Ever increasing circles
Ever since writer and cycling promoter Paul de Vivie invented the two-speed derailleur in 1905, the cycling world has had an appetite for sprockets that has become insatiable. A ‘cogset’ with four sprockets appeared in the years before World War II. That rose to a block of five in the years after.
As wheels transitioned from the freewheel / threaded hub design to a freehub-plus-cassette configuration, the number of sprockets quickly advanced from six to eight. We went to nine-speed in the 1990s, and recent years have witnessed an
