Hybrid Bicycles - 48-36-26 or 42-32-24 for mostly cycling on roads and pavements?

If you had the choice between a 42-32-24 or 48-36-26, which would you pick for your Hybrid bike?

I'm using a 11-36t 10 speed cassette. 11 x 13 x 15 x 17 x 19 x 21 x 24 x 28 x 32 x 36. The stock bike comes with a 42-32-24 but I'm thinking of swapping it for a 48-36-26

I did a couple of gear calculations. It seems that at low speeds, the 42-32-24 has a slightly lower gear range of 18.2 gear inches, compared to the 48-36-26 which has a lowest gear of 19.7 gear inches.

At medium to high speeds ranging between 35.1 gear inches and 104.3 gear inches, both of them appear to have almost an equivalent gear to match the other. The main difference is that a 42/11 maxes out at 104.3 gear inches, almost equivalent to the 48/13's 100.9 gear inches. However the latter still has 1 additional gear of 48/11, giving it about 119.2 gear inches.

So pretty much the main difference between the 2 gears would be that the 48-36-26 can go one gear higher, while the 42-32-24 has more 'steps' for low ranges. Given this, which one would you pick?

The reason I'm asking is because many people here tell me that they almost never use the 48/11 gear except under perfect conditions such as going down a hill + tailwind. I'm a girl and I doubt I would have the strength to peddle it either. But it just seems to me that I have almost nothing to lose by getting the 48-36-26 gear, so why not just pay a couple of bucks to get them to swap it for me?

Thanks. :)

Gear Charts (http://i.imgur.com/T0U4S.jpg)

High & Middle gears:
(48/11) 119.2 vs N/A
(48/13) 100.9 vs 104.3 (42/11) [-3.36%]
(48/15) 87.4 vs 88.3 (42/13) [-1.02%]
(48/17) 77.1 vs 76.5 (42/15) [+0.78%]
(36/15) 65.6 vs 67.5 (42/17) [-2.89%]
(36/17) 57.9 vs 58.3 (32/15) [-0.69%]
(36/19) 51.8 vs 51.4 (32/17) [+0.72%]
(36/21) 46.8 vs 46.0 (32/19) [+1.71%]
(36/24) 41.0 vs 41.6 (32/21) [-1.41%]
(36/28) 35.1 vs 36.4 (32/24) [-3.70%]

Low Gears:
(26/24) 29.6 vs 31.2 (32/28)
(26/28) 25.4 vs 27.3 (24/24)
(26/32) 22.2 vs 23.4 (24/28)
(26/36) 19.7 vs 20.5 (24/32)
N/A. vs 18.2 (24/36)

Depends on how hilly your area is. Here in Fort Worth, there are certainly a few hills, but the steep ones are pretty short. I would definitely go with 48-36-26. I think that's what's on my hybrid currently and I still run out of gears at the top end. Going down to 1 in the front and 1 in the back is extremely rare for me. If you live in the mountains of Colorado, maybe the lower ratios would be better.

You don't mention what cassette you are using but for mostly flat ground with moderate hills I'd go with 48-36-26. I have that same crank on my 7.5FX (with a 9sp 11-26 cassette) and it works well for me living in hilly area. I think the 42-32-24 crank would give you larger gear jumps (depending on the cassette) on flat ground in exchange for more climbing gears.

You don't mention what cassette you are using but for mostly flat ground with moderate hills I'd go with 48-36-26. I have that same crank on my 7.5FX (with a 9sp 11-26 cassette) and it works well for me living in hilly area. I think the 42-32-24 crank would give you larger gear jumps on flat ground in exchange for more climbing gears.

Sorry updated with all the info and a diagram. :)

It actually provides a lower range (18.2 vs 19.7) and gives you an extra gear at low speeds. Due to the extra gear, the jump between granny gears is smaller on the 42-32-24. However at middle to higher gears, the gear inches are pretty much almost the same, with the 48-36-26 having much faster top gear.

