Staton Inc Shift Kit

Sidewinder Jerry

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Mar 14, 2011
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Rockwood, TN
Well after 11 years of service I've decided to retire the auto shift LandRider. I did mods to the derailleur and it was working really good. However the hanger broke on the frame. It's a steel frame so I could repair it with a little welding. Still LandRider went out of business 5 years ago. So finding replacement parts without having to buy a whole bike has become difficult. Therefore I'm doing a new build using a Schwinn Sidewinder featuring a Staton triple chainring shift kit.

The set up will be as follows:
RS 35 engine.
18.75:1 reduction gearbox.
15:44 drive GB-SK
Chainrings 28,36,44
Custom built 7 speed 34-13 freewheel
(34,28,24,21,18,15,13).

Now I know immediately what many are thinking; "Why on earth would anyone want 21 gears?" The thing is you don't have 21 actual gears on a 3x7 drive system. What you have is 21 different combinations of gear selections. Several gear selections are actually redundant. So on a non motorized 3x7 cross 10 chainring group the proper way to shift is 1(1-4), 2(2-5), 3(4-7) for 12 non redundant gear ratios. Starting gears are 1(1) for stops going up hill; all other stops use 2(2). If a gear is to easy or to hard to comfortably maintain a cadence (crank rpm) of 70-90 it means the wrong gear. For pedal only bikes I recommend getting a bicycle computer with a heart rate monitor and cadence meter on it.

Still I'm going to reduce that even more and shift like this: 1(1-3), 2(3-5), 3(5-7) for 9 non redundant gear ratios. Steep hills and load pulling 1(1-3). General use around town up to 20 mph 2(3-5). Open road use 3(5-7). Starting gears use 1(1) for stops going up steep hills; all other stops use 2(3).

So now I know what the next train of thought is "Well why not just use a 1x7 like many shift kits do?" Well there's 2 major advantages to the system I'm building.

1) Wider reduction range

My old style with the auto shifter was a single 38t chainring driving the 7 speed 34-13 freewheel for a range of 49.21:1 to 18.82:1

The new set up will be 66.79:1 to 16.25:1. With such a small engine and I weigh 230 lbs along with living in the mountains a wide ratio range is needed. Though in the future I do plan to switch out the RS 35 engine with a Honda GXH 50 that I have.

2) Eliminates cross chaining.

Each chainring is only driving 3 rear sprockets that are most in line with them. The lateral stress and engine stress put on the chain on a 1x7 drive can really wear the chain and gears out quickly. I was able to slow this down some on the auto shift bike by using only steel chainrings instead of aluminum ones.

Here are some pictures and I'll be posting more soon. Notice the Staton Inc Shift Kit also uses a double freewheel system as well as allowing you to attach 3 chainrings. All chainrings are made of steel. The top 2 pictures was the old setup. The bottom 3 pictures is the new setup.

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