Snoek Velomobile: Front Derailleur tuning and tricks

Front derailleurs are the most efficient way to get the very wide range of gearing necessary for velomobile use by ordinary mortals. The reason is that we climb much slower than we would on road bikes (I know this well). But we descend much faster than road bikes too (also know this well). So we need an expanded range of gears, but we use regular bike parts. The front derailleur therefore needs to cope with two chainrings of very different sizes (one much larger than what it's designed for).

[@whiltondilton54321]

Practical maintenance knowledge derived from hard won field experience, well displayed in the video. Thank you. I wonder if the missing cable ends wind up on the Isle of Lost Luggage?

[@shenzhenpingpong]

I’ve not found one, but I open the bottom access panel often, so I guess they fall out without me noticing. Thank you for the kind words!

[@VeloQuest]

4:34 on a chainring i have a few teeth are like that. i always wonderd why because its a single ring but it has to make shifting easyer.

[@shenzhenpingpong]

Yes. The other thing that's important to have for good shifting when the chainrings differ widely in size is the guard on one side of the chainring to prevent overshifting.

[@KarlOnSea]

On my Alpha 7 (65:39 rings, IIRC), I basically have all eleven gears on the big ring, but just the biggest sprocket on the small ring as the rear mech can't take up the slack for anything smaller. BUT... on the small ring, the chain guide sprocket is positioned such that the chain still rubs against the big ring. Without resorting to dramatic (Dremmel and carbon fibre modifications) is there anything I can do about this??

[@shenzhenpingpong]

One way is to space the inner ring a bit further inwards using chain ring bolt spacers. Another way is to move the entire BB shell further forwards. Then you get a bit less angle. Or a combination of both. I've tried all of these.