the ballad of the shimano integer ff system...

Last year, j. shelley bought a bike, an early 80’s Schwinn Ladies World Tourist. It’s super cute.

The most interesting thing about it is the Shimano Integer FF System. It’s kinda like a freewheel crank system, which allows the rider to backpedal via freewheel action at the crank instead of the rear sprocket. The sprocket on the rear hub is actually fixed, meaning that it spins along with the back wheel no matter what.

I think the bike is a 5-speed, with index shifting made possible by Shimano’s primitive and unruly Positron derailleur. These things have a really bad reputation. Admittedly, the broken cable to the rear derailleur, which came with the bike, caused some cursing and head scratching. We solved the issue, and I dialed it in just short of the highest gear...4 out of 5’s not bad.

So, along with making back pedaling possible, the ff system also allows the rider to change gears while coasting. tasered.

Through doing research, I noticed the ff system gets dissed sometimes on bike forums and such, but I think it’s pretty rad, and I wish we had an extra one for experimentation!

I’m guessing that “FF” stands for “Front Freewheel”? (it even makes the freewheel clicky sound.)

By that measure, “Positron” translates to “Pain in the Ass”.

I like this bike.