jyl

I would be interested in your preferences, practices, and reasoning for selecting your bicycles' gearing.

Do you tend to have similar gearing on all your bikes? Or do you have different gearing for different purposes? What is that, or are those?

Tell me how you design that gearing? How do you select your double or triple cranks, the chainrings for those cranks, and the free wheels/cassettes? Do you aim first and foremost for narrow steps, a large range from highest to lowest, a mountain goat low gear? Do you want to be able to spend most of your time in one chainring, or do you routinely switch back and forth between chainrings? Are you a devotee of half step, cross over, or other schemes?

Are you willing to use long cage rear derailleurs and triple cranks, or do you stick with short cages and doubles? Routinely stuff 8+ speeds where 5 and 6 speeds used to be?

I'm planning the gearing on a bike, have a scheme which looks good on paper, but it is weird - a road triple with 26 little ring, a close ratio 9 speed cassette that is nearly a corncob, and a triple FD and a long cage RD. On paper it gives me everything I could hope for - a 53/11 (gain ratio 9.40) for downhills, a 26/21 (gain ratio 2.46) for climbs, one-cog steps up most of the cassette, not much overlap between chainrings, and the ability to stay in the middle chainring for most of my riding. But it'll be a lot of trouble and expense, so I'm wondering if I'm over-thinking this.

tcarl

You ask too many questions for me describe what I do with each bike and situation individually, but I will comment on your last paragraph. For years I considered a setup like you just described, and when I had a chance I put one on my "long distance" bike (centuries, etc.) I should point out that for many years my everyday bike was one with 42/52 chainrings and 14-22 six speed freewheel. I like a close range cluster. My "distance bike" has 30/42/52 road chainrings and a 13-22 7-speed cassette. It works great in flat to rolling terrain. I usually ride the middle chainring (a 42/15 gear is close to 20 mph for me), and use the large for downhills and tailwinds. The granny works for any situation where I need something lower than a 42/22, such as uphills and strong headwinds. The 30/22 is a low enough gear for me in most situations around here. Since I need the wide range rear derailleur (Shimano Ultegra) because of the triple crank, I can put on a 13-28 cassette for very hilly rides. Not knowing what the terrain you ride in is like I can't specifically advise you, but 26-??-53 sounds pretty wide. Will it shift well? And a 53/11 is an awfully high gear. Do your really need that? What about a 12-23 cassette with a 30-??-53?

javal

With down tube shifters I gear as little as possible. With brifters I just fire away...

dyander

I'm still old school with my gearing 'cause I'm too cheap to upgrade to the modern drive trains and my frames are all 126 mm. That leaves me with 6 speed freewheels and I have half a dozen along with short and long cage derailleurs and extra chainrings for the front. I used to swap out freewheels or front rings (and the RD if necessary) to suit a given ride or level of conditioning. Now that I have a couple of bikes to ride, I leave one set up for hills 52/46/36 Campy triple with 14-30 6 speed rear and a road bike that has the 52/39 in front and a 13-26 in back. I don't sweat the overlap and don't miss the single tooth rear changes unless I want to go Time Trialing, then I put on the 13-19 and my 45 front ring and see what I can do.

Hush

First of all excuse my poor english. The first thing I try to get is a good chainline with my "gear base" , the one I use on the flat parts the most often. In my case it is the middle cog 19 and the 46 in front. My 8 speed cassette is 13/15/17/19/21/23/26/30 and in front a double 34/46.
www.piednoir.com/4.16.Braquets.pdf ..... in french
Hush

mazdaspeed

I'm lazy so triples are out of the question. A double with as many cogs in the back as possible makes my life easy. For hilly/mixed riding conditions it's hard to beat a compact front (34/50) and a 10 speed rear (11 or 12 to 25, 27, 28). Awesome range of gearing and small jumps in ratios.

