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Best Gear for 200m Sprint?

Old 03-08-08, 02:05 PM
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Best Gear for 200m Sprint?

What is the Best Gear for a 200m sprint? In race conditions is it better to go for a smaller gear (90 or 91 inches) so you can get a good jump for acceleration or should you ride 100 inches to give you a better top speed to overtake your opposition once you've wound up to speed.

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Old 03-08-08, 08:27 PM
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There is no single best gear. It depends on a lot of things. What rpm you produce max power for instance. I think it's around 140rpm for elite sprinters; less for Masters. The length of the track may come into play. On a 333 you're jumping straight down the bank vs mid-straight on a 250. Lots to consider.
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Old 03-09-08, 11:45 PM
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Idealy for a 200m you found out what gear on that track you have good jump from and top end and go an inch harder. It usualy translates to you spinning in your flying 200 around 150rpm. Alot of racers go down again for the sprints....some stay, and some change depending how their going to ride the race.

In LA the french were racing on 51x13...................
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Old 03-10-08, 10:09 AM
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91 inches is a "small" gear?

And I'm assuming that you mean a flying 200m? If that's the case you don't really need acceleration since you have time to get up to speed.
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Old 03-10-08, 11:21 AM
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I normally race points & scratch races in a 92 (48 x 14) and bump up to a 94 (49 x 14) for 200m, but I am by no means a strong sprinter. There are folks we turn over 100 gear inches, but it all depends on your riding style. There is no magic gear ratio for everyone.
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Old 03-10-08, 03:10 PM
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91 inches was the biggest i had

I did both the flying 200 and the race on 91 inches as it was the biggest I had. I was able to do 12.25 for the flying 200 on 91.8 (15x51), however in the race I couldn't get around the opponent no matter how much I tried, I guess now I ran out of leg speed which translated into a lower top speed.
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Old 03-10-08, 03:16 PM
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I added an image to my original question, I am on the blue genesis, I was relegated in this race for leaving the sprinters lane and chopping up at the opponent, I didn't mean to I just wanted to try and make him go the long way around me and went a few inches out of the red. He was much better prepared than me anyway.

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Old 03-10-08, 11:36 PM
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IMHO, i think its better to be under geared than over geared. i was all ways told its better to accelerate during the flying 200, rather than start fast and try to hold it.
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Old 03-11-08, 10:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Yoshi
91 inches is a "small" gear?

And I'm assuming that you mean a flying 200m? If that's the case you don't really need acceleration since you have time to get up to speed.

That depends on your approach. The correct answer is more like you have more time to get up to the speed required and get your body ready for the hardest effort of the day yet. Alot of people no longer roll into the flying 200 with speed. The Britts in particular roll in slow, part of that is because they train their starts for team sprint. Why not utilize that power to go from really slow to really fast in a similar matter. On the other extreme some people who have no jump need to roll into it at 60 kph or they cant get on the gear.
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