High & Middle gears:
(48/11) 119.2 vs N/A
(48/13) 100.9 vs 104.3 (42/11) [-3.36%]
(48/15) 87.4 vs 88.3 (42/13) [-1.02%]
(48/17) 77.1 vs 76.5 (42/15) [+0.78%]
(36/15) 65.6 vs 67.5 (42/17) [-2.89%]
(36/17) 57.9 vs 58.3 (32/15) [-0.69%]
(36/19) 51.8 vs 51.4 (32/17) [+0.72%]
(36/21) 46.8 vs 46.0 (32/19) [+1.71%]
(36/24) 41.0 vs 41.6 (32/21) [-1.41%]
(36/28) 35.1 vs 36.4 (32/24) [-3.70%]

Low Gears:
(26/24) 29.6 vs 31.2 (32/28)
(26/28) 25.4 vs 27.3 (24/24)
(26/32) 22.2 vs 23.4 (24/28)
(26/36) 19.7 vs 20.5 (24/32)
N/A. vs 18.2 (24/36)

An 11-36 cassette is pretty wide spacing, you shouldn't really need more than a 28-32T granny gear unless you're climbing some serious hills. I guess it's a 10sp triple so it's not much different than an 11-32 9sp. You should plug in cadence (say 80rpm) and see what speed those gears give you. I'd be worried that the 42-32-24 would force you to constantly jump between the middle and large crank gears at higher speeds on flat ground.

First bike, nothing to gauge it off with :(

I've been riding two bikes lately, one with a set-up close to the 48/36/26 and the other closer to the 42/32/24 and with almost identical cassettes. I prefer the larger chainring set-up. The gear ratios that result from that set-up more closely match my riding style than the smaller chainring set-up. YMMV.

I plan to exclusively ride the bike with the smaller chainrings but I'm going to replace them with a Sugino XD-600 which is about 46/36/26, or something similar.

First bike, nothing to gauge it off with :(

Well I'll keep it simple then, if you live on flat ground get the 48-36-26 and possibly swap on an 11-28 cassette. If you live in a moderately hilly area same thing but leave the 11-36 cassette. If you live in an area with steep hills (or plan to ride them) get the 42-34-24. Cassettes are pretty cheap ($30-50) plus about $5 in labor to install.

42-32-24 seems unusual, are you sure it's not 44-32-22?

A lot will depend on the terrain you're riding. If it's mostly flat then I'd go for the higher gearing option in a heartbeat because a 42-tooth outer chainring seems pretty low in gearing terms. I can see you getting to grips with riding (I don't know what your fitness is like and if you're into exercise aside from cycling) and then spending most of your time in the highest gears, rendering the low gears pointless. If you live in the Alps then a 24-36 granny gear would be quite attractive, especially to a new cyclist (22-36 might be even nicer on the steepest sections)

As you say a 48-11 gear is pretty high. Even going down some good hills I don't think I've ever used my 44-11 top gear on my MTB although I've used the next gear down (44-13 I think) and gotten to 38mph on it. That said when I'm riding the roads on my MTB as soon as I get moving I change onto the outer (44t) chainring and the 4th or 5th gear on the cassette, so I get extremely little use out of the smaller chainrings. If I never took the MTB off road I'd have swapped the chainrings for a 48-36-26 setup some months back.

If you're completely new to cycling you may find a 48t outer chainring to be sufficiently high you hardly ever use it, but a higher gearing option gives you something to grow into as you get fitter and stronger.

I'd go 48/36/26 instead of the 42/32/24 not because of the gearing at the high or low ends of the range but because I'd rather have the 36t middle ring than the 32t.

Jaslynn, overthinking is great but I think a chart full of numbers isn't going to answer your question.
The question here is: will you ever need those few high gears or will you ever need those few low gears.
Nobody here can actually answer that for you as it is a very personal question and it depends on how strong you are and what terrain you will be riding on.
Personally, I think that a 24/36 gear is just insanely low.
I do not understand why people use such things except for actual real ultrasteep and tricky mountainbiking.
I have a 52-42-30 crankset on my hybrid so my smallest chainwheel is 30 ... and I think I have used it twice last year.
... but then that's me ... a pretty strong rider ... it's all very personal.

