way more of the gears while maintaining much more consistent cadence and higher speeds. I would love to hear what others are using. Eventually I am planning to ditch the heavy one piece crank and install a lighter 3 piece alloy crank.

alloo

Is that cruising? Is that racing?

OldCruiser

I see nothing wrong with lowering the gearing on any bike .
I’ve swapped out chainrings , freewheels, and cassettes on several bike to lower the gearing .
On one of my Electra Cruiser 1’s I swapped out the rear cog for a 23 tooth . I spin out around 11mph , but climb hills without standing up .
IMO , Cruiser Bikes should be just that , an easy peddling cruising bike .
I love making Multi speed cruisers Out of mountain bikes because of the lower gearing .

FiftySix

My 21st century Schwinn Jaguar cruiser (wife's Jaguar, too) both came with a 46T chainring and a Shimano 7 speed rear with 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26.

My wife and youngest daughter actually cruise on the bike, usually in 3rd gear. Which is 46/21 or 56.8 gear inches with the 26 x 2.125 tires.

I rode my Jaguar for quick exercise, not cruising, with 5th gear my usual choice. Which is 46/17 or 70.2 gear inches with the same tires. Typical exercise speeds in that gear would be 15 to 16 mph according to the local street side radar speed signs.

That gear range works good around here because we have no hills, just wind.

Cyclist30923

Thanks for all the info everyone! The best gearing is what each of us prefer. The bottom line is that with proper gearing, beach cruisers do not have to be the slow, heavy bikes that weight weanies perceive them to be. With an alluminum frame and lower gearing, 20 mile rides at a brisk pace are pretty routine on my ride.

ed h

A while back on my Nirve 7 speed cruiser, redid the drivetrain for more usable gearing, as there quite some moderate to steep hills where I ride.
First to go was the mega range freewheel, the 1st to 2nd shift is quite a large gap. Went to 13-34 rear cassette and rims from an older MTB.
Up front did the one piece crankset conversion to a 34 tooth sprocket. Much better for climbing hills.

coopman

I like the simplicity of most of these bikes. I ride a Specialized Roll Sport with 21 gears and, with no hills in my area, end up only using 3-4 of them. The bike is over-equipped for my purposes.

xroadcharlie

The stock approx 41 - 82 gear inch (GI) range your bike came with does seem optimistic for a cruiser style bike. While I seldom use under 41 GI's on my Giant Sedona comfort bike becaues it's mostly flat here, It's good to have some down to the 33 GI's you get now for fighting brisk winds and climbing challenging hills.

My bike came with a 28/38/48T crankset and the Mega range freewheel ed h tossed, and understandably so. It's OK on my bike thanks to its 3 chainrings. But with only one chainring, Not vary practical. In fact that is one reason I didn't buy Giant's Cypress instead. I do like the simplicity of a single chainring, And the stock 42T unit on the Cypress with the mega range freewheel would give me 33 GI's too, But the next step up is 47 GI. WAY too much of a gap.

A 14 - 28 freewheel and a 38T chainring might have worked well for most of my rides giving me a 10 kph @ 60 rpm - 27 kph @ 80 rpm range.

coopman

True, we are all different and so are our riding situations. If I ever move to a place that has hills, I would probably appreciate having all those gears.

bicyclridr4life

My "main ride" these days is a Miami Sun (traditional) trike with the optional 7 speed (14 to 28 tooth) derailleur and rear disk brake.
It came with a 36 tooth chainring.
Because I usually have a "somewhat" heavy load (no, not me) and pull a garden/nursery cart with it, I changed out the 36 tooth chainring for a 28 tooth.
I want ro put on a 14-32 or 14-36 in back.

I'm hauling stuff; not racing. My racing days ended roughly 40 years before I was born.

On some of the hills with 250 pounds in the basket, and 1200 pounds in the lawn/garden cart (I wasn't even overloaded; my garden/nursey cart has a 1400 pound capacity) a 1:1 "granny" gear isn't low enough.

GeezyRider 

If your trike has a 7-speed spin-on freewheel, I think you will be limited to a max 34t cog. If it is a cassette, you will have more options.

fietsbob

2 speed kick back coaster hubs are great on cruisers 1st gets you started, up to 2nd, your cruising speed...

wayne2000

I have a single speed cruiser and I’m thinking my next one will be a 3 speed. Don’t really need more than that.

Jax Rhapsody

I wouldn't call a 44t big, much less "too big", they are typical of SS cruisers and rear multi geared ones. It's almost like the 3:73 of cruisers. A tad too slow for me, though. Last cruiser I got was a Nel Lusso and swapped the crank for the one on this old huffy hybrid I had with a I think 52/42 on it. Thing was almost as fast as the one I had years ago with a 62t crank. I swapped out the coaster for a freewheel. I have a bmx 3pc conversion saved for when I can build my DB Drifter1.

xroadcharlie

Recently I experimented using just 2 of my 21 gears on my comfort bike, 55 and 70 gear inches...the 38 and 48T chain rings w/18T rear cog. These 2 gears alone cover a huge territory from slow sidewalk cruising to quick cruising without spinning frustratingly fast. Keeping in mind speed is generally not a priority on comfort/cruiser style bikes.

3 properly spaced gears, perhaps the two I used plus a lower gear for challenging hills would be a huge improvement over a fixed gear without the complexity of derailleurs.

I had a 3 speed "Mustang" style bike when I was a kid. Loved that bike. Used 2nd much of the time, 1st for accelerating and climbing, 3rd with a tailwind.

rhenning

That is why my cruiser has a Bendix red band 2 speed hub. 46 teeth in the front and 19 in the back. Low gear is about a 2 to one reduction. Roger