(Image stolen from https://road.cc/content/tech-news/brompton-goes-12-speed-across-range)
Ok; I expect to be shot down for this, but on my ride to work on my 6speed CLine, I was musing on the practicalities of gear switching on the 12speed.
On my sixer, I can move up and down the range 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1 relatively smoothly, though every other step requires me clicking both shifters simultaneously. You get used to it, it’s fairly slick, and works in the context of the advertising promise of “six evenly-spaced gears”, and this is borne out in the image above.
On a 12speed though, I can’t see a way to move smoothly up/down the range. The overlap suggests this would be undesirable, and that’s fine, so you would only have 10 steps due to overlap. Not a problem, some overlap is typical on road bikes too.
But in order to move sequentially, you would need to click your derailleur up – or down – each time you change your hub gear – otherwise you’re in for a hell of a jump… Kind of like when you switch your big ring.
Maybe I’m missing the point, but I just feel the reality of 12 gears won’t match the promise. Seasoned roadies might be fine with it, but I think that rank-and-file commuter cyclists might eventually find it tiresome. I know I would. If I wanted it to behave like my road bike, I’d *ride my road bike*…
by purplechemist