My advice would be to ditch the cassette.
A cassette with 11-36 is a mountainbiking cassette and has really big gaps between gears, which isn't optimal for finding the right cadence while riding on rolling roads and will force you to shift your front wheel to find the right gear sometimes. Cadence is a much overlooked but very important factor.
Get something like an 11-28 or 12-27 road cassette or the likes and you'll have much tighter gear intervals ... then couple that to either crankset.

Which crankset you need depends on your typical cruising speed.
Optimally, you want your chain to be in the middle of your cassette while cruising, because:
-your chain wears less there.
-the cogs wear less there.
-less friction = more power.
-you have the option to quickly go up or down.
What you don't want is to be on one of the smallest cogs most of the time.
So ... take your typical cruising speed and calculate (using crank arm length, wheel & tire size and gear ratios) what gear you will need to keep that cruising speed ... then find a cassette and crankset combo that let's you sit in the middle of the cassette while at that speed.

I told you I like overtinking things ;)

I'd ditch the 11-36 cassette, too. To me the main advantage of a triple crankset over a double is that you can keep the steps between gears small and still have a sufficient range of gearing. It's very unlikely(but not impossible, I suppose) you'll need gearing as low as either of those triple cranksets would give you with that cassette.

Do the cruising speed test suggested by AdelaaR then calculate from there.

Basically, either crank should work fine as long as you match the cassette to your needs.
Just make sure your "bailout gear" is low enough for the steepest hill you have to climb. There's no sense wasting lower gears you'll never need.

Since this is the Hybrid Forum and not Road Bike, you probably don't need more than 90 or so gear inches for a high gear.
You reach a point that wind resistance will prevent you from going any faster.

Looks to me like you would get a very useable range of gears on the middle ring with a middle ring of 36t and an 11-28 cassette--a little less than 35 gear inches on the low end and a little more than 88 gear inches on the high end. I'd be living in the middle ring on that bike. That's assuming the selections for wheel and tire size I inputted on the gear calculator are in the ballpark.




http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Jaslynn, overthinking is great but I think a chart full of numbers isn't going to answer your question.
The question here is: will you ever need those few high gears or will you ever need those few low gears.
Nobody here can actually answer that for you as it is a very personal question and it depends on how strong you are and what terrain you will be riding on.
Personally, I think that a 24/36 gear is just insanely low.
I do not understand why people use such things except for actual real ultrasteep and tricky mountainbiking.
I have a 52-42-30 crankset on my hybrid so my smallest chainwheel is 30 ... and I think I have used it twice last year.
... but then that's me ... a pretty strong rider ... it's all very personal.

My advice would be to ditch the cassette.
A cassette with 11-36 is a mountainbiking cassette and has really big gaps between gears, which isn't optimal for finding the right cadence while riding on rolling roads and will force you to shift your front wheel to find the right gear sometimes. Cadence is a much overlooked but very important factor.
Get something like an 11-28 or 12-27 road cassette or the likes and you'll have much tighter gear intervals ... then couple that to either crankset.

Which crankset you need depends on your typical cruising speed.
Optimally, you want your chain to be in the middle of your cassette while cruising, because:
-your chain wears less there.
-the cogs wear less there.
-less friction = more power.
-you have the option to quickly go up or down.
What you don't want is to be on one of the smallest cogs most of the time.
So ... take your typical cruising speed and calculate (using crank arm length, wheel & tire size and gear ratios) what gear you will need to keep that cruising speed ... then find a cassette and crankset combo that let's you sit in the middle of the cassette while at that speed.

I told you I like overtinking things ;)

Agree - and this isn't over thinking - just well thought out.

