Adding gears to an Adam's Trail-A-Bike
05-28-20, 06:56 PM
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Adding gears to an Adam's Trail-A-Bike
Hello all,
We recently purchased a folding Adam's Trail-A-Bike single speed and while my child loves it they also want to feel like they are doing something and the single speed gear doesn't seem to really engage unless we are going rather slow not chugging along at 10-12mph.
So I would like to add gearing to help them feel more engaged with the ride.
Have any of you done this before? Did it work in the end or was it a bust?
We recently purchased a folding Adam's Trail-A-Bike single speed and while my child loves it they also want to feel like they are doing something and the single speed gear doesn't seem to really engage unless we are going rather slow not chugging along at 10-12mph.
So I would like to add gearing to help them feel more engaged with the ride.
Have any of you done this before? Did it work in the end or was it a bust?
05-28-20, 07:18 PM
#2
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I've seen trail style bikes with gearing so, why not?
05-28-20, 09:43 PM
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I'd considered it but decided it wasn't worth the cost. 1 big issue is the width of the frame which I believe measured 120mm, so old fashioned 5sp will work. Plus side is that cheap old 5 speed hubs are available NOS, I ended up with a pair of steel ones for 5 bucks each in 28h. If you go this route I can ship one. Course this means needing a 28h 20" rim which can be gotten somewhat affordably through bmx sites and then building it. Doing it myself was going to be 50.00 for a wheel, 15 for shifters, 15 for freewheel and another 5 for cable housing. So not too bad, if you can't build the wheel then it goes up a lot. Other option was 3sp internal, these are available prebuilt for folding bikes and can be adapted, sure reliable but even cheap was well over 100. Maybe if I'd done it with the first kid but mine have all been content to freeload and get off as quickly as possible so never really got around to more then just a hub.
