Fifty Plus (50+) - Why so many gears

I just got my morning ride in and I was playing around with the different gears.For the most part I ride in 2nd gear on the front and 4,5 or 6 on the back. I put the front up to 3rd and 8th in the back and I had cross chain. Then I tried some more gears and the same thing. I forget all the combinations I had tried but it seems to me a person would be better off with just 2 gears up front and whatever in back. As you can see I haven't rode that much but I just thought it would take weight off and stop a lot of cross chaining and rub. Just a thought, George

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Just because you have all of those potential gear combinations available doesn't mean that it makes sense to use all of them. My tandem has a triple crankset but I only ever use the granny chainring with the 2 or 3 largest rear cogs. I only use the 53 chainring with the smallest few rear cogs. Sometimes, however, it's nice to have that much range of gears, from the fastest to the slowest, available.

George,

You might want to go back and read some of the posts in "Still puzzled Part II" to see some interesting posts regarding your question. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=220448

Much, much, much of it is hype to sell more bikes with the "newest" model - now up to 30, AFAIK?? Anyone have more than 30?

I just came back on a ride on my 21 speed mtn bike, and I did just fine. Those folks with fixies and single speeds do fine.

I suspect about 18 gears is all one needs for most bicycling, if that many.

But, I DO want that Granny gear, and I do like the 53-11 for going down a modest incline and relaxing while doing it but keeping my speed up.

I have 30! and I have used them all...even though I'm told I shouldn't have!:roflmao:

You will learn how to use all of your gears. Give it time.

I had a 'bent' one time, Trek R600? 40 gears (5x8)! Never could figure what gear combination I was in. Drove me banana's.

In theory, the more gears the better. That way, one can pretty much maintain an ideal cadence under nearly all conditions. For most riders, this can simply be overkill.
Kind of depends on where and under what conditions you ride, and your weight and overall state of fitness.

I found when woods riding I seldom got out of the granny gear, and certainly never up into the "big ring".

Doing bike patrol at my mostly-level campus, I never shift out of the middle ring, and use maybe four cogs in the back.

The park where I do most of my recreational riding has one long hill that's always a challenge to maintain speed on; it's usually a low-gear slog.

Just observing the large number of cyclists I see daily at work, I am constantly amazed at how many of them apparently have no clue whatever as to proper riding technique.

Gears are there and if you have got them- You will use them. To me- 21-24-27 and possibly 30 are no different to each other. What does make a difference is the size of those gears. I ride 3 bikes- all with different triples on the front. The hard one to ride is the Tandem. That is heavy uphills- so why is the lowest gear-24/32. The MTB is 22/34. Difference is that I can still climb the steepest hills in our area on the Tandem- and I dont use any lower than 22/28 on the MTB. Then the road bike has a low gear of 30/26. Did a couple of hills today and I used that gear on them- So why is it that On the Tandem I still use the lowest gear on those same hills. Simple- It is there so I use it.

In theory, the more gears the better. That way, one can pretty much maintain an ideal cadence under nearly all conditions. For most riders, this can simply be overkill.
Kind of depends on where and under what conditions you ride, and your weight and overall state of fitness.

I found when woods riding I seldom got out of the granny gear, and certainly never up into the "big ring".

Doing bike patrol at my mostly-level campus, I never shift out of the middle ring, and use maybe four cogs in the back.

The park where I do most of my recreational riding has one long hill that's always a challenge to maintain speed on; it's usually a low-gear slog.

Just observing the large number of cyclists I see daily at work, I am constantly amazed at how many of them apparently have no clue whatever as to proper riding technique.

It's kind of like driving a vehicle....people are allowed to operate them with just the barest minimum of knowledge. :)

How high a top gear do you want/need? Although Denver likes his 53/11, I frankly wouldn't know what to do with anything over about 100-gear inches, e.g. 52/14 or 48/13.

How low a bottom gear do you want/need? For commuting or lightly loaded road cycling, I find a bottom bailout gear in the mid-40s and a second gear around 50 inches pretty much takes care of my needs.

How much gap can you tolerate between gears? This is where I am pretty sensitive, preferring a gap of
no more than 6 or 7% through the midrange, perhaps a bit wider at the very top and bottom.

Doing the math, I find that I need at least a 12-speed (14 to 18 is even better) setup to cover the range without undue gaps.

For example, I happily commute on 45-42 / 13-15-17-20-23-26 gearing, never using the 45/26 and rarely using either the 42/13 or my 42/26 low. Thus, I have 9 heavily used gears from 50 to 93.

