Any threads about adding gears to a bike?

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Bendix Blue Bands are pretty rad, with the overdriv planet, but they seem to be mostly (or maybe even only) available as 28h

I've only seen 28h blue bands. Like you said they have a 1:1 gear and a 1.5:1 overdrive, that being the case they were designed for 20" bikes (hence the need for only 28h). But, a yellow band kickback has the same internal design as the blue but with 36h shells and .67:1 and 1:1 gearing like the older red bands (for 26" wheel bikes). I took the big overdrive blue guts and installed them in a 36h yellow shell, then laced it to a 26" wheel. The result was a standard 1:1 gear and the massive 1.5:1 overdrive with a big wheel. Tons of fun if you live in a flat area, but it turned out to be pretty useless on a 50lb bike once I moved to Seattle :)
Some other details about the old kickbacks, I've found the red bands to have superior braking compared to the blue/yellow hubs. Also, the axles aren't threaded all the way through on red bands (they are on blue/yellow). When the shift mechanism spring thingy wears out, it gets locked into top (1:1) gear. To disassemble a red band you have to shift it into low gear, which is impossible with the worn shift mech, so you end up cutting the axle to get the thing taken apart. Fun! So if you rebuild a red band, it's smart to put a fully threaded axle in there.
 
Apparently, they offered 36h Blue Bands s an aftermarket item but the OEM Blues were all 28h, if you bought a bike equipped with a Blue it was typically a 20" wheel...
 
I found a used Shimano internal gear hub seven speed. I'm retrofitting my beach cruiser bicycle with it. One challenge I ran into is that the gear ratio needs to be changed. I'm going down from a 46 beach cruiser crank set in the front to a 40 tooth. I also had to increase the rear sprocket from the one that came with it that was very small to a larger one. I may even have to go out and buy a rear one that's a 22 tooth sprocket.
 

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