General Cycling Discussion - How many gears do you use?

I'm new to fitness cycling and commuting. I was using an old mountain bike with road tires for riding but on kept it between 2-3 gears. I recently got me a Trek 7200fx and now I can ride comfortably between 7-9 gears. I'm just wondering how many gears some of you go between on your rides, both fitness and commute? My fitness ride is on a paved bike trail with one short but steep uphill and another short but steep downhill, otherwise pretty flat.

Usually around 24.

My bike has 24, but I rarely use more than the first 8 to be honest. :rolleyes:

On my hilly commute in Austin I used the full range from 2nd to top gear every day. Commute speed range from 7mph to 45 mph every day. Since moving to Dallas I rarely take it off the big ring and only occasionally hit top gear

Edit: this is with a compact double 9spd ... so 18 total.

Majority of the time is spent on a 39x18.

All of them.

All of them (12) Although some in the big chain ring are very close to those in the small ring - I stay in the big chain ring though as a psychological boost...Also, at least on some bikes and those with 7-9 cog cassettes/freewheels -- smallest cog to largest chain ring and smallest chain ring to largest cog are not great on the chain and should be avoided.

front gear always on biggest.
I only use 4 gears of the rear.

me big man strong legs ride fast.

All of them.

Me, too.

While the hills in our area aren't super long, there are a lot of them, and I ride towing a trailer most of the time. I love gears. My knees love gears. And it only took me 25 years to learn how to use them. :rolleyes:

I have a direct drive that I use most of the time and it should be one that allows you to spin. If a hill comes up, I'll go as fast as I can into the hill then drop the chainring to the smallest. This usually allows me to go over the hill without having to shift the rear derailluer. Once I get to the top, I'll shift back to the middle chainring and I'm set.

If the hill is steep, I'll be forced to shift the derailluer to lower gears but most of the time, the front derailluer is enough to get me through the day. This is why it pays to have a tripple.

Short commute but, extremely varied terrain.
I use all 24.

1! (47x15) :D

I use a grand total of 4 gears. I have 53-46-28 up front and a 14-28 5-speed freewheel - it's an older touring setup. Trouble is, I live in some of the flattest land in the US, and my riding preference is long-distance day rides. I use the 46 chainring with the 17 and 20 cogs regularly, the 14 gets used in tail winds, and the 24 gets used in high headwinds. The 28 is still nice and shiny from when I cleaned it up this spring.

Once riding season ends, I'm going to upgrade to a 13-24 7-speed with a single 44ish chainring, so I'll have 7 gears to use.

Around the neighborhood, usually one. On a twenty mile ride, usually two or three. The invention of the "thirty speed" bike was done by the advertising boys at Shimano. No experienced cyclist has the slightest need for thirty gears on any given day of riding, whether riding through a desert, or riding through the Alps.

Out of 21 choices, probably 15, and only 10 of those often.

I can only use about 15 (of 24) before I would be crossing the chain to achieve the same ratios as more efficient alignments. Commuting, I use 5 or 6.

Old 10 speed give me 8 ratios useable of which I use only
5 rear on the 39t chainring. More than enough for urban
use.

I have 27.

I generally stay only in my middle chainring. I sometime go into my highest chainring, but never into my lowest.

I have a 53/39 up front and (I think) a 12/25 in back. I use pretty much the whole range, though the 53-12 gets less work than it used to.

I rarely use more than one gear, and am thinking of having my shifters and derailleur removed. Having all of those extra gears means that when the cables stretch a bit, I suddenly find my bike slipping between gears. And so I finally have come to the conclusion: why go to all of the bother of doing maintenance on a gearing system that benefits me not at all when it's working correctly, but annoys the heck out of me when it's not working?

I live in a hilly area and use all 20 on every one of my mid-week 20-mile rides (only need the granny for getting up my own driveway at the end of the ride, though!)

Good riding,
desmobob

Road bike: All 14 regularly. MTB: mostly the top 9. Strange now that I mention it.

Have: 20 REALLY use: about 7

Have 21, tend to use about 6... would use more, but the hills dictate the changes.

44-28, 44-21, 52-21, 52-19, and 52-17... rarely slipping into 52-15, which with a good cadence, puts me close to 27MPH... any faster and I'll just coast, thanks.

Depends what and where. On my patrol bike, I never shift out of the middle chainring, and maybe four cogs. The university is fairly flat.

On my rather weighty homemade recumbent, I need 'em all....

1. I ride exclusively fixed gear and singlespeed bicycles.

Occasionally my highest; occasionally my lowest; and most of the ones in between. Except for big-big and little-little.

Only one at a time. I have tried to use more than one, but I keep throwing the chain.

I have 27.

