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Comment by mauvehaus | Hacker News Reader

The article describes it as four sprockets on a freehub. One would hope that cyclingtips.com would get that fairly material detail correct.

It also mentions the rider having to pedal backwards to shift the chain among the sprockets. That would not be possible on a fixed hub without slowing to a stop and reversing. One suspects that would rather negate any benefits of this system over a flip-flop wheel.

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The freehub was not invented for another 30 years. But I see that the Cambio Corsa did have a freewheel (similar idea). I was wrong to think it used four fixed gears. So indeed it could have used a chain tensioner!

Video showing it in action (skip to the middle): https://youtu.be/MQe0fLEQ2jY

I think there's a mixup between two things here. A _freehub_ contains both the cassette body and the _freewheel_. The former has been invented in the 1930s and popularized by Shimano in the late 1970s [1], the latter has been around since the 19th century [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freehub

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freewheel

Just a link skipping to the gear change: https://youtu.be/MQe0fLEQ2jY?t=165

Yeah, I kind of let that one slide since it makes no difference from the standpoint of somebody trying to change gears while simultaneously not dying :-)

And let's be honest: it's entirely possible that the author has never changed a cassette or freewheel or seen a freewheel if they have. I'm almost 40, and I've only ever seen freewheels on pretty old 10 and 12 speeds (that's 2x5 and 2x6. Not a modern 1x drivetrain). And only because I volunteered at a place that fixes up bikes.

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