Herbie chainglider

[fossala]

I bought on of these around a month ago for my Raven Tour but when I fitted it there was a lot of friction. It was quite difficult to turn the cranks by hand. Would this be considered normal or did I fit it wrong?

[JimK]

Folks says the friction is negligible. One possibility is the chainring. You need a thinner steel chainring (e.g. Surly) rather than a thicker aluminum one (e.g. Thorn).

[John Saxby]

Agreed, Jim.  I removed my 'glider this fall, as part of a general tidy-up, and took my Raven for a short ride without the 'glider.  I didn't notice any difference.  When the bike is on the stand and the 'glider is mounted, if I spin the cranks, the 'glider slows down the wheel more quickly than if it's not there.  On the road, as mentioned, with pressure on the cranks, I can't tell the difference.

Fossala, I run an 8-speed chain with my 38T Surly ring & 'glider -- I think that one could use a 7- 8- or 9-speed chain.

[fossala]

I've got a Thorn double sided chainring and a KMC X1 chain. I think I'm just going to sell it on instead as I quite like the double sidded thorn one.

[Matt2matt2002]

I bought a thin Surely front ring when I fitted the chain glider.
Minimal to no friction or sound.
Why not do that?
What is so special about the double sided Thorn front ring? I know you can flip it but with the glider on there will be considerably less wear on both sprockets and chain.
Am I wrong?

[fossala]

My chainset is a 104bcd Thorn and the Surly chainrings only go up to 36t it. I would need to invest in a new chainset that I don't want to do at the moment.

[Danneaux]

Hi Matt! Hi Fossala!

Matt, the Surly chainring can also be flipped, just something to keep in mind a long, long way down down the road.

Fossala, I have the same "dilemma" as you; I am also running an EBB drivetrain (Deore crankarms, Phil Wood BB and reversible Surly 36t stainless chainring) and -- yep! -- the Surly chainrings in 104BCD top-out at 36t and the Hebie Chaingliders bottom-out at 38t.

Hebie, make that 36t Chainglider! (says Dan, beating the drum once again  )

All the best,

Dan. (...who for Christmas only wanted his two front teeth [in a Chainglider]!)

[John Saxby]

I'd buy a 36T 'glider too, if Hebie made one. And if three's a crowd, how many is a niche market?

[Andre Jute]

I'd buy a 36T 'glider too, if Hebie made one. And if three's a crowd, how many is a niche market?

You only need a double handful of people who're really keen for a product to create word of mouth. Even one, if articulate and trusted, will do. Until recently, nobody here had an enclosed chain. Then I wrote a couple of articles about chaincases I tested and now the one I recommend, the Chainglider, is pretty common. Frankly, in my opinion (and I was once a marketer whose skill was rewarded by a salary several times what anyone at Hebie, including the chief executive, earns, so there isn't anything humble about my opinion), Hebie is behaving like two thick short planks together: if they weren't, they would have made a 36T Hebie the first time an opinion-former like Dan asked, the first time I (an opinion-former) agreed it was a good idea, the first time the idea was floated on this forum (a trendsetter for touring and utility bikes quite out of proportion to its membership -- for instance, Dan reported my piece on the n'lock was read by a factorial multiple of the membership). That's three separate counts, each sufficient onto itself, for calling Hebie smug for letting a flunky brush off Dan when he tried to tell them of an unexploited market for their product. It's almost as if they don't like money.

[John Saxby]

Thanks, Andre.  Might also be worth a group of us writing to a couple of online Hebie retailers, such as bike24 or starbike, to ask them to let Hebie know that There Really Is a Market, and you build it, they will come...

[Danneaux]

Might also be worth a group of us writing to a couple of online Hebie retailers, such as bike24 or starbike, to ask them to let Hebie know that There Really Is a Market, and you build it, they will come...

...with each mentioning that Rohloff really do now approve a 36x17 combo, the sticky wicket in my correspondence.

Best,

Dan.

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

When I enquired with Hebie they said it would need a new mould, the brake even for the mould was around 5,000 units, hence their reluctance.

[JimK]

I've been thinking about 3-d printing as an approach for this sort of thing. Unit cost would be higher but practically zero up-front cost. Probably the part down at the sprocket is the same, so it is just the front half that needs to be built.

[Danneaux]

Many thanks, Dave; very helpful. Now I better understand their reluctance.

Tooling is expensive, whether it be for lugs and dropouts (!) or for moldings.

I like Jim's idea, but wonder if a similar plastic would be readily extrudable by a 3-D printer. Also, the thing putting me off 3-D printing so far is the long-term durability. Some things I've seen so far seem fracture-prone because they are essentially sintered, with each hot pass being laid down atop a cooled previous pass, rather than an as-one hot molding. Great for prototyping, maybe not so much for actual product? Maybe things have gotten better since the samples I saw and played with last Spring.

All the best,

Dan. (...who really really wants a 3-D printer also!)

[George Hetrick]

I have switched to a Surly 38T chainring, and the Chainglider I recently installed works marvelously.