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So, I have a pair of ambidextrous shifters on my bike. In other words, both shifters are ten-speed so that you can change the "handedness" of your handlebar if you want. This got me thinking, they could also be used for a 10x10 drivetrain.

So, how many speed chainring is achievable with reasonably off-the-shelf components, and what (if anything) would stop me from building a 100-speed bike, and at what point?

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  • You mean 'how many 'chain-ring sprockets can be fitted on a crank'?
    – Argenti Apparatus
    Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 20:57
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    Oh, no, is this another round of Jon like gearing questions.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 20:58
  • I'm really curious to find out what 'a pair of ambidextrous shifters' are. Do you have a link to a product web page?
    – Argenti Apparatus
    Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 21:44
  • @ArgentiApparatus This is the product I'm talking about, basically it's just a pair of ten speed shifters with different handedness.
    – HAEM
    Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 21:50
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    Where on that linked page does it say they are ambidexterous? You have a left hand shifter with two positions, and a right hand shifter with 10 positions. Swapping sides means they are upside down, and may not fit around your brake levers.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 0:18

2 Answers 2

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Front chainrings are limited to 3, practically by the width.

Remember the chain is under tension as it arrives onto the chainring, whereas its under tension when leaving the rear cassette. So its much more sensitive to arrival angles on the front.

I've ridden a bike with quad chainring, and it was very bad at front shifting, to the point friction shift was required with manual trimming as you moved across the cassette.

Own work

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    The rings on that setup appear to lack "ramps", and hence friction shifting would be the norm.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 22:42
  • @DanielRHicks yes - cross-chaining was very noticeably bad. Running on big/small or small/big was fine but totherwise the chainline was too angled at the first contact point with the chainrings. Looks like it was used in the middle rings most of its life for this reason.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Dec 15, 2017 at 0:26
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4 chainrings seems to be the feasible limit:

http://abundantadventures.com/quads.html

However if you add an internal planetary gear setup, A 100 speed might be possible if not practical. Here's a 63 speed bike.

https://sheldonbrown.com/org/otb.html

There are internally geared 2speed front axles.

https://www.alphabent.com/internally-geared-cranksets

So in theory 8x is possible on the front, 12 on the back gets you close to 100. You could go 14 in the back with a Rolhoff hub and get over 100.

I suspect such a bike would self-destruct in a very few miles though. Internal gear systems aren't engineered for the kind of forces that gearing could generate.

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