Road Cycling - efficient use of gears

hey everyone i am a carolina hurricanes fan not miami. anyway, i just bought a new cannondale r500 which is about 10 times lighter than the old univega i was using. i would consider myself an intermediate cyclist, but i have what may seem like a silly question. how should i use my gears? how are the gears numbered? on my univega, which was a 12 speed, i only used 3 gears tops. it will take awhile to get used to the greater gear selection of the cannondale, but i traditionally put it in a high gear and keep a steady cadence. is that inefficient? should i knock it down a couple gears so i have less resistance? i don't want to spin my wheels like a madman. i have knocked out a couple of very hilly 60 mile rides on consecutive weekends and feel very strong, but i want to maximize my efficiency. any gearing advice?

Don't use the big/big and small/smallcombination.

For long rides keep your pedalling cadence fairly high at 80+ rpm.
Pick a power output you can sustain.
Match the two by using your gears. This way speed will vary.

With a higher gear, your legs will do the work. If you spin faster in a lower gear, your heart and lungs will do more of the work.

Try to keep your chain as straight in line as possible while riding and shifting. This equates to less wear and tear on the chain cassette and front rings. Example if it is a 9 speed rear, when in the small front ring or (granny gear) in the back you would use the larger rear cog to the third cog down or fourth at the max. Then you shift to the middle ring, in the back it would be the third down max to the 6th cog down 7th max. Then you shift to the outer ring, in the back it would be the 6th cog, 5th max to the 9th cog.

As far as how the gears progress, you'd have to calculate the ratios for each chainring and cog (divide the number of chainring teeth by the number of rear-cog teeth, and chart them all). This used to yield valuable information about how to get an "in-between" gear by double-shifting both shifters at once, but with a 27-speed drivetrain, I really don't see the point.

I see the R500 does have a triple, so for a simple rule of thumb:

small chainring for small speeds
medium chainring for medium speeds (say, from 8mph up to perhaps 22mph)
big chainring for big speeds

and just shift the rear to find the gear that suits you as the terrain varies. Don't hang around in the small chainring longer than necessary, however, it's a bit like driving a 4wd truck with the transfer case in 4wd Low... once you hit the highway, you switch back out of Low range, instead of going up through the gears and driving around in Low range and 5th gear.

Originally posted by hurricanesfan0
I don't want to spin my wheels like a madman.

normally your cadence should be 80-110, if you are not currently at this cadence it may feel strange to start spinning this fast, but this is much more efficient then a 50-70 high resistance cadence, so although it may seem weird at first it is much more efficient.

An easy way to check your cadence is to be on a trainer with a stop watch and simply count your revolutions per minute. you can also buy a bike computer with a cadence monitor.

as for the gearing you will always want to try to keep the resistance the same throughout the ride, whether you are up hill or down hill, this will give you the most consistant spin.

however if you are already doing metric centuries reguarly without a problem you probably are at or close to this cadence speed. :)

I (a big power type rider) recently increased my cadance from the 75-85rpm range to a lower geared 85-95 range and have increased my average speed by 1/2 to 1 mph on a 25-40 mile ride. Totally surprised that I could spin more than I could power.