Bill Kapaun

I'm an "older" guy with emphysema, bad back & bad knee.
I don't do hills.
I have-
1986 Rockhopper with rack, rear baskets & fenders.
2008 Specialized Globe "bare".
My gearing is- 3X9's on both. Both cranks are 165MM.
12-21 cassette with 22-32-38 crank on the RH (26x1.25" tires)
12-23 Cassette with 22-32-36 crank On the Globe (700x26C tires)

Both cranks are identical except I swapped in a smaller "big" ring.
I initially swapped the big ring on the Globe. I "desired" a 37, but went with the commonly available
36. I felt it would get used twice as much as the 38.
Not being totally sure, I got the 38 when I did the 2nd swap.
I can now change the entire right side crank & rings between bikes in just a few minutes if I want to try the "other" combination.

The relatively low gear inches allows me to "spin" in a very narrow cadence range that works best with my breathing ability.
(Mashing results in near instant oxygen debt-)
I have virtually identical trigger shifters on the bikes, so I'm constantly clicking as I go down the road. If the wind changes a couple MPH, CLICK!
Around town, I basically use it as a 1X9. It's difficult to go more than 2-3 blocks without hitting a stop or intersection, so I don't bother going to the big ring. IF I get in the more open spaces, I'll go to the big ring mainly to give me a better chainline or utilize the rare tail wind.

peazweag

gearing well I run 52x40 front & a 13-28 7spd rear.That seems to work good for me can go plenty fast with the 52x13 and 40x28 for climbing .171mm crank an old sugino maxy set.This seems to work good for me .

bradtx

jyl, Most of my stuff has been 8S or 9S since the early-mid '90s. I prefered a close ratio cassette with a 52-42-30 knee friendly triple on my distance roadie. Right now I have all 8S drivetrains, a couple of extra cassettes and also those I can borrow from the other bikes allow me to fine tune gearing for what's expected on a ride.

Your proposed set-up should work well. Triples aren't just for mega GI spans.

Brad

wrk101

Key is to have a fleet, so you can have a wide variety of gearing!

Most of my bikes have compact doubles. Where I live, there are hills, lots of them. If I need something easier, I either pull out my Trek 520 or my MTB. On my road bikes, all are STI except the 520 has barcons, and I have one vintage bike with DT shifting.

I only have one bike with a standard double. Its adequate for my training route in SC (hills, but nothing too serious). In NC, I would have to change it to a compact.

I routinely "stuff" 8 and 9 speed wheels on six or seven speed bikes. You are only talking 4mm difference in spacing.

I'm starting to really like barcons. Reliable, reasonable cost, and I prefer friction for the front anyway.

auchencrow

I prefer to cross-chain my standard doubles with my smaller cogs.

Amesja

My philosophy is to have an IGH with a narrow step between the middle gears where I ride the most with the gears at the far ends of the range having larger steps so that the bottom bail-out gear is way down there if necessary, and the top gear is way up there for those rare times when there is a long downhill run. 7-speed or better with an IGH is good and use gears 2-5 or 2-6 most of the time and have them all fairly close together in the "sweet spot" of the area I ride in. Gears 1 & 7 are for those weird times when there is a big hill -or when I"m loaded down with a trailer that low 1st is a life-saver getting started or when there is a hill.

There is another school of thought that believes that the steps between the gears should be perfectly even throughout the whole range -that'd be nice if you had 12 gears in an IGH but in reality we just don't have room for that.

Take that even 12-gear IGH and pull out a few of the gears (like 2,3,10, & 11) and you get an 8-speed with the same range and won't really miss those gears that you probably wouldn't use anyhow.

The Golden Boy 

3x6 is kind of what I dream of.

big chainring

I live in a reclaimed swamp known as Chicago. I cant find a hill. The only decent hill around is in the ravines along the suburban north shore and they prohibit bikes from using that stretch of road now, big bummer. Most bikes I acquire will have a 40/52 0r 42/52 chainrings. I then usually run a 14-22 or 13-21 5 speed or ultra 6 freewheel. I experimented with bar-end shifters but prefer downtube. They are quick and direct feeling. Nice thing is I use all the gear combinations. Even though its flat around here, I shift often to keep my pedal cadence going.

