Gear shift indicator solutions

How many are trying to implement any rudimentary gear shift indicators on shifters without gear readout to avoid starting mid-drives in too high of a gear.

Was thinking about one based on reed switch and LED to indicate when I get close to 1:1 ratio while shifting for a few years now. Could be useful to minimize unnecessary shifting and accidentally starts in a wrong gear especially during long commutes when fatigue sets in especially at night since I can't use shifters with integrated indicators as I'm using curved sweptback handlebars. Now there is no other choice but to shift the gears back and forth while counting til getting into the right one.

I have heard Luna cycle was disabling their motors in hight gears somehow. Probably by using brake cutout sensors or something. That would prevent the motor from being used PAS specially programmed with low power settings though.

Might need some more sophisticated programming in BBSHD open source firmware couple with additional sensors to allow high power throttle in low gears only.

Mongo said:

Hi @sysrq - assuming a derailleur system with trigger shifters, for some brands there are aftermarket shifters (such as from microSHIFT) available with gear position indicators.

Thumb, bar end, and grip shifters also give position indication.

If your bike has exposed shift cable sections, perhaps a white paint mark or glue-on flag could be placed on the cable as a crude position indicator.

A RapidRise derailleur might offer easier, "oops, wrong gear," downshifting after starting off from a stop.

Much more involved, there's also converting to an IGH hub. Some e-shifting IGH hubs also offer automatic shifting down to a low gear when a stop is detected.

I don't recall mention of Luna having such a feature, and I was on their forum for a long time.

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The main reason for needing a rudimentary gear indicator is when switching/transitioning from pedalling only to using motor with throttle only especially on false flats with headwinds and crosswinds where smallest low gear should be at least 28t or 32t and then making sure it’s the right one. It’s a no brainer on 17% hills, just shift all the way down to 51t to save the battery.

I thought making sure you are in a low enough gear with straightest chainline on long stretches of flattish roads (2-5% or more) was supposed to be more important but apparently it's not talked about often.

There's a traditional and foolproof way to know what gear you're in. You pedal. Duh.

Chalo said:

There's a traditional and foolproof way to know what gear you're in. You pedal. Duh.

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You monster!

/s

Chalo said:

There's a traditional and foolproof way to know what gear you're in. You pedal. Duh.

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It's hard to know if it's the right gear for the motor by feel (not too low not too high) if you want to stay in one gear in full throttle in slightly changing conditions.

sysrq said:

It's hard to know if it's the right gear for the motor by feel (not too low not too high) if you want to stay in one gear in full throttle in slightly changing conditions.

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If you are in the cadence zone, say 75 to 96 bpm depending on your skill level, you are in the right gear. If not... go up or down.

Superb_Raccoon said:

If you are in the cadence zone, say 75 to 96 bpm depending on your skill level, you are in the right gear. If not... go up or down.

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Already mounted two reed switches on deraileur using b-screw and special plastic bracket for the magnet. This shows three gears only first led on, two led's on and second led on.

The cadence can change depending on different fatigue levels.

There is a plan connecting reed switches to existing 5V powered arduino nano driving sequential turn signals using Fastled library but it will take some time to trust the code generated by ChatGPT. That would require one reed switches or SMD hall sensors on each shifter trigger lever but the space is too confined there. This would also increase the current consumption since currently the whole system turns on by activating any input (brake sensor, turn signal switch, etc) and shuts down automatically alongside th usb power bank when deactivating any input.
As a work around I had to bypass the boost converter in usb power bank to drive gear shift indicator led's which consume only 0.14mA in dark mode.

Fatigue?

On an ebike?

You're doing it wrong