Anti-corncob gearing on a Gitane
08-12-09 | 10:16 PM
#26
Bottecchia fan
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,520
Likes: 12
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Bikes: 1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo (frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame), 1974 Peugeot UO-8
That's a good setup for pedaling downhill, but it does give you a bunch of duplicate gears. I think you've got a 77.1 and a 78, a 45 and a 46.8, and a 60 and a 58.5. I'm not a gearing wonk by nature, though. It doesn't really matter if you have 7 gears or 10, as long as you've got a range as wide as you need. This is my first venture into half-step gearing, and I kind of like it. But then, I kind of think that pedaling downhill IS fun, especially when I have no choice. "Oh, no, it's not that I'm out of shape or lazy--I'm just plumb out of gears."
It works out to this:
High: 99.4 77.3 58.0 46.4 40.9
Low : 76.5 59.5 44.6 35.7 31.5
My Bianchi has a 108-inch high gear and even that is not enough for the longer or steeper downhills where I spin out around 42-mph but for some reason I can't go quite as fast on the Bottecchia so the 100-inch gear is adequate for 99% of all the downhills I encounter, at least around town. The Panasonic, with the fat tires, fenders, lights, racks, and panniers, seems to have enough drag that I never spin out the 96-inch gear, even pedaling in street shoes where I can't maintain as high a cadence.
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1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista
1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista
