Time for different gearing?
07-19-10, 03:19 AM
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Maryland
Posts: 570
Bikes: Hollands Touring Bike, Schwinn mountain bike, folding bike, tandem and triple
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
In what now seems like the distant past, 13 was the smallest freewheel cog. When they went to 12 and eventually 11 with freewheels and then clusters, you could get the same high gearing with smaller front chainrings. One of the companies used this and named it “compact crank.” I believe Sun Tour was the first to use the name. It quickly became generic. This was also when mountain bikes were first becoming big. A 42-12 combination provides me a 95” top gear which at my age is more than enough. A 20-32 is low enough that even when carrying a full camping load, going up a steep hill, late in the day when I could be bonking out, I can still keep going. Unfortunately, the 20 is only available on the 94/58. The current cranks limit the low cog to 22.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
hotcore
Road Cycling
72
04-17-14 02:26 PM
