If you're on the fence about buying a freecoaster, read this

I feel the same way, cassettes just feel more dialed. I throw my coaster on around once every two months and the fun only lasts a week at most, haha. It's always nice to change things up and practice fakie stuff though, but I too will always prefer cassette.

I’ve had 2 alienation coasters and the odyssey clutch. I don’t get the hype on them they’re heavy and make my bike feel broken with the slack lol and typically I think most people who ride them look bad with them. Dan cox made me want a coaster though lol

Edit: fakie manuals are a lot easier on a coaster lol

readybmxer wrote:

I feel the same way, cassettes just feel more dialed. I throw my coaster on around once every two months and the fun only lasts a week at most, haha. It's always nice to change things up and practice fakie stuff though, but I too will always prefer cassette.

Sliders are the only thing I've really enjoyed so far. Everything else is just awkward

Four wrote:

I’ve had 2 alienation coasters and the odyssey clutch. I don’t get the hype on them they’re heavy and make my bike feel broken with the slack lol and typically I think most people who ride them look bad with them. Dan cox made me want a coaster though lol

Edit: fakie manuals are a lot easier on a coaster lol

Dan cox is rad! Very underrated stylish rider

I currently have a trap ex hub and I love it

grumpySteve wrote:

As some of you are aware, I recently got an odyssey clutch (v1 because it was cheap).

I briefly had a salt plus trapez a couple of years ago, and really didn't get on with it. Hated the slack, and every time I committed to something, it engaged.

But, I've had 2 rides on this clutch, and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's only engaged on me once or twice, and the slack is barely noticeable as long as you don't crank super hard.
180 sliders have become my new favourite trick.

But, it's definitely not easier. It's a similar feeling to when you first take your brakes off, and you get a bit tense expecting to smack your knee on the stem, or it engage when you land fakie. It's definitely easier for 180 sliders, but how you land a 180 is completely different to with a cassette. You have to land close to perfect, or be really good with correcting yourself. It's not like a cassette, where back pedalling helps with your balance. And turning back from fakie takes some getting used with no pedal pressure.

The lack of cassette drag is really noticeable too, so I found it hard to judge my speed at first, especially with landing fakie.
Another thing with speed is you have to be careful with how you crank. You can't really add a bitch crank, and you have to give enough time to disengage the hub. I usually coast with my front leg straight, pedal down, back leg bent, pedal up. So back cranking a quarter turn to get my cranks level came quite naturally, even with minimum slack. But with a short run up, it takes a few goes just to count cranks and be able to add that back crank to disengage.

Verdict? I can see myself going back to cassette at some point. Sliders are awesome, but there's something that just feels more dialled with a cassette, and hearing that satisfying click. There's a few tricks I tried where the disengagement was a little unpredictable (pedal feeb to 180, which I guess was due to having to push a pedal down? Shouldn't be enough to re-engage it). If I increase the slack, I can imagine me hating it. So, there's things I like about it, but things I don't. And I think I prefer a cassette.

I will give it more time because there's some stuff I want to try with it. If it works, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll go back to cassette. There's some pedal pressure tricks I've been meaning to try too so.....

Try max slack. Coming from a cassette you will feel like you are in alien territory but it will help you a lot in the long run.

what's cassette drag?

h217 wrote:

what's cassette drag?

The friction of the pawls hitting on the ratchet ring adds a very small but perceptible amount of drag when the wheel is rolling. Some hubs are worse than others, due to design, spring tension and the type of/amount of lubrication.

grumpySteve wrote:

As some of you are aware, I recently got an odyssey clutch (v1 because it was cheap).

I briefly had a salt plus trapez a couple of years ago, and really didn't get on with it. Hated the slack, and every time I committed to something, it engaged.

But, I've had 2 rides on this clutch, and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's only engaged on me once or twice, and the slack is barely noticeable as long as you don't crank super hard.
180 sliders have become my new favourite trick.

But, it's definitely not easier. It's a similar feeling to when you first take your brakes off, and you get a bit tense expecting to smack your knee on the stem, or it engage when you land fakie. It's definitely easier for 180 sliders, but how you land a 180 is completely different to with a cassette. You have to land close to perfect, or be really good with correcting yourself. It's not like a cassette, where back pedalling helps with your balance. And turning back from fakie takes some getting used with no pedal pressure.