I generally stay only in my middle chainring. I sometime go into my highest chainring, but never into my lowest.

This is exactly how I do it - although on rare occassions, I might drop into my granny gear on something really steep depening on how I feel, weather, terrain, etc. I seldom use the high chainring because there are few flat areas where I ride.

I use 5.

On the road I use all 9 rear cogs with the middle chainring. Very rarely use the smaller chainring "granny gears", and never the large one. Really I think a double woulld be fine for me.

one: 39 x 15 - when I take my racer 3 or 4, I forget I have gears!

Have 27 and use 3 regularly. No hill climbing on my rides all flats. My front dr cable broke a few weeks ago and I didn't even bother fixing it since I never use it

After reading all the posts from those of you who don't use more than a couple of gears, I'm thinking either there is no wind or hills or changing terrain where you live, or you are really killing your knees (with apologies to fixies!).

Gears are there for a reason and although you probably have way more subtle changes between gears than you need, using more of them can make the most efficient machine (the body) make better use of the 2nd most efficient machine (the bike).

Or maybe someone should just invent (another) "automatic" bike so we don't have to bother with gears. And hey, why not add two more wheels for stability. And while we are at it, cover the thing to protect us from the elements. And, you know, we can get kinda tired, so maybe add an engine to give the rider a break. That engine can't use batteries, they are not practical. I know, make it run on ancient disolved vegetation and dinosaur bones. What a great idea! That will make a better environment!

Killing your knees? Ive never had that problem cept on a bike that wasnt setup properly. I use one and only one gear.To climb you stand up and climb, its pretty simple really.

My road bike has 18 gears and I use 16 of them on most rides.
My commuter has 27 gears and I only have to resort to 18 so far. The granny gear is "just in case".

After reading all the posts from those of you who don't use more than a couple of gears, I'm thinking either there is no wind or hills or changing terrain where you live, or you are really killing your knees (with apologies to fixies!).

Gears are there for a reason and although you probably have way more subtle changes between gears than you need, using more of them can make the most efficient machine (the body) make better use of the 2nd most efficient machine (the bike).

As a purely semantical point, most people buy a bike with the best fit and "dial it in" to achieve a constant predictable ride. I do the opposite and switch bikes, saddles, and types of rides to achieve an adaptability.

I rarely use more than one gear, and am thinking of having my shifters and derailleur removed. Having all of those extra gears means that when the cables stretch a bit, I suddenly find my bike slipping between gears. And so I finally have come to the conclusion: why go to all of the bother of doing maintenance on a gearing system that benefits me not at all when it's working correctly, but annoys the heck out of me when it's not working?

Why not just keep a front derailluer with a small chainring?

Killing your knees? Ive never had that problem cept on a bike that wasnt setup properly. I use one and only one gear.To climb you stand up and climb, its pretty simple really.
I can't believe that it is a struggle starting at a stop sign or, conversly if you are using a really easy gear, you must bounce or spin like a wild person on downhills.

For me, when I grind too big a gear, my knees hurt.

I use all 27 gears on my road bike, and about 5 of 21 on my commuter bike.

49/16, 52/17, and 52/16 gears tween my three bikes

Starting from a dead stop isnt much of a struggle if you stand up and pedal, 2-3 turns of the cranks and your moving.

I use all the gears except the cross chaining ones. Most of my riding is in the middle chainring and on the smaller sprockets. I shift to the other chainrings when I want a wide ratio shift, usually fro a sudden change in road gradient.

I only use one gear at a time, but the more gears you have the more likely you are to find the right one for the road, wind and body conditions. I dont have the resources for changing the bike set-up for every ride.

On my relaxed but hilly 5 km commute, I use all 21 gears. A few years back, I was happy with using only the 3 internal gears (Sachs 3x7), but now I can't imagine why I'd not shift to the most suitable gear.

I can't believe that it is a struggle starting at a stop sign or, conversly if you are using a really easy gear, you must bounce or spin like a wild person on downhills.


Downhills were made for coasting. HTH

Too Many Gears=Too Much Complexity In My Ride. I have been going for the simple bike these past 6 and a half years and do not need or miss derailleurs.

I have a triple with a 10 speed cassette. 30 theoretical speeds.

I use 10 speeds against the middle chainring = 10
5 lowest on the granny gear = 5
5 highest on the large chainring = 5

Total = 20

There's just a tad of overlap on the gears I use. Despite the 10 "wasted" gears I think this is a great setup, as most of the time I'm in the middle chainring shifting up and down the rear sprockets.

To climb you stand up and climb, its pretty simple really.For 4+ miles?

Downhills were made for coasting. HTH
Yeah, but then I hit midlife crisis and realized I had no brakes.

I'd rather add my own kinetic energy, thanks.