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I bought used bike with words "gear mechanism is not working and set to 6th gear only". Ok, no problem. Riding was a bit harder, but fine for quadriceps :)

Later I had a flat tire on rear/back wheel. I took the wheel away, fixed the tire and when I was putting the wheel back, and idea occured: "Why do I need to keep this non-funcional gear mechanism? Let's get rid of it!"

And now... yes. Riding is very, very easy. Like I'm on the 1st gear. And I can be fast enough. So guys, please, is there any way I can make it "harder" again without buying some expensive stuff?

Thank you for any suggestion!

2nd image: gear-mechnism found, but ...

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    Put back what you got rid of when you put the tire back on. And clean and lube the chain.
    – paparazzo
    Sep 27 '15 at 15:01
  • And if I am not sure how was it connected before? Is there any other way?
    – Coldie
    Sep 27 '15 at 15:20
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From the image I'd guess your bike has Shimano Nexus 7 hub gear, though I'm not sure.

Anyway, the gear probably defaults to 1st gear when there's no tension in the shifter cable. So, riding your bike is very light probably because you are riding on the 1st gear.

What this means is that the hub gear might still be ok. It might've been stuck in the 6th gear earlier because either the cable or the shifter was stuck. Try attaching a cable back to the gear (it attaches to the bolt that is pointed by arrow in pic), pull it and see if the gear works.

If that's the case, you might be able to get a fully functional bike for a little money or effort - new shifters are not that expensive, especially if the gear is Nexus 7. It's a very common type and spare parts should be easy to find.

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  • You're right, it is Shimano gear. Well, I found it with (hopefully) all the pieces - main are two, I guess - let's say "base", connected to the wire and "locker" (in the 2nd image attached to the original post/question). The only thing is, that the wire is cutted, as I considered the gear mechanism non-funcional and I wanted to put it away from the bike. So my quesion is: Does it make sense to connect gear-mechanism back to the rear cog and then somehow consolidate/secure/fix the cable to the bike body? I'm curious about the second part - is it real? Thank you
    – Coldie
    Sep 28 '15 at 16:22
  • Full disclosure: I've changed wire and shifter for Nexus 7, but I haven't dismantled one, so take my advice with grain of salt. It's probably good idea to put the gear system back together, if only to prevent dirt and grime getting deeper in the hub. Fixing the wire somewhere, to keep the gear set in one certain gear? Possible, I think. The wire must be under tension, so the fixing point have to be able to take the stress. Also, setting the tension correctly might be tricky. I'm puzzled though: why don't you just try to fix or replace the shifter?
    – OttoK
    Sep 28 '15 at 21:54

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