Originally Posted by
tigrrrtamer
Here I find that everytime I hit a hill, I'm fussing with gears, front and back, more than I should have to. There is no simple crossover from the large chainring to the middle one, where I can just do one shift in the front and keep going without shifting the back too. Nope... I have to shift the front, then start messing around with the back... and in doing that, I slow down, and often have the frustration of having to downshift again because I've lost my inertia. ...and with the slowing down, while shifting at ever lower speed, I hear the rear sprockets bang and crack, and I wonder when one of them is just going to break.
I do find this interesting and am trying to work out where it's coming from - again, I suspect it's from sudden changes from flat to mountain.
As you noted, I've got a change of about two gears between big and middle ring (which is the appropriate comparison here). Nearly all my hills have a gradual entry and so moving down onto the middle ring, then working down through the gears is pretty normal. I do often use the double shift function on my shifters (ie, two rear cogs at a go) and it's true that I'll often find myself going down through the gears pretty quickly, but it's change and ride, change and ride, not bang bang bang bang bang through the gears such as you get when stopping from high speed.
With a larger change between big and middle (as you get in a compact), you'd change off the big ring and find yourself in too low a gear for a period until the bike slows a bit - I'm well experienced with this going from the middle to the granny though in those cases, the hill is usually steep enough to make shifting up to compensate an annoyance - it's easier to just relax for 10m and let the bike slow under gravity.
In fact Tim, the more I think about your experience, the more I'd address that with a narrower gap between the rings rather than a wider gap. What am I missing?
I find that I have way too many gears than I need... that aren't in the right places.
That's a statement I can understand - do we need 10 speed cassettes? What about the 12 that are supposed to be coming out?
... that aren't in the right places.
Which has always been the bigger challenge - it's not the number of rings you carry, it's how many teeth they each have.
Richard