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4th Chainring
#1
Is there a possibility for a 4th and even larger chainring. in additon to a normal 3 ring setup
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#2
If you are asking if you can add a ring to an existing triple... that would be likely not be possible for a lot of reasons.

Lots of associated components (shifters, derailleurs) would need to be changed as well and I am not aware of any that accommodate 4 chainrings.
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#3
Yes it is possible. Finding a FD that will work with four rings is difficult, and the rings will have to be close together and the FD have a LOT of travel.

It is not economically feasible to do four chain rings - and why would you want to? You can build up a crank set with a large variety of rings, and there are 11 to 36T 9 and 10 speed cassettes. On the front you could do something like 26-44-60.

Our T50 currently has a 11-34 9 speed cassette and 26-44-54 at the front. We rarely get into the 54.
Nigel
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#4
for whatever the reasons, gearing on paper and what a particular rider perceives as optimum gearing can be totally different. I believe this is mostly due to how said rider "Spools" his/her bicycle. I have been fitting bicycles to riders but just as or more important "Riding Style" of the rider. For many years. At the risk of going out on a tangent, the simple suggestion of a four ring tells me this has not been ideally met. When one wants to in his/her mind not realize they are tossing a 25%+ presumed gear possibility's that amount to about nothing. With that said, If you came to me to get more performance out of your ride, I would first want to know about how you "truly ride" your bike, type terrain, out of saddle guy, in the saddle guy, cadence and so on. Plus the bike of the day and the limits of modifications, but would be safe to say that these goals could be satisfied with as little as a single/ double up front or a triple. Even a tire swap makes changes good or bad. If these cannot be met in a standard style/metrics then something else is at play. For instance, I am quite happy with downtube shifters and a double up front no matter the rear spread, I find the bang from small to big ring and a couple pops in the rear as I go to fewer shifts and gets her done.
There are two kinds of people in the world, "Those who help themselves to people, and those who help people!"
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#5
I am similar to PK in that the number of chain rings on most of my bikes is two, there are two exceptions (T50 & GT) and in both cases the third (smallest) ring is granny gearing for very steep hills.

For commuting in San Jose; I only use the smaller of the two chain rings for starting out on hills, on the flats I am starting out in the big ring.
Nigel
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