You can forget about changing to triple chain rings as road bike triples are are rare item now. Even if you can find, they are using the older Octalink bottom bracket. I am still looking for it. Further more, triples are quite complex as you need spacers for bottom brackets and also the front derailleurs needs to be triple specific (which has a wider adjustments). Used units can be found but no need to bother as components degrade in the long run and to find replacements, you have to go all over again. Apart from all these, it is expensive to mod.

OH, I forgot Raleigh Ugo can't fit a FD adapter as there a bracing that hinders the positioning of the adapter, unless you want to grind a bit off to accommodate the adapter.

My best advice, retain single speed for the front. Crank will save you bucks!

As for the rear, my guess is the Ugo uses 32 spokes for their rear wheels. Check bicyclebuysell website and hunt for a cheap 32 holed hub. Get someone to re-lace your wheels to it. It doesn't matter even if the mtb hubs have 6 holes for disc rotor. It doesn't affect anything. Another option is change the whole wheelset. Then you can have better sealed bearing wheels Then you can use regular cassette type rear cogs which starts from 11 teeth for the smallest cog. If you look harder, you can actually find 7 speed cassette but it usually starts from 8 speed and you can go to 10 speed with the same hubs. If you can find 7 speed, then you don't need any other components as you can use back the same shifter.

BUT........... if you can't find the 7 speed and move to 8, 9 or 10 speed cassettes, it will involve looking for the appropriate shifters. Then you have to change rear derailleurs as well. If it is 8 speed, you can still retain the old derailleur as the Tourney can accommodate 8 speed. 9s and 10s, got to change lah!

The main criteria here for your case is the high gear and not the low gear. So, getting the 11 speed cog installed is the main point. There are 7 speed freehub (suitable for you) which starts from 11 teeth but hard to come by. The one I seen on BBS starts from 13 teeth as well and it is more suited for those getting more low gears (hill climbing). I did see an Epoch 11 to 28 teeth - 7 speed freewheel in Lazada.com but it is selling for almost 300 bucks. Get that and just PNP on it. Habis cerita!

Here's the catch !

If you decide to mod to 8,9 or 10 speed, we usually go for the 10 speed. Why? Because that's the max for a little bit more extra bucks. AND with that, we can go till 40 teeth at the rear, yes, 11 teeth till 40 teeth, can climb coconut tree. Catch is , you need longer caged rear derailleurs but the cage might hit the tarmac on some settings but they now have this little goat link (cost 45 bucks) which attaches to the RD hanger and the RD attaches to the other end of this link and lowers the positioning of the RD lower so it can cover 40 teeth as well or 42 teeth if you want without the extra long cage.

Take your time to digest.......hahahaa. Who says cycling is simple.

Adding to sifu ettige's options.
Freewheel 8 speed cog set is available. I have a epoch 11-34t on my rear wheel.
7sp cogset with 11t are rare and pricy, I change to 8sp cogset with 8 speed shifter still cheaper than buying the 11t 7 speed cogset.
Changing the rear freewheel cogset is the simplest and most cost effective mod for your case. You gain about 20% speed if you change your 13 or 14t cogset to 11t.
To gain more, you can look for bigger chainring. But the gain isnt as much, a 54T will only give you ~4% and 56T ~8%.
If you look hard enough you may hook yourself up witha Shimano MegaRange 8speed, or a SunRace. But epoch will still get the job done.
8 speed RD and shifter are dirt cheap. Shimano is good, ~Microsoft~ Microshif are not bad too.

Budget? 150~200 complete with 8 speed shifter + freewheel cogset.

This post has been edited by KenC: Nov 30 2017, 03:45 PM

errr... i think its "microshift"

sifu sifu told me before, die die must buy 8 speed and above, if not...mati la..

8 speed if freewheel also limited. Any speed with free hub give more flexibility. But than again, price also big difference.

Can la, freewheel, better than no wheels.

