Islabikes CNOC 14 - geared conversion?

Anybody tried it or gearing it up with a 13t rear freewheel? My boy is spinning out on the flat already! A three speed hub gear would be cool.....

SP

In my experience at that age they don't understand gears anyway and will struggle along on whatever gear they happen to be in.

Splatter Paint":9xjuo9rd said:

Anybody tried it or gearing it up with a 13t rear freewheel? My boy is spinning out on the flat already! A three speed hub gear would be cool.....

SP

Click to expand...

Spinning is good. Its what won Lance all those Tourdy Frances

When I was a Kid my best mate of the time had 3 or 5 hub gears and it was great!
So I totally agree with your hub gears idea.
I was already thinking that I don't understand why Islabikes don't have an option for that.
I guess because they want them to be as light as possible?
This kind of gearing was very popular in Germany when i was young. For adults as well but very much so for Childerns bikes.

My 6 year old has 5 derailieur gears. He does not get it yet/finds it a pain to shift if it is in too hard a gear.
I think he would get hub gears, and even if he did not get it, we could just stop and i bend down and flick the switch rather than us both getting off and me changing gear for him.

Try German ebay? I think Sachs made them.
Not sure what braze on fittings they would require.

Since you got an islabike. Is the bottom bracket low enough for your child to comfortably put a foot down?
I find that the major limiting factor (rather than weight on) the bikes my Children have.

I don't see the point really. My son is 5 and has cnoc 16 and is now just starting to ride his 20" bike with 7 gears but is finding shifting difficult with gripshift. I would think younger children would find the concept hard to grasp as well as the strength to twist the shifter. Changing the freewheel would be better but then hills would be more difficult. If he's anything like my son he only rode the islabike for about a year before being big enough for the geared bike. I would also think trying to sort gears out on the bike could be difficult.

I agree on the gripshift being too heavy for small hands to shift, I swapped to a thumbie which my sons could grab in a whole hand if necessary.

Due to the compact nature of the frame on the Cnoc 14 and 16 there is no hub gear on the market which will fit correctly. Sturmey Archer manufacture a 3 speed hub gear which would theoretically fit into the wheel spacing on the bike, however the fixings required to accommodate it would impede the cranks. I'll try a 13t freewheel and see how he gets on.

SP

Re:

I've successfully converted my son's Islabike cnoc16 to 3 speed Sturmey Archer AW, you can view images and details on my blog (http://berniecook.blogspot.co.uk)

Excellent conversion!

hamster":qelvbkqb said:

I agree on the gripshift being too heavy for small hands to shift, I swapped to a thumbie which my sons could grab in a whole hand if necessary.

Click to expand...

My sons been perfectly fine with them, the 3.0 on the 20L* and 24 are really light to shift.





* anyone looking for one of these?