My hybrid came with a 42/34/24t crankset and a wide range cassette. When commuting, I found that I was having to make frequent jumps from the middle chainring to the large one. I also found that I ran out of gears when riding downhill or with a tailwind. I switched my crankset to a 48/38/28t one and now have more useable gear ranges for commuting purposes. I can usually stay on the middle chainring, though I frequently shift to the largest chainring when I want to give myself a bit of a workout.

I ended up having to swap my front derailleur when I changed cranks, but that was an easy swap.

I've currently got an Alivio 48-36-26 crankset with an 11-28 9-speed cassette on a 700c touring/hybrid and find the gearing more than adequate. I don't ride the 48-11 often except, as you mentioned, on downhill grades or with a tail wind, but the 12 and 13 cogs are great on flat ground. I don't have a lot of hills around here, but the 36 ring and the middle 4 cogs handle a lot of headwind, or any of the moderate hills I have encountered, so I have lots of lower gearing left if I ever need it.

I am currently running a 24/32/42 on my MB which i ride on improved dirt roads mostly. I seem to be having the same issues, bouncing between 42/32 and not enough gear on the down hill runs. more than enough options for climbing the little hills around here.

cassete is 7 speed 14-28

First off, I commend you in your extensive research Jas. I'm actually quite impressed!! I can only share my experiences with my bike so here it goes.
I do ride both mountain and road with the same bike(trek ds 8.4). Being its only a 27 speed with having 26/36/48 up front, and 10-34 at the rear, I have a lot of versatility. On most mtb occasions, I use the 36 up front and 34-28 in the rear. (2-1 to 2-3). Rarely unless the climb is super steep, I would go 26/34. (1-1). I also use 29er tires when I go on mtb rides.
When I go on the road, I put on some 700x32 tires and ride away. The most comfortable gear on the road for me is 48/13 or 3-8. When I do go on 48/10 or 3-9, it is when I am either going for top speed or going on a down hill. Going the biggest gear up front all depends on how strong your legs are if how strong you want to get.
The way I see it, it is an option and it is there if I need it. Remember, which ever one you decide on going to, (22/32/44 or 26/3/44), it isn't permanent. You can always CHANGE to bigger/smaller crank gears in the future.

I ended up having to swap my front derailleur when I changed cranks, but that was an easy swap.

You shouldn't need to change your derailleur when swapping between these cranks ... simply placing it a bit higher should suffice. "Should" ... but sometimes it might get more tricky I guess.

Of those choices I would opt for 48 36 26. Given the rear gearing I would go to a 52 42 30. You would have the low end well covered with a 30 36 for tree climbing but I think the 52 would give you more flexibility on the high end and let you fly downhill.

You shouldn't need to change your derailleur when swapping between these cranks ... simply placing it a bit higher should suffice. "Should" ... but sometimes it might get more tricky I guess.
I started off using the bike with its original Shimano Tourney derailleur set higher on the seat tube. My particular one was designed for a 42t maximum chainring. The problem I ran into was a result of the curved surface on the derailleur. In order to get the derailleur to clear the chainring, the chain would bottom out on the derailleur when on the smallest chainring. The replacement derailleur was cheap, so I went ahead and replaced it, in spite of never using the smallest chainring.

I wouldn't automatically replace the derailleur when putting on a larger crankset. I would only do it if you can't make the original derailleur cooperate with the new crankset.