Some 7 speed does have cassettes and you can go up to 9 speed. The Dahon Vitesse D7 or the Speed D7 has such hub, unless they are specific to certain regions only? If in doubt, pull off the rear wheel and have a look before buying the bike.

thanks sifu

ya my RD now is 14/16/18/20/22/24/28

but if changing to 11 speed, my smallest gear for speed is not much difference too, but the uphill is double!! wow!
11 / 13 / 15 / 17 / 19 / 21 / 24 / 27 / 31 / 35 / 40

well i guess foldies r not meant for speed.

Increase your chain ring. Anyway, no bicycle can do everything without adding cost. If you want, use suitable internal gear hub will give you the right gear range. Sky is the limit. The sky is Rohloff 14speed.

On second thought, it's a Ugo, a Rohloff seems over the top.
Rational solutions
1) new wheelset 9/10/11 speed free hub, 9 speed 11-36t cassette. New chain + 9 speed shifter
2) new wheelset as above, 10 or 11 speed 11-40t, + goat link + new chain + 10 or 11 shifter.
3) 8 or 11 speed shimano Nexus internal gear hub.
4) NuVinci N380 CVT type internal gear hub.

This post has been edited by KenC: Nov 30 2017, 10:12 PM

If u want speed, sell ur Ugo and buy a road bike...habis cerita. On foldie u can get 30kmh top for ave. speed. Otai can maintain 40kmh but i think for a limited time only.

However, if you r a small wheel junkie, i believe it is time for you to get a new foldie. For me, Ugo is for rookie only. Try hunt for mid level Java or Trinx. Its' not bad. If u have big pocket, go for tyrell/dahon vector/tern verge/ ori bike/ etc etc.

It will save ur time from hunting for items listed by our fellow friends above. Frankly, It is all up to u and ur spending ability. If u think u r serious into cycling, dont be afraid to invest.

Here in lyn forum, they always give u the most economical ways to upgrade ur bike. But if u meant business, pls go and buy new foldie. Normally speed demon riding a Tyrell.

This post has been edited by rkhairulrijal: Dec 1 2017, 12:38 AM

Budget stuff can be serious too when you know your stuff.
If you has the means, buy anything you will want, including all the wrong stuff…
Don't limit yourself to Tyrell, the world is a very huge place.
You just tasted small wheel, l strongly recommend the economical 8 speed freewheel cogset mod. It will give you a rough idea how fast is "fast" on a small wheel and what is "good hill climbing" is about.
Small tuition fee to pay.

I think you got the 11 speed wrong. It is more like changing to 11 teeth rear cogs. 11 speed will entail changing to a more expensive sets of wheelsets and components. That's why I only advise going for the 10 speed max.

Your main grouse was , you were freewheeling on the high gears, meaning you can't go faster on the 14 teeth cogs (smallest). Also, 13 teeth will mean that you will be faster; In exact calculations, your tires will most probably be 161.5 centimeters in circumference. So,

53 teeth crank, one turn ( cadence as we call it ) will turn the rear (14 teeth) 3.785 turns, which is covering 3.785 x 161.5 cm = 611.2 cm. So, if your cadence is 70 rpm, that's 427 meters per minute and converts to 25 kilometers per hour. This off course is theoretically correct lah if you maintain 70 rpm per minute.

Now, go to the next high gear which is 13 teeth, the final figure becomes 27.65 km/h and the highest gear, it becomes 32.5 km/h and that's a lot of difference. Look at it this way, the destination is 20 kilometers away, on the 14 teeth, you need to pedal 48 minutes and on 11 teeth you only need 36 minutes.

Convert all these to road bikes ( 2096 mm circumference), it becomes 33 km/h (14T) , 36 km/h (13T) and 42 km/h (11T) and this is just the conservative 70 rpm cadence. Usual average cadence is 90 rpm.

Mountain bikes' smallest cog now, we can find 10 teeth as the smallest cog but mtb's chain ring are usually small and this is applied to single chain ring and to cover back the speed, they designed the 10 teeth smallest cog.

Sembang-sembang only. On folding bikes, it's not so serious. Raleigh Ugo is a good and tough bike, just that modding choice is limited but that was before they started using single chain ring. Now, you can go 10 speed with 11/42T which covers almost the whole spectrum on a single chain ring. Tern has a model with a single chain ring ( Tern Verge X11 ) with 11 speed covering 10/42 cogs but cost a ridiculous 12K Ringgit.

