Originally Posted by
Mike Mills
Robbie,
53X12 = lol (for me) Enjoy it while you can.
For me, that would be like slogging and grinding instead of riding/spinning. I suppose, if I were drafting someone, then yes, otherwise fahgedaboudit!
Now, if you get into 53X12 ASAP during normal riding, why then is this your top gear? What do you do when you have a tail wind or a slight down hill, coast? Robbie, I know nothing about you as a rider. I think you should gear down a bit and spin rather than grind. I could be totally wrong. Let me know.
You're not the first person to tell me to gear down and spin, and I'm sure you're right. It's hard to do that, though. As a 5k, 10k, and even marathoner, I simply ran as hard as I could most of the time. This seems to be carrying over into my cycling.
Maybe it's time constraints, or something, but I try to get a good workout inside the time I have, which is often an hour, so I go as hard as I can. With other riders, I pretty much ride their pace and look around. On downhills and with tailwinds, I'm still like a kid, gotta go as fast as possible.
Logically, I figured that at least some of the small ring / small cogs would be equivalent to the big ring / big cogs, I just thought I'd be busy shifting and nearly duplicating the ratio, and thought, "why bother?"
I've eyeballed your charting, and will try to create my own. I have a Kestrel freak friend who has no time for C&V, but actually emailed me a chart like that once, and I deleted it because it made no sense at the time. I think I'll revisit the idea and give it a couple of weeks, see what happens.
Thanks for the advice. I'm learning, and appreciate your time.