Originally Posted by
littleArnold
Ok I recently got a Trek Hybrid. It has 3 speeds in front small, medium, big crank and it has 8 gears in the back. I thought I read somewhere that you do not want both your front gears and back gears to be in high gears at same time this will ruin the chain? I am riding it now on 3rd biggest crank in front and riding between a 6-5 speed on the back gears. The only reason not riding back speed at a 7 or 8 is I am concerned this would ruin the chain since both front and back gears would be in high gears which is considered bad right?
I guess what I am asking what would be the ideal gear range to be in? On the 3rd gear in front and 5th gear in back or would a better gear combo be better? That is a little too easy I would like to be in 7-8 gear range in back, but worried that might ruin the chain if both front and back gears are in high gears. I am peddling wheels very fast right now at the current gear setup I got and could switch into higher gears if wanted to.
Sorry, I don't know gears by number. "High" or "low" gears are referenced like a car transmission, with faster being "high"-- so smaller cogs are "higher" gears.
It sounds like you meant the small 28 chainring and the 12 and 11 cogs as "7 or 8". Yeah, if you are wanting to shift to those 12 or 11 cogs a lot, use the middle chain ring and go 2 or 3 cogs larger. That will be a similar speed range.