So, the point here is the 13T and the 11T is a lot of difference and so are the other end, the 35T and the 40T. We discussed the 406 wheels and if they were 451s, the km/h figures will be higher.

In very simple language.

Ugo with 8 speed 11-34 or 11-32 or 11-36 freewheel cogset will be a serious folding bike for moderate hill climbing and fairly fast flat and downhill. On a budget.

The catch is your legs must be reasonably strong la.

In very simple language.

Ugo with 8 speed 11-34 or 11-32 or 11-36 freewheel cogset will be a serious folding bike for moderate hill climbing and fairly fast flat and downhill. On a budget.

The catch is your legs must be reasonably strong la.

ok i guess having multiple gears for front is no longer popular for foldies cause it is complicated n heavy n not worth the duplicate gears with the rear.

the 8 gear 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32 sounds a good upgrade for my current standard shimano TZ21 7 gear 14/16/18/20/22/24/28 ,wider range but that means i need to change the shifter thingy too n more

is there a 7 gear with better range , not 14-28? cause i thought want to just plug n play
or memang is most worth to change to 8 gear (along with new shifters n chains n readjusting etc etc) in malaysia?

This post has been edited by MechaLEE: Dec 1 2017, 08:58 PM

8 speed flatbar shifters is bomb proof and dirt cheap.
7 speed wider range? Sure you can find. Only need a lot more patient and more money. Like I said, will be more expensive than the 8 speed freewheel option.

It's not about fashion or repeating gears, it's as sifu ettige said, you can't plug and play the FD.
However, you can always get a triple chainring Crankset and get it install some how. It's you bike, your time and money after all. Don't let us stop you.

This post has been edited by KenC: Dec 1 2017, 09:21 PM

One thing I do know about Penang lbs is................"they will tell you it cannot be done." Period! Either you have to tinker it yourself or you take it somewhere else to do it. Most Penang riders I know, they mod it themselves. Ask local lbs to do it and even show them the pixs of the modded bikes, they still insist it can't be done.

The Raleigh Ugo is a wee bit complicated to mod FDs. So far , I only saw one who did it but in KL. Even repainted too. It's the small bracing enforcing the structure between the seat tube and the rear tube. You have to grind part of the bracing off to place the FD adapter in the right place.

Seems KenC is right, the best option is an 8 speed shifter, cost less than 100 bucks from BillyBikeShop. Then again, some riders do not justifies the modding should cost more than the cost of the bike itself or even half. I can live with that. I can have a 1K bike but do 3K modding in it, so it all depends on yourself. Once you get a bike which you feel comfortable riding, seems right...........the next step is getting the components right to your satisfaction.

It's really boring to come up with expensive solution… it's always hard to come up with cheap+simple+fast.
But really, if you can, Rohloff 14speed will solve all yourgearing short coming… only a few thousand usd for the hub. Shifters and accessories sold separately. Made in Germany.
When you do this kind of mod, any lbs will burn their midnight oil to get it done… your cycling gang will advertise how serious you are about cycling.

This post has been edited by KenC: Dec 2 2017, 06:41 PM

don't underestimate differences between 14t and 11t
I used to have a dahon 7 speed, i upgraded to 8 speed all round with 11t at the back while maintaining 52t front. It is so much better without all the freewheeling...

Let's not forget the question was "how to increase speed" if we focus at the request at hand. It's very easy to solve.
If the request was "how to increase speed as expensive as possible" than I would had gone another path.
In my day job, nobody give enough budget and time and resources to do anything. So, please pardon me to always take the path of least resistance. It's a occupational hazard… Iknow iit's a very evil habit too… but hard habit to break…

This post has been edited by KenC: Dec 3 2017, 01:38 PM

got bored using dropbar on my 700c folding,
so i swap back to flat riser bar and long arm vbrake. a bit minimalist and looks like normal city bike rather than speedy roadbike.



and since its 700c folding bike, i had to cycle with others roadbike. bad news is, i need to double my effort on pedalling to keep up with them since the bike nearly 15kg++ twice the weight of their bike



when it comes to flat, or a bit rolling i can keep up. climbing?hahahha.. need to push more on heavy bike