Jaslynn

No one can help you 100% with your question because we don’t know your abilities or the type of wind and hills you may encounter. You do say it will be your first bike so there are things to think about like cross chaining, cassette spacing, chain-ring spacing etc. And of course your highest and lowest gear range. There are several methods you will be using to progress up and down thru your gears as you ride. Some involve just a cassette shift others require a shift both front and back. If you look at how a derailleur works on the front it moves the chain on the top of the sprockets the top of the chain is under tension from the force of you peddling and also is a much more severe jump in the number of teeth or diameter of the rings than in the back. A front shift should IMO be thought of as a soft shift where you back off the force to the peddles but keep the chain freely spinning while you shift. The rear shift is much easier to do because the chain only sees the spring tension of the derailleur and only a couple teeth jump in size, this shift is easier to do while under power also. If you put your numbers into a calculator that graphs the gears and where they overlap it will tell you so much more than looking at your high and low gear inch numbers. I like this calculator. http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html (http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html)
To give you an idea of range you might need I like to compare to what fully loaded touring bikes commonly have. Most of this type bike have the riders weight and also 50 plus pounds of gear on the bike and are setup to see the extremes of conditions and they mostly fall between 20 and 100 gear inches. Keep in mind most of these riders are in good fairly good shape. If someone new to biking is 50 pounds overweight and not in great condition yet they are basically going to need something like touring gears.
To me it all starts on a triple with your center chain-ring and center gear on your cassette and then your strength and desired cadence. In the center position you should be able to use all the gears on the cassette. When on the big ring I would limit myself to just the 5 smallest and when in the granny just the 5 largest as a normal practice to get into and that should help your chain among other things.

Now you are faced with cassette spacing and fine tuning gears as you ride. I actually am one that likes a widely spaced Cassette like you are talking about and on my favorite bike I have a 12-36 (9sp) I like to also sequentially shift up and down the cassette and do very few double shifts in the course of a normal ride. When I shift up front it is because of a major change in the wind or hills and once in the new front gear I then start sequentially shifting on the cassette again until the next major change. Many road bike riders with tight spaced cassettes will do the up 2 or 3 shift in the back then a up or down one on the front shift. The shifting patterns are more complex but you will quickly learn them. It’s just not what I like and when they added all those gears to the back I just liked being able to sequentially shift back only. I personally don’t feel those 2 or 3 tooth jumps are too big for how I ride, I’m sure I modify my cadence at the same time or something without knowing it and its all good.

So to answer your question for me and my 70 to 90 RPM cadence and your rear cassette I would like the larger set in the front I would even want a 40 or 42 tooth center chain-ring depending on tire size. Something else to keep in mind with the tallest gears a 115 gear inch is most likely too large of a gear but I find myself when going down a long grade shifting up into that gear and riding with a slower cadence rather than coasting. Makes me feel more in control and also keeps the legs warm and moving. Sometimes with a slight tailwind I will mash those tall gears for a while also around 50 RPM just to give the legs a little different feeling and a different type workout. So there are uses for them other than going 45 MPH.

Hope this helps. To change the crank is not really too big of a job and the cost of a new crank is not really that much, so whatever you end up with if it doesn’t seem right by all means experiment till you get it right. It’s very hard to take a test spin around the parking lot of your LBS and have any idea if the gearing is right for you. Make sure you get a good fitting also and one that’s based around how you are going to want to ride.

Now you are faced with cassette spacing and fine tuning gears as you ride. I actually am one that likes a widely spaced Cassette like you are talking about and on my favorite bike I have a 12-36 (9sp) I like to also sequentially shift up and down the cassette and do very few double shifts in the course of a normal ride. When I shift up front it is because of a major change in the wind or hills and once in the new front gear I then start sequentially shifting on the cassette again until the next major change.

For what it's worth this is the way I prefer to ride. I know that between two sprockets on the middle chainring there might be a perfect half-way-house gear if I change chainrings and shift up or down a few sprockets but I'd still rather just shift up and down at the back. If I get up to a good cruising speed I'l shift to the large chainring, if I encounter a punishing hill I'll shift to the granny ring.

I personally don’t feel those 2 or 3 tooth jumps are too big for how I ride, I’m sure I modify my cadence at the same time or something without knowing it and its all good.

This is very personal and for casual riding anything works.
For serious riding though, were cadence becomes more important to achieve an optimal efficiency, a tightly spaced cassette does become more and more important.
For instance ... on my TT bike I use and 11-23 10-speed cassette and even with that cassette I find myself wanting more intermediate gears to address the exact slope of the road and windspeed sometimes.