The lack of cassette drag is really noticeable too, so I found it hard to judge my speed at first, especially with landing fakie.
Another thing with speed is you have to be careful with how you crank. You can't really add a bitch crank, and you have to give enough time to disengage the hub. I usually coast with my front leg straight, pedal down, back leg bent, pedal up. So back cranking a quarter turn to get my cranks level came quite naturally, even with minimum slack. But with a short run up, it takes a few goes just to count cranks and be able to add that back crank to disengage.

Verdict? I can see myself going back to cassette at some point. Sliders are awesome, but there's something that just feels more dialled with a cassette, and hearing that satisfying click. There's a few tricks I tried where the disengagement was a little unpredictable (pedal feeb to 180, which I guess was due to having to push a pedal down? Shouldn't be enough to re-engage it). If I increase the slack, I can imagine me hating it. So, there's things I like about it, but things I don't. And I think I prefer a cassette.

I will give it more time because there's some stuff I want to try with it. If it works, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll go back to cassette. There's some pedal pressure tricks I've been meaning to try too so.....

Bulletpup wrote:

Try max slack. Coming from a cassette you will feel like you are in alien territory but it will help you a lot in the long run.

I can't, I absolutely hate slack. I'd rather go back to cassette than try to get used to it. It's actually the one thing that's puts me off freecoasters altogether

grumpySteve wrote:

As some of you are aware, I recently got an odyssey clutch (v1 because it was cheap).

I briefly had a salt plus trapez a couple of years ago, and really didn't get on with it. Hated the slack, and every time I committed to something, it engaged.

But, I've had 2 rides on this clutch, and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's only engaged on me once or twice, and the slack is barely noticeable as long as you don't crank super hard.
180 sliders have become my new favourite trick.

But, it's definitely not easier. It's a similar feeling to when you first take your brakes off, and you get a bit tense expecting to smack your knee on the stem, or it engage when you land fakie. It's definitely easier for 180 sliders, but how you land a 180 is completely different to with a cassette. You have to land close to perfect, or be really good with correcting yourself. It's not like a cassette, where back pedalling helps with your balance. And turning back from fakie takes some getting used with no pedal pressure.

The lack of cassette drag is really noticeable too, so I found it hard to judge my speed at first, especially with landing fakie.
Another thing with speed is you have to be careful with how you crank. You can't really add a bitch crank, and you have to give enough time to disengage the hub. I usually coast with my front leg straight, pedal down, back leg bent, pedal up. So back cranking a quarter turn to get my cranks level came quite naturally, even with minimum slack. But with a short run up, it takes a few goes just to count cranks and be able to add that back crank to disengage.

Verdict? I can see myself going back to cassette at some point. Sliders are awesome, but there's something that just feels more dialled with a cassette, and hearing that satisfying click. There's a few tricks I tried where the disengagement was a little unpredictable (pedal feeb to 180, which I guess was due to having to push a pedal down? Shouldn't be enough to re-engage it). If I increase the slack, I can imagine me hating it. So, there's things I like about it, but things I don't. And I think I prefer a cassette.

I will give it more time because there's some stuff I want to try with it. If it works, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll go back to cassette. There's some pedal pressure tricks I've been meaning to try too so.....

Bulletpup wrote:

Try max slack. Coming from a cassette you will feel like you are in alien territory but it will help you a lot in the long run.

grumpySteve wrote:

I can't, I absolutely hate slack. I'd rather go back to cassette than try to get used to it. It's actually the one thing that's puts me off freecoasters altogether

Fair enough. I used to hate the idea too. I then tried it and its like pure freedom.

If you dont want slack though you might have to wait for the Freenight!

I really thought I'd hate coasters. I really did. But getting used to the slack really did not take long at all. It feels harder in the short run but I've been improving on using it, and trying to incorporate it into actual lines is something I'll work on too.

The hardest part for me is the lack of pedal pressure. I cant use it to balance out or crank out of something poorly landed. I definitely used it for more tricks than I thought I did. I really enjoy it though.

grumpySteve wrote:

As some of you are aware, I recently got an odyssey clutch (v1 because it was cheap).

