bmthom.gis

I don't even use most of those gears, but I like having them for hills. Plenty where I live, but not mountains. If I lived in the mountains, I think my legs/muscles would just get used to the extra work. I use a lot more of my gears (2x9) on my commuter - there are some steep hills and carrying stuff on a bikes that already weight 30+ pounds when unloaded can be tiring, day in and day out. If I ever get the itch to tour in a hilly region, I'll swap out my cranks on that for a triple, or even just smaller chain rings. The rear is set up with a mountain bike cassette and RD. Most days I can stay in the big chainring, but if I am tired or it is super windy, I get into the little ring. I of course notice a huge difference when riding a different bike.

Right. But I am now going to be limited when I purchase my next bike to look for just a frame/fork, unless I want to make the jump to 11 sp and whatever the industry is needlessly pushing on us. I suppose it just helps my decision though to step away from prefab bikes made of carbon. Milwaukee is currently on my radar. I also want to get away from pressfit bottom brackets and go back to a regular ole 68 mm English threaded standard. I've had enough BB30 where I won't miss the extra beefiness.

Leebo

The mt bike version is 3 speeds on the SS. Sit, stand or push.

Gresp15C

Six gears are enough:

GamblerGORD53

So that is where the term deranged comes from ????

habilis

"Il n'y a de Pyrenees avec un Thomson." -- caption on an early-20th C. poster advertising an FG bike. May have been a flip-flop with two choices of sprocket size.

Sullalto

I don't think so. The mass market still buys 7 speed triples off cheap MTBs/hybrids. And then doesn't change chainrings.

As far as low gearing...you can get what, 22/42 with a MTB groupset? How low do you need? Go too slow and you'll fall over.

ganchan

I've always had way more options that I needed, not necessarily as a conscious choice but because they happened to come with the bike I wanted. Currently I have a triple-ring 8-speed, but on my normal routes I only use the 3 middle gears on the second ring. So if I was willing to suffer going up and coast going down, I could probably manage with a single speed bike. But I'm not willing to do either.

At one point I thought to myself, "I should've just gotten a 3-speed," but then I realized that (A) the three gears I use are all similar enough to allow for smooth, small transitions, which wouldn't be the case on a 3-speed, and (B) someday my preferred route might change, due to a move or whatever, and I may be really glad i have these extra gears.

canklecat

Enough is never enough.

When I got a 21 speed I thought (coming from a 10 speed), wow, that's more than enough.

Nope.

First of all, not all rear gears are actually accessible from the first and third chainrings. So, scratch at least four "speeds".

Of the remaining 17 (being generous - more like 15), not all are usefully spaced. Especially the mega granny gear. Try upshifting from the granny gear as the hill begins to crest. Sudden knee-jammer.

I'm realizing a double chainring with more gears on a closely spaced rear cassette would be more useful, but only when paired with more efficient shifters. I'd still want granny gears, but without that huge gap.

09box

I'm okay with my current 9x2. Heck, i'd be okay with a 1x9/10/11 setup.

GovernorSilver

I'm more open now to a 1x11 setup after test riding the Kona Private Jake.

North Coast Joe

Another vote for a single ratio, preferably fixed.

Although I also have multi-geared (1@20 ratios, 1@24 ratios) bikes, the two fixed models get the nod almost always. Easier to maintain, lighter, and I really believe that riding fixed for the last five years has made me a better rider (stronger, faster, with a much wider range of cadence).

I don't race, but travel in fast company occasionally, and have yet to find that either of my fixed bikes have put me at a speed disadvantage. I do live where I don't have to pull grades that are miles long, though....there is that scenario for some people.

CrippledKonaBoy

As a guy who used to work on and (try to) sell department store BSO's, I encountered the same question for 21-speeds. I always answered that with "I use about 4 out of my 27, but it's good to have them available in case I get silly on the bike."

Because of the gear ratios, I think 8 on the rear is about as 'low' as you can reasonably go; 7-speed gear sets just don't seem to have a friendly spread.

My personal ideal, based as much on available components as anything, is a 2x9 with a 40/28 crank and a 12-36 cassette (37-lb MTB).

Miele Man

In my opinion it depends on the terrain, your fitness level, how hard you want to work and the weight of you, the bicycle and any gear.

I like 7 speed because the components are quite inexpensive. i like 9 speed (the most cogs any of my bikers have) because i can set it up as a 7 speed with fairly close gears and have two larger bailout gears for the hills and the hills with a headwind.

I built up a single speed and often ride it out into the country over gently rolling terrain for a bout 25 kilometers outbound and 30 kilometers inbound.

You could always build one like Sherldon Brown. His OTB had 63 gears = Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub, 7 sprockets and 3 chainrings!

My O.T.B. - Only The Best

Cheers

Maelochs

Wouldn't that leave you five miles past home?

Now that with eleven cogs, three chainrings, and a Rohloff 14-speed ... 462 ratios .... Almost enough.

SHBR

3 well chosen gear ratios are enough for me.

I hate dished rear wheels, so lately my preference has been to use a triple crank and a single speed rear wheel, using a RD as a tensioner.