To change the crank is not really too big of a job and the cost of a new crank is not really that much

I have to object this.
A crank is one of the most expensive things on a bike, in fact.
It would be very unwise to just get one and then swap it out later, as has been suggested by previous posters.

When I wanted to experiment with my tour bike with really low gears I bought a cheap Alivio crank for 30 bucks and had it on in 30 minutes rode it about 10 miles and had total mixed feelings about what I wanted to do. The low gears were amazing and having my favorites split between the two larger rings was nothing I wanted to ride. I had the old crank back on just as fast.

Anything bike related isn’t going to be cheap but my point was without being able to try both out at length and find out and with us not truly knowing what might fit the OP best all we can offer is generic advice. In my case I rode the taller crank for a year and every steep climb I hit I wondered if I shouldn’t go with a mountain crank. After trying it I put the question to rest in my head once and for all as it made climbing better but I wasn’t willing to change how I rode the other 95% of the time to get it. In my case it had a lot to do with me and also where I live and ride. If I was in the alps I’m sure that 42-32-22 would still be on there. I would do just what she’s doing and really try and analyze her needs. But that being said it’s quite hard to do as a beginning rider strength can build rapidly once you get into it and taller gears will become easier to ride perhaps. If down the road she questions the selection one way or the other I would still suggest finding out and making the change rather than pushing gears not best suited. The allure to anyone new to this is to look at the two ends and think I sure want enough low gear to get up any hill. My main point is don’t overlook the gears in between.

I know close cassette spacing is very important to some and this being the Hybrid forum we are kind of on the middle ground. If you asked in the road bike forum or TT etc the answer would always be tight clusters. Mtn bike forum wide spacing. Commuting forum maybe a split 50/50. I didn’t want to push the OP in one direction or the other just point out the two schools of thought. She should keep in mind that a one tooth jump is percentage wise between an 11t and a 12t similar to a three tooth jump when you get up in the 30t ranges.

First bike: I'd ride it a few months thoroughly, on all types of terrain and see how it goes. You might like the 42/32/24. If not, change out the big ring for a 46 or a 48, and the middle ring for a 36. Should be quite easy to do. I think that it's all individual preference. The more you ride, the more you'll get to know yourself to figure out what type of set-up you want/need.
I must confess, I've been a serious rider since 1983 (including 10 yrs of road racing, 5 yrs of doing many centuries), and I have never given a *&*^&%#$ about gear inches, and still don't! I use the set-up I feel works for me. I've made a few small changes over the yrs but with enough time on the bike and determination, you can get used to different set-ups. After about 17 yrs of only using a 53x42 or 39 w/ a 13-21 (7/8/speed) freewheel/cassette (about the size of a corn cob), I'm perfectly fine w/ 48/36/26 x 11-32 cassette (so far, I've never used the 32 cog) on my primary bike (Trek 8.4 DS hybrid). I love the 11 for fast, long downhills! Just ride a while, then figure out what changes you might like to make.

Hey guys, I'm back again. :)

So far these are the gear ranges on my 30-speed bike. 42-32-24 and 11-36t cassette.

Small gear - (1,2,3,4)
Middle gear - (3,4,5,6,7,8)
Big gear - (7,8,9,10)

I tend that majority of the time I'm usually using the middle ring on gear 5,6,7,8. Occasionally I'll go up to the big ring and use gear 7 & 8, but I would almost never hit 9 or 10 unless I'm going down a hill. So it's actually not so much the 42 ring that's a problem, rather it's the 32 ring which I feel is a bit limitting as I'm usually always on the upper end of this.

So far if there was anything I'd like to swap, it'd probably be a bigger middle ring such as a 36 ring. Maybe something like a 11-28t cassette because I honestly don't find the low gears very useful.

Still, not an incredibly huge deal and I'm pretty satisfied with the range of gears. Apart from that, I'm a girl so I guess the lower gearing worked out to be better for me after all. :)