20grit

Quoted for truth.

I'm in the mountains. Stock gearing on vintage bikes doesn't really work for me. I change it when I can afford to.

Bianchigirll 

Since it is not very hilly around here (nor where I used to live near Boston) I keep it kind of simple. I never quite understood the Compact cranks thing so I run mostly 42-52/3 in the front and 12-23 or 25ish in the back regardless of 7,8,9 speed.

As Work1010 pointed out I do have variety bikes and some have triples so I am prepared for most anything. and hey I rode the old race course in Putney Vt on a 42x29 for a log gear who needs variety!

CardiacKid

Every one of my bikes has a different set up. The only set up I don't have is a narrow range double with a low gear in the 42-21 range. If I am going to be riding in an area flat enough for that, I just use my fixed gear bike.
If I only had one bike it would definitely have a triple. The versatility it gives you outweighs the couple of ounce penalty. A compact double requires too much shifting of the fd. This gets to be a pain unless you are using good brifters.

RobbieTunes

Sounds good to me. It's a more precise way of getting your range, and if you are an experienced, practiced shifter, knowing what gears you need and want, there is nothing wrong with over-thinking it. Once you get on the bike, any over-thinking is done, and now it's time to ride. Or over-ride. I think you'll be fine. One aspect of calculating your gearing is the confidence you'll have when riding, knowing what you have and how you intend to use it. Beats trial and error.

+ bunches.

kiwigem

Great question! As a know-nothing who just rides whatever came on her bike, I'm enjoying the responses.

Amesja

The Damon bridge between Fullerton and Diversey is the only "hill" we have of any consequence for miles of where I live.

Bikedued

I've always lived in flat areas, Houston and now Lake Charles. They even joke around Lake Charles about the lack of big rear gears needed. All the fast guys run 50 to 53 in front, and almost always 11/23 in the rear. It has been dubbed "Calcasieu gearing", by an older local mechanic/wheel builder, hehe. I run those gears too, simply because I can use the whole range of rear gears, and don't have to stay in one or two in the middle.,,,,BD

Calcasieu is pronounced ...Kal-kuh Shoe. It is the local Parish, or county...

Ex Pres 

I've done a similar setup to yours, only with a double. 52*34 front, 12-22 7s rear. Reduces my overlap to about as small as possible. The biggest issue with this kind of setup? Shifting the front ring. Now you're left with a big gap - eg. going from a 52/19 all the sudden to a 34/19. I use downtube shifters, and will shift both front and rear at the same time. If I push both forward at the same time, I can drop from that 52/19 in the above example now down to much more manageable (less candence change) 34/14.

old's'cool

My preferred setup is a triple front, and fairly close ratio rear block. With the riding I do, 45" is plenty low for hills, and 107-108" is all I need for the fastest down hills - any faster than that, do you really need to pedal?
I like close steps in the cruising range, i.e. 65"-85", so I like to have my upper two chainrings setup as half step with the rear cogs, and I get 6-8% steps in this range. One bike is an exception, the rear is a corncob with single step at the front. I also have spare wheelsets for a couple of the bikes, with minor variation in the gearing. Two of my bikes have a double front, one because I'm keeping it original, the other because factory-made Campy Strada triple cranks are rare and probably too rich for my blood.

Versailles 36-49-52, 26-23-20-17-15-13, spare wheelset 23-21-19-17-15-13
Viva Touring 36-48-52, 24-21-18-15-13
Grand Jubilé 36-49-52, 22-20-18-17-16-15, spare wheelset 19-17-16-15-14-13
CILO 42-52, 22-20-18-16-15-14
Empire 39-52, 22-19-17-15-14-13

balindamood

Half-step plus granny where possible. Gear inch range (35-40) to (94-100), with a sub 25-inch granny. The fancy bikes get left alone, but the riders all get changed.

JohnDThompson 

I feel that 53T is far to many for anybody who doesn't race. My bikes have 46-48T on their large chainrings, and 26-40T on the smallest.