Hyperglide is the name given by cycling component manufacturer

Shimano , originally and later , is a Japanese multinational manufacturing company for cycling components, fishing tackles and rowing equipment, who also produced golf supplies until 2005 and snowboarding gear until 2008. Named after founder Shozaburo ...

to a sprocket design in their bicycle

derailleur Shimano 600 front derailleur (1980) A derailleur is a variable-ratio bicycle gearing system consisting of a chain, multiple sprockets of different sizes, and a mechanism to move the chain from one sprocket to another. Modern front and rear d ...

tooth cassette systems. It varies gear tooth profiles, and/or pins along the faces of

freewheel Freewheel mechanism In mechanical or automotive engineering, a freewheel or overrunning clutch is a device in a transmission that disengages the driveshaft from the driven shaft when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft. An ov ...

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

sprockets, or between the chainrings in a

crankset The crankset (in the US) or chainset (in the UK), is the component of a bicycle drivetrain that converts the reciprocating motion of the rider's legs into rotational motion used to drive the chain or belt, which in turn drives the rear wheel. ...

, to ease shifting between them.

Development

The design, developed by

, improves on their earlier Uniglide design (which used beveled/twisted gear teeth instead of ramps), and was introduced as part of a commercially viable index shifting system. The Hyperglide ramps, along with laterally floating

jockey wheel A jockey wheel is a wheel-based mechanical system used for steering or guidance, either: * a guide wheel - usually operating as a pair - which is used to move, retain, locate and (usually) add tension to a chain, rope or cable which is then fed in ...

s, allows for enough "slop" in the system to make indexed shifting reliable, despite variations in shift cable adjustment and manufacturing or assembly tolerances. A Hyperglide freewheel or cassette on a bike with friction shifters can further improve shifting.

Design

The individual sprockets on a Hyperglide cassette or freewheel are designed specifically to work with their neighbours. For example, the 18-tooth sprocket on a wide-range cassette (such as one for a mountain bike) will have a different ramp pattern than the 18-tooth sprocket on a narrow-range cassette, because the number of teeth on the neighbouring sprocket requires a different ramp pattern for an optimal shift. As a result, cassettes are sold as a cohesive unit—rather than as individual sprockets—with all the sprockets on a given cassette designed to work with each other. However, some mixing and matching is possible for a custom gear range, as long as all the sprockets' ramps are compatible. In order to ensure alignment of each sprocket with its neighbour, the

freehub A freehub is a type of bicycle hub that incorporates a ratcheting mechanism. A set of sprockets (called a "cassette") is mounted onto a splined shaft of the freehub to engage the chain. The ratcheting mechanism is a part of the hub, in contras ...

has a narrow spline at one position, and each sprocket has a corresponding wide tooth on its inside face.

Interactive glide

The interactive glide gear system is an extension of hyperglide, in which both sides of the bicycle gear sprockets are physically contoured to improve upshifting. Interactive glide sprockets are slightly thicker than hyperglide variants, and due to this difference, some Shimano Hyperglide chains may hang up if used on an interactive glide cassette. The slightly wider interactive glide chains work on either type, as do SRAM chains. The IG chains are wider internally but narrower externally than the standard HG chains that Shimano made at the same time; the plates of the chains are thinner.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CuoxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA247, title=Bicycle Design: An Illustrated History, author1=Tony Hadland, author2=Hans-Erhard Lessing, publisher=MIT Press, year=2014, accessdate=December 5, 2017, isbn=9780262322225, page=247 {{cite web, url=https://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html, title=Shimano Cassettes & Freehubs, author=Sheldon Brown, publisher=sheldonbrown.com, accessdate=December 5, 2017, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903125048/https://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html, archivedate=September 3, 2017, url-status=live

External links

How does Hyperglide work?
at shemyak.com blog Bicycle parts