I briefly had a salt plus trapez a couple of years ago, and really didn't get on with it. Hated the slack, and every time I committed to something, it engaged.

But, I've had 2 rides on this clutch, and I've really enjoyed it so far. It's only engaged on me once or twice, and the slack is barely noticeable as long as you don't crank super hard.
180 sliders have become my new favourite trick.

But, it's definitely not easier. It's a similar feeling to when you first take your brakes off, and you get a bit tense expecting to smack your knee on the stem, or it engage when you land fakie. It's definitely easier for 180 sliders, but how you land a 180 is completely different to with a cassette. You have to land close to perfect, or be really good with correcting yourself. It's not like a cassette, where back pedalling helps with your balance. And turning back from fakie takes some getting used with no pedal pressure.

The lack of cassette drag is really noticeable too, so I found it hard to judge my speed at first, especially with landing fakie.
Another thing with speed is you have to be careful with how you crank. You can't really add a bitch crank, and you have to give enough time to disengage the hub. I usually coast with my front leg straight, pedal down, back leg bent, pedal up. So back cranking a quarter turn to get my cranks level came quite naturally, even with minimum slack. But with a short run up, it takes a few goes just to count cranks and be able to add that back crank to disengage.

Verdict? I can see myself going back to cassette at some point. Sliders are awesome, but there's something that just feels more dialled with a cassette, and hearing that satisfying click. There's a few tricks I tried where the disengagement was a little unpredictable (pedal feeb to 180, which I guess was due to having to push a pedal down? Shouldn't be enough to re-engage it). If I increase the slack, I can imagine me hating it. So, there's things I like about it, but things I don't. And I think I prefer a cassette.

I will give it more time because there's some stuff I want to try with it. If it works, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll go back to cassette. There's some pedal pressure tricks I've been meaning to try too so.....

thats why i only half cab with fc's

Four wrote:

I’ve had 2 alienation coasters and the odyssey clutch. I don’t get the hype on them they’re heavy and make my bike feel broken with the slack lol and typically I think most people who ride them look bad with them. Dan cox made me want a coaster though lol

Edit: fakie manuals are a lot easier on a coaster lol

grumpySteve wrote:

Dan cox is rad! Very underrated stylish rider

Agreed haha one of my favorites

That last bit is why you are a rad dude. You are on the fence and are going to "give it more time". Most kids would give up.

Kudos for trying something new!

Will we see a front brake any time soon?

I'm with Dave, I think its cool that the grumpiest of Steves is trying something new and liking it. I plan on keeping a cassette wheel handy just to switch it up every so often.

dave lawrence wrote:

That last bit is why you are a rad dude. You are on the fence and are going to "give it more time". Most kids would give up.

Kudos for trying something new!

Will we see a front brake any time soon?

I absolutely love the feeling of 180 sliders with a freecoaster. But I can't ride fakie with it at all. My balance is all over the place. But there's still a few things I want to play with before my mind is made up. I wish I had the time and energy to just do fakies on a quarter all day until I figure it out. But knowing I can do it on a cassette makes me want to go back. Time will tell.

Brakes won't happen. The fear of taking a chunk out of my thumb is too great! But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

grumpySteve wrote:

I absolutely love the feeling of 180 sliders with a freecoaster. But I can't ride fakie with it at all. My balance is all over the place. But there's still a few things I want to play with before my mind is made up. I wish I had the time and energy to just do fakies on a quarter all day until I figure it out. But knowing I can do it on a cassette makes me want to go back. Time will tell.

Brakes won't happen. The fear of taking a chunk out of my thumb is too great! But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

Try just doing one backpedal on the fakie as soon as you start rolling back. It may help transition from cassette fakie to freecoaster fakie. That's what helped me. The 'no-movement' fakie on a freecoaster is definitely something that takes getting used to.

grumpySteve wrote:

I absolutely love the feeling of 180 sliders with a freecoaster. But I can't ride fakie with it at all. My balance is all over the place. But there's still a few things I want to play with before my mind is made up. I wish I had the time and energy to just do fakies on a quarter all day until I figure it out. But knowing I can do it on a cassette makes me want to go back. Time will tell.