Simple and cost effective, lighter than any IGH I know of too.

I can ride over 100KM in any direction and have less than 30M of elevation change, single speeds work well for most people around here.

Miele Man

Not if the routes are different going and coming.

I have various routes I ride and one is what I call a P-route because if I draw a map of it it looks like a giant P. Other routes are like a giant trapezoid with some legs quite a bit longer than the others. Either will make the return journey longer than the out bound journey.

Cheers

Darth Lefty 

My bike doesn't have any gears, just sprockets

fietsbob

Anyhow.... would be interesting to rebuild the bike I put together in 1957.. and had until 1966

(when I, having few options, went off to the Navy,to avoid the draft and the asinine Viet Nam War,
my father gave it to a friend of the family's kid who promptly let it be Stolen)

S-A 3 speed, Cyclo-UK made triple cluster replacing the 1 cog on the hub, and a triple crank .. 3 cubed [3by3by3]=27
it was a Puch-Austria made Sears JC Higgins ..

Darth Lefty 

I think 1x12 has to come for mountain bikes given the popularity but shortcomings of 1x10 and 1x11 systems, and the room made available by expansion of the OLD. Not sure what I think about road bikes.

quicktrigger

All you fixed gear people are welcome to them. I got plenty of that as a kid constantly riding up (often pushing) and down on single speed heavy heavy steel bike. Will never do that again in this part of the world.

My current bikes range from 16-27 gear combos. I use all the 16 and most of the 27. I ride bikes to enjoy it, not to prove anything to anyone. You want to think I'm soft..... oh well......

rex615

You rode a fixed gear as a kid?

mrodgers

48-36-26 on the front. 11-34 9 speed on the rear. I use 21 of them (Giant Escape 1 hybrid.)

When I'm on the flat trail, I'm usually on the 36 roughly cruising around 15-17 mph bouncing around on the 17, 15, and 13 tooth in the rear depending on how much I'm sight seeing.

On the road I have been historically back and forth from 5 mph to 40 mph in 1/8 to 1/4 mile increments. There is no such thing as flat where I lived. That puts me jumping back and forth from the 48 to the 26 ring and around the upper middle of the rear when going downhill to build up my speed to dropping clear down to the 34 tooth cog when I'm on the 26 ring to get me back up the hill.

Now that my living situation has changed, I have much nicer roads to ride on. I have some nice several mile stretches where I leave it on the 48t ring and only have to drop down to around the 20 or 23 on the back to keep up the cadence with the rolling hills as I dip down to around 14 mph. I still have many situations though where I'm dropping down to the lowest of 26/34 to get my fat rear end up a few of the hills.

Gravity beats momentum on the hills. 40 mph momentum only carries me a few 10s of feet when it heads uphill and gravity overtakes with my weight. Being use to where I use to ride, flat to me is around 85 feet per mile. Where I was when me and the STBX were together, typical rides were more like 120-130 feet per mile.

I'd love to swap out and tighten up the gears with my 9 speed and leave the 30 and 34 tooth. I could lose the 26, I don't think I ever use it. I could lose the 11 also as once I'm up above 30 mph, I'm just blasting away on a short downhill just to carry momentum as far as I can on the uphill (which as I said, is only a few feet because gravity beats momentum every time with my weight.) That leaves me with 23, 20, 17, 15, 13 which I'd like to cover with 7 gears between 23 and 12.

Bandera

Lots of little kids did......

-Bandera

quicktrigger

Most everything was fixed gear. You had one chainring, and one sprocket in the back, and about 2" tires with a little tread. Bike was probable 30-35 pounds of steel and crap. Was on dirt roads more often than not (didn't know I was mountain biking as this is no different from allot of single track in surface), dry dusty, or wet and muddy. In particular remember riding home up about a 5-6% muddy grade, and thinking how it was hard not to want to get off and push the bike. Still rode that bike everywhere, on and off road. Later got a $100 Wal Mart "10-Speed" and did the same. Man did that thing have horrible brakes.

Side note. You never seen a LBS backtrack, like you have when you inform them of this, while they are trying to convince you that you have to have a $2K+ full suspension mountain bike to to ride some whimpy single track. Or something similar. Probable about half the bike shops I go into, assume I know nothing and start feeding me a line. I look like a newby, that doesn't have a clue. I just let them go, then slam them. Had one just last week try to tell me that nothing but an Aluminum fork could stand up to the abuse of chip seal roads (I had told him I didn't like the Al fork on the bike he was trying to sale me). So I informed him how changing out the Al fork to a carbon fork made a enormous difference on one my road bikes in ride comfort. Then informed him I had multiple bikes, and 2100 miles YTD. He quit trying to pitch anything then, and offered me a 15% below MSRP deal on another bike that was a much better fit to what I was looking for, and already knew that was the best fit before I went into the shop. I doubt I'll take the deal just because he can't be trusted.

quicktrigger

Actually more like this. Was the 70's though. There were no rim brakes. No hand levers or cables of any kinds. Oh, and you can keep your fixed gear.