Bicycle Mechanics - Half-serious newbie brake question

This is one of those 'Things that make you go hmmmm' questions.

Could someone explain why exactly I need 15 speeds on my bike? I've ridden for almost a year and have yet to use more than six of them! :) :rolleyes: :confused:

Originally posted by Panda Phil
This is actually one of those 'Things that make you go hmmmm' questions.

Could someone explain to me why exactly I need 15 speeds on my bike? I've ridden for almost a year and have yet to use more than six of them! :rolleyes: :confused: Take it back and get a partial refund.

Are you not using the low ones or the high ones? Of course there is always some duplication and redundancy in gearing, so you current system has about 9 usable different ratios.
Many bikes are over-geared for non-athletic riders, so high gears are never used.
Some terrain is too gentle to use the lowest gear, but its always worth having a low gear.
You may want to change or reduce the range of your 15 gears. Many flatland riders use a single chainring for simplicty, with an 8 speed rear cogset. Gearing solutions are really up to the rider, you dont have to accept what the marketing men give you.

there is some redundancy in the middle, but overall it wasn't till i was better trained that i started using more and more gears.

Michael is right. I'm upgrading at the moment from a 6 speed rear to 8 speed with new wheels.

The new cassette is an 11-30 coupled with a 48-38-28 front.

Now given that I never ever used top gear as was (48-12) there is no way I will be pushing 48-11, so I may drop the outer ring size.

I wanted lots of scope for low gears for touring.

what does this have to do with brakes?

Ack! Typo!!

hehe fuguttabouttit. I've done the same, except I've usually caught it in the nick of time. :D

It all depends on where you ride and how fast.

Is the road flat?
Is it hilly?
Are there mountains?
Do you race?
Do you cruise?

Depending on the answers to these questions, anything from 1 gear to 30 can be used.

A person racing in the big hills will use every gear to maintain a 80+ cadence up hills and a gear to hit 80kph on the downhills. They also use a bunch of gears to hold 37-50kph on the flat. Plus a few gears to wind up to 60kph for a sprint finish.

It all depends on how fast you ride and the location.

CHEERS.

Mark

Dutchy has it right. I have 18 and I go through all of them. Technical climbs are the most brutal and require the most downshifting. Without that small ring I would end up hike a biking through the mountains.

I also agree with RiphRaph there is an efficiency factor to each set of gears. The better trained you become the more range you will use.

If you still dont use them all....singlespeed time.

Of course, on modern bikes (of which a 15-speed is not included), there are a couple of gear/ring combos which should be avoided, namely the big/big and the small/small combinations. Other than that, if you aren't at least occasionally using all the other combinations, perhaps you have more range than you need?

I recently upgraded two old 10 speeds to one speed. :D