Brakes won't happen. The fear of taking a chunk out of my thumb is too great! But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

Sliders are so much fun!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Philip Gibbons (@p.gibbons) on Nov 5, 2017 at 6:33am PST

p1p1092 wrote:

Sliders are so much fun!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Philip Gibbons (@p.gibbons) on Nov 5, 2017 at 6:33am PST

u TryNa fLeX bRaH?

grumpySteve wrote: this is flexing

But sliders are rad

That reminds me, there's a carpark downramp in the local hospital that I've been meaning to slider for a few years. Nice and steep, it's painted and it's about 100-150ft long IIRC. Only problem is the security

dave lawrence wrote:

That last bit is why you are a rad dude. You are on the fence and are going to "give it more time". Most kids would give up.

Kudos for trying something new!

Will we see a front brake any time soon?

grumpySteve wrote:

I absolutely love the feeling of 180 sliders with a freecoaster. But I can't ride fakie with it at all. My balance is all over the place. But there's still a few things I want to play with before my mind is made up. I wish I had the time and energy to just do fakies on a quarter all day until I figure it out. But knowing I can do it on a cassette makes me want to go back. Time will tell.

Brakes won't happen. The fear of taking a chunk out of my thumb is too great! But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

Damn, I feel attacked

dave lawrence wrote:

That last bit is why you are a rad dude. You are on the fence and are going to "give it more time". Most kids would give up.

Kudos for trying something new!

Will we see a front brake any time soon?

grumpySteve wrote:

I absolutely love the feeling of 180 sliders with a freecoaster. But I can't ride fakie with it at all. My balance is all over the place. But there's still a few things I want to play with before my mind is made up. I wish I had the time and energy to just do fakies on a quarter all day until I figure it out. But knowing I can do it on a cassette makes me want to go back. Time will tell.

Brakes won't happen. The fear of taking a chunk out of my thumb is too great! But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

RumHam wrote:

But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

Damn, I feel attacked

Nothing personal ? everyone should set their bike up how they want. It's just more common so I feel like I've seen it all before (or you could take all your pegs off XD)

grumpySteve wrote:

Nothing personal ? everyone should set their bike up how they want. It's just more common so I feel like I've seen it all before (or you could take all your pegs off XD)

Haha yeah I know, I wasn't being serious. It's all good!

RumHam wrote:

But watching front brake riders is more fun than watching brakeless, 4 plastic pegs, freecoaster street guys.

Damn, I feel attacked

grumpySteve wrote:

Nothing personal ? everyone should set their bike up how they want. It's just more common so I feel like I've seen it all before (or you could take all your pegs off XD)

RumHam wrote:

Haha yeah I know, I wasn't being serious. It's all good!

But you could still take all you pegs off ?

grumpySteve wrote:

But you could still take all you pegs off ?

RumHam wrote:

Haha yeah I know, I wasn't being serious. It's all good!

grumpySteve wrote:

But you could still take all you pegs off ?

RumHam wrote:

DO IT.

I think I am going to go back to straight cable for a bit once my workshop is done being cleaned/organized/painted, and will probably pull the pegs for a bit too.

Right, 4th ride with it today and all I did was fall off trying stuff I can do every time with a cassette. It seems freecoasters are fun when you're going half a crank at anything, which I don't like doing, but I just lose all control going any faster. So I give up with it. I'm pretty sure I even have sliders more consistent with a cassette. My riding time is too precious to waste trying to get used to it, and having it gives me less confidence. I occasionally suffer patella tendinitis, and it feels like my leg will easily bend the wrong way, having a freecoaster feels kinda like that. It just doesn't feel as solid or like I have control.

grumpySteve wrote:

Right, 4th ride with it today and all I did was fall off trying stuff I can do every time with a cassette. It seems freecoasters are fun when you're going half a crank at anything, which I don't like doing, but I just lose all control going any faster. So I give up with it. I'm pretty sure I even have sliders more consistent with a cassette. My riding time is too precious to waste trying to get used to it, and having it gives me less confidence. I occasionally suffer patella tendinitis, and it feels like my leg will easily bend the wrong way, having a freecoaster feels kinda like that. It just doesn't feel as solid or like I have control.

I commend you for trying something out of your comfort zone. It was a good learning experience I'm sure, If for no other reason but to confirm you prefer riding a cassette.