### 42 45
26 43.6 (46.7)
23 49.3 52.8
20 56.7 60.75
17 66.7 71.5
15 75.6 81
13 87.2 93.5

For calibration, my 42/23 is comparable to first gear on an English 3-speed with a standard AW hub, my 42/17 is very close to second, and my 45/13 is very slightly higher than third. In contrast, default Tour de France gearing of 53-39 / 11-21 covers a range of about 50 to 130 gear-inches, with ratiometric progression comparable to mine.

I ride my 21-speed mountain bike as though it were a 14-speed, using the middle and outer chainrings onroad and the inner and middle rings offroad.

I think my eyes just glazed over.....(trust me, that's not to say that I don't wish I understood what John E just wrote):D

I think my eyes just glazed over.....(trust me, that's not to say that I don't wish I understood what John E just wrote):D

Glazed eyes is one way of spotting a fellow Club Clueless member... :D

You will learn how to use all of your gears. Give it time.

Not if you don't need them... For folks who live in hilly terrain, gears may be a Godsend, but for those who live in the flats, gears're a curse! I've got a single front chainring, eight rear cogs, and have about four more gears than I really want, need, or use.

I'm not cursing those extra gears myself, I just don't need them. Like triple front cranks, well populated cassettes are more of a thing for folks who climb, race, or tour with varying terrain, IMHO. :)

Although Denver likes his 53/11, I frankly wouldn't know what to do with anything over about 100-gear inches, e.g. 52/14 or 48/13.

John - you write such nice things!

Really, if you are descending a gently/moderately sloping hill, and want to keep your speed up but your cadence low as you relax and enjoy the scenery, the 53/11 really fits the bill - for me.

Not if you don't need them... For folks who live in hilly terrain, gears may be a Godsend, but for those who live in the flats, gears're a curse! I've got a single front chainring, eight rear cogs, and have about four more gears than I really want, need, or use.

I'm not cursing those extra gears myself, I just don't need them. Like triple front cranks, well populated cassettes are more of a thing for folks who climb, race, or tour with varying terrain, IMHO. :)

You are probably right. Here we have a really varied terrain, so it makes sense to have a triple and all those crazy gears!

I think we should all have at least one REVERSE

I think we should all have at least one REVERSE

Wait. Are you saying that when I pedal backwards that's NOT reverse? No wonder I never seemed to get anywhere. :p

George, John E. was trying to describe the whole theory behind gearing which you can read on the web in several places. The basic function of all the gears is to allow you to ride at your best cadence no matter what terrain you are in. The steeper the hill or the higher the wind, the lower the gear you will need to keep your 75 rpm cadence.

If you look at your chain in the big chain ring and the big sprocket or the little chain ring and the little sprocket, you will see the chain in an uncomfortable bend which you want to avoid. That is two gears gone. If you use, say Sheldon's gear calculator you will find that you have several duplicate gears. That can be ok. It allows you to ride the right gear without changing the front ring.

I think a triple really seems to compound the problem of figuring this out. I never had one but if I did I would forget the small ring and consider it a bail out gear. I ride with a 48, 36 on the chain ring and 12-25 on the rear cogs. Normally I can go from 48x12 to 48x19 and then shift down to the 36 and double shift to the 15 and continue. It's all about staying in a gear that lets you pedal efficiently. There will be duplications in gear inches but that is ok. I here more people confused about this problem with triples than I do with people with doubles. I would suggest forgeting about the granny when figuring out your gearing as it would be for really hard drives.

I forget all the combinations I had tried but it seems to me a person would be better off with just 2 gears up front and whatever in back.Basically, you're right.

Most cyclists seldom operate their bodies and bicycles at effort levels that require an exacting gear ratio.In fact, most cyclists are "slowed" by having to shift across two or three cogs in the rear to get to the necessary change of gear ratio. So yes, there is such a thing as too many gears.

So while your comment is accurate - it's not accurate for the reasons you state and misunderstand.

Thanks for all the replys. I think they should make it optional if you want more gears or not.Some people, like myself and many of you will probably never use or need all those gears. They're on the bike so I'll just play around like I did today,but I think they could make it an option. George

Well, you do have the option to change anything on your bike that you don't like. There are plenty of double and single cranks out there. Or by removing a few bolts and adjusting a derailleur, you can make your triple into a double or even a single. With a few spacers you can remove some cogs from your cassette. Also, they do sell bikes with fewer gears, even single speeds.

Thanks for all the replys. I think they should make it optional if you want more gears or not.Some people, like myself and many of you will probably never use or need all those gears. They're on the bike so I'll just play around like I did today,but I think they could make it an option. George

You can change chainrings and cassette as much as your little heart desires - you don't have the live the the mfgr's stock configs.

