What range of gears do you use in your commute?

I just ordered a 2009 Breezer Uptown 8 from my LBS (orange20bikes.com), after trying out the cheaper EX model at the shop. This bike comes with a Nexus 8 speed hub, 38 tooth chainring and 18 tooth rear cog. It has 170 mm cranks (which may be too long for me? I'm 5'6") and 26" x 1.75" tires.

According to Sheldon Brown's calculator (https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/internal.html), this set up provides a gain ratio of 2.1 in the low gear, up to 6.6 in the high gear. Gear inches are 29 to 89. This means I should be able to go as slow as 5 mph at 60 rpm in low gear, and as fast as 25 mph at 100 rpm in high gear, according to the calculator.

I'm actually considering switching to a 20 or 22 tooth rear cog, for lower gearing on steeper hills. But perhaps the current gearing is fine. I rarely feel the need to go faster than 15 mph, even on downhills; I'll just coast. I'm currently riding an old Schwinn Breeze 3-speed on my 3.5 mile commute (well, it's been 11 miles each way this month, but that's only temporary), with a few 4 to 6% grades about a block long.

What gears do you use the most on your commute? Do you usually wish for a lower gear for the hills or starting off, or for a higher gear on the downhills and with a tail-wind?

30-39-52 crank with 11-32 cassette with a 26"/559 rear wheel. Pretty danged flat ride both ways. NEVER use the small ring to and from work.
Usually on the big ring in the middle of the cassette. Gear down to the middle ring for stops/starts.

Totally flat where I live so I often ride my fixed gear (42x16=70 gear inches).

I now found a couple older posts about this. Bikeforums needs a better advanced search function!

I see that many singlespeed / fixed gear riders use about 60 to 80 gear inches. Assuming these are bikes with 170 mm cranks and 700C skinny wheels, that's a gain ratio of about 4.5 to 5.5

My Schwinn is set up at about 60 gear inches and a gain ratio of 4.5 with the middle (direct) gear, so that makes sense as a good single-speed gear. But I rarely find myself in the top gear, which at 80 gear inches and a ration of almost 6.0 is usually too hard on the flats, even with a tailwind. And the low gear, at 45 inches and a gain ratio of 3.3, is not quite low enough for the steeper hills.

Going to 8 speeds and a "305%) (1:3) ratio between top and bottom gears will be a big improvement.

My bikes have "bailout" gears as low as 45", but I rarely need them, typically I only need to go down to 55-60" or so for hills. My old school hardware of 52t large chainring and 13t small sprocket limits me to a 108" top gear, that is usually sufficient for applying power downhill, except with a tailwind, then again, 30mph is probably fast enough (with 25lb+ commuting payload), I'm content to coast at that point.

I ride a Breezer Villager. Same basic bike, but mine's a step-through, so 20 tooth rear cog. Breezer does the cog bump as a standard thing on the step-through models, and most shops should be able to do the swap trivially. The stock gearing is not aggressive at all, even with the 18t cog. I do a lot of riding with heavy loads (30-60lbs) and I like my knees, so it hasn't been worth it to swap up to an 18t for me. Yet.

For most riders, either stock gearing will be appropriate. If you're typically cruising in the 60" range already, and you don't plan on heavy loads, I don't think I'd gear down. That's pretty much the cruising gear Breezers are designed for.

Thanks, Torrilin. Do you have the derailler or the nexus 7 version of the Villager?

Jeisenbe, I agree. vBulletin search kind of stinks in general. However this forum, like many others has exceptional search engine optimization. It's amazing how often I'll be searching Google for something bike related, and will find a link to BikeForums.net.

Knowing this, you can use Google to search BikeForums.net specifically for anything you're interested in. Example search string looks like:

site:bikeforums.net Commuter Gearing

which specifically checks this site, for posts that relate to: Commuter Gearing

This ends the Absenth Public Service Announcement


As for gearing, I purchased a Surly LHT, which has a pretty crazy range. (48-36-26) (11-34) giving me a range of 20.8 --> 118.6 gear inches or a gain ratio of 1.6 - 8.9

My front crank is a 34/45 set up.

For what you are describing it sounds like you're fine with the 8 speed hub and its range, depending, of course, on your own fitness and preferences.
From my own experience with the Nexus, I feel it has plenty of range for most commuters' needs.

That's how I heard of Bikeforums.net originally. I like the stripped-down pages linked to Google, too.
But sometimes it is hard to find something within a certain page. I would like to be able to search for posts about commuting only, for example. Anyway...

Do you use all those gears on your commute, or do you tend to use just a couple of cogs and the middle chainring? I'm wondering what sort of gain ratios are actually useful, and which are only used in extra-ordinary conditions. JanMM (above), for example, said he only used a couple, though I'm not sure the exact gears he was referring to.

I only use two gears right now, but I only have a 3-speed. ;-) I'm considered getting a large rear cog to make the higher speed more useful. But the 8-speed nexus will be a nice upgrade.

I primarily use the middle ring, with about four or five of the faster speeds on the rear cassette. There are two big climbs on my commute regardless of direction. (crossing a river/creek will do that) on the way down I sometimes shift up to the large ring up front and fly down the hills. On the climbs back up I'll admit to using the granny gear, usually in the morning when my wagon is dragging anyway.

I've only been back on a bike for a bit over a month after 12 or more years away. I'm not in great shape, and anticipate using fewer gears, while going faster overall as I keep riding. I got the bicycle with the wide range because it's my "do everything" bike. Including riding in the Indiana Hilly Hundred with it's 10,000' of climbing over two days and 100 miles. etc.

In my far from expert opinion, I suspect I could come up with a crank/cog combo on an 8 speed igh, that would work fine for my commute.

Nexus . When I bought it, they were not yet making a derailler version, and given my riding situation, the shifting while stopped feature is a big deal. For the stuff the bike does, you couldn't get me to go back to a derailler even if you paid me.

The girl rides a Breezer and the stock gearing is adequate... as she has gotten stronger as a rider she has found that every once in a while she'd like one more gear at the top but would not give up the low since she is always climbing hills and uses her bike for everything like shopping and towing her trailer.

When I am setting up bikes I find that a 40-100 gear inch range is more than adequate for most riders, my touring bikes have a slightly wider range with more bottom end, and for fixed gear and single speed riding I prefer a gearing in the low 70's.

My 3 speeds are always a bit of a compromise... will set them up so my main drive (2nd) is 65 gear inches which gives me a 40 low and a high in the low 80's.

One of my favourite bikes is a folder that has a 40 to 75 gear inch range with a 5 speed.

29 gear inches in the back will let you climb straight up something, so I don't think that's a big deal.

and 89 gear inches is tall as well. Just ride and quit thinking about it!