For 75% of my normal riding, I am quite happy with the 50/39 and 8spd cassette on my old Bianchi, and I don't really use more than 4 gears on that. When loaded or when there is serious climbing to do, then the Fuji with its 48/36/26 and 11-34 9spd is kinda nice. ')

All those gears aren't there just for advertising hype. They're there to increase the performance of the bicycle for those who ride at the limit.

I used to worry about gear ratios and it does make a difference if you're road racing in hilly terrain.

Now I have a compact front and a 12-27 9-speed cassette and if I don't have the perfect gear for it I use my next best selection. I live in a relatively hilly area and I put in more than 4,000 miles a year.

There are reasons for all those gears but most of us don't need them nor even use them so they're a waste of time and money. What's more, the 10 speed chains, rings and cogs wear out quite a bit faster than the old 7-speed stuff. Though I must admit that I'm partial to my 9-speed stuff and intend to keep it.

I have two bikes with 27 and one bike with 18. If I never knew about anything over 18, I'd probably never care. For me 18 does it all but I do use all the others when I ride those bikes. Lots hills here. Just got back from a 70 miler on the old 18spd Trek 830. Great bike.

I think the summation is this:

You should be able to find a gear that suits the cadence you want for a particular situation. You should NOT have to adjust your cadence as a replacement for a gear that you don't have.

Well, it depends what you need.

You mentioned not using the small gear (chainring) up front. That is as it should be. I have a bike with a triple and I use the small ring only on A) very steep hills or B) very long, moderately steep hills.

Also the gearing you like depends some on the how much performance oriented you are. I have found that having gears closely spaced is a really good thing when I am in a fast group. It is really nice to have a gear that is virtually ideal for the speed I am going. That way I can minimize my pain and suffering. However, for solo riding, well shoot, I just ride a little faster or ride a little slower according to my gearing. Close spacing of gears is not as big a deal then.

Also, you really don't have 30 effective gears in a bike with the 10 speed cassette and 3 chain rings up front. You will have gear combination that you really should not use because of the chain line and you will have a certain number of duplicate gears. A 30 gear bike probably has something like 20 effective gears.

In the old days with 2 chain rings and 5 rear gears, people tinkered quite a bit with their gearing to try to achieve 9 or 10 effective gears. That is now a thing of the past. Most people just select a chain ring and do rear shifts until forced by a hill to shift down to the next lower chain ring.

My first recumbent has a Sachs (now SRAM) 3x7 rear hub, which combined a 3-speed hub with a 7-speed cassette body. Using a standard triple chainring on the front, I had 63 speeds, and used almost all of them. (I rarely used the low/low gears.) I could loaf up a 16% grade at 3 mph or blast down the other side at 50+ mph. With that many gears, I used the hub as underdrive and overdrive.

11/12/13T gears are too small for everyday use, IMHO, although they're fine for downhills or tailwind. They cause excessive chain and gear wear, and that increased wear comes from rising power losses. I try to arrange my gearing so that a 14 or 15T is the smallest gear I use for fast cruising. That means big chainrings, but I'm OK with that!

too many gears is like too much sex :D

too many gears is like too much sex :D

Let's see - there is the male sex and the female sex, and sometimes somewhere in between. That makes about 3 - just exactly the number of gears I had on my original Hercules English racer in the 50's. And they did me just fine! :D

Heck, I rode 130 miles with 8500 feet of climbing only with a 46/18 gear on Saturday. I didn't even have the luxury of multiple gears!...:D

Too many gears? Nope.

I have a 53/39 front (I think) and a 12-27? 9-speed rear. I'm not a strong climber, but I descend like a rocket. I use 53/12 on fast descents and wish I had an 11 back there. On steep climbs late in the ride I'll drop down to 39/27 and wish I had a lower gear. I use everything in between, too.

Don't decide that features are useless because you haven't figured out how to use them yet.

... For folks who live in hilly terrain, gears may be a Godsend, but for those who live in the flats, gears're a curse! I've got a single front chainring, eight rear cogs, and have about four more gears than I really want, need, or use.

I'm not cursing those extra gears myself, I just don't need them. Like triple front cranks, well populated cassettes are more of a thing for folks who climb, race, or tour with varying terrain, IMHO. :)


Riding exclusively on flat terrain would be a curse for me. It's hard for me to imagine that I would ever have become very involved in cycling if I lived in a flat area. For me, the hills are what make it worth doing.

I wouldn't call it a curse but extra bagage for sure. I could easily live with just my big ring and about 5 gears in the back. Flat terrain can be boring but we have the wind to simulate climbing and the beach. Of course come January I will take flat and 80F vs Hills and 30F any day.