tahoe_girl

Aside from climbs and hills, what gear do you ride in? I have 20 speeds on my new bike and am still expirementing on what gear combination works the best on my flats and long hauls.

alexaschwanden

Mostly the mid range gears of the cassette, or do you mean what clothing?

Don in Austin

Just ride in whatever gear keeps you from "mashing" excessively or geared down so low you are spinning air. Avoid severe cross-chaining. I don't think another rider, stronger than you or weaker than you, more of a torquer or more of a spinner, easier or harder pedalling bike, rides a more or less aerodynamic posture than you, heavier or lighter, fighting a headwind or enjoying a tailwind, etc. etc. can tell you what gear to run. You can get a bike computer that reads cadence or you can just do what feels right. Hell, they ride fixies, don't they? They are in a "wrong" gear more often than not.

Don in Austin

tahoe_girl

Great, thanks for the advice. I'm going to get myself a computer so I can keep a good cadence andfind my gear combination from there. What is a good cadence to ride at?

oldskoolwrench

Again that's a matter of personal preference. Personally, I try to spin the pedals around 90 RPM... that may seem fast to some but I was coached that way when I was younger and always stuck with that.

You'll find a comfortable medium but as Don said you don't want to mash the pedals all the time, or spin so fast that it becomes inefficient.

Also practice making a smooth pedal stroke all the way around with both legs; a 'perfect circle'. Toe clips & straps/ clipless pedals will help with that too.

ThermionicScott 

69" when I take the fixed-gear to work. My cadence is... whatever it is.

Mondo734

I ride a 46tooth big ring (cyclocross setup) and usually on the third or fourth gear. I keep my cadence always above 80 unless climbing and not more than 95. Lower than 80 I feel like I am on the brink of mashing and over 95 I start to feel like I am spinning and not getting anywhere.

Sixty Fiver

Based on gear inches... my flat cruising gear is in the mid 70's with my geared bikes running a 40 gear inch low (road bikes) and as low as 20 gear inches on my more utilitarian bicycles that haul a lot more stuff.

SS and FG bikes run gearing in that low to mid 70 range and for off road my SS gear will be in the 30's to handle all the terrain I might encounter.

hueyhoolihan

about 64 GI on my road bikes and 54 on my beater.

CigTech

I ride at a 95 to 100 cadence on all my bikes. most people I know ride at 85 to 95 cadence.

bigbenaugust 

When I am on my 18-sp, I keep it in the big ring (so 50x11-26) all the way to/from work. My SS is 39x16 no matter what.

Ratio-wise, I tend to cruise the expressway at 50x18ish (without bothering to run outside and stare at my cassette), which is a little higher than the 39x16. So when I'm on my SS, I spin more and move slower.

But always ride what is comfortable for you, and be prepared for it to change with fitness level.

catonec 

large ring up front (53) and rear varies (13-26) I also watch my cadence and shoot for 80 +/- 5

pkulak

I live in my middle ring up front. I go to the granny gear only to spin up steep hills. I almost never use my 50-tooth ring.

xenologer

I seem to have quit paying attention to what gears I'm in once I got barcon shifters.
no indicator display
maybe thats a good thing

if I want to move faster I spin till the pedals lose resistance, then gear up till the pressure+cadence feels normal again.
if I want to go slower, I slow down my pedaling, gear down if the pedals start to feel heavy.
It's all very reflexive/simple now.


I'd guess that I only use half the cassette and 1 of 3 chainrings usually.....

a1penguin

I think cadence is more important than what gear you use. You can get some idea of your cadence. Wear a watch with a second hand and count the number of times your left (or right) foot passes close to the ground. Count for one minute. That is your cadence. It may not be accurate, but you'll know whether your cadence is closer to 30 or 90. If you can count of seconds as you ride... (one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand, etc) and see if you are pedaling more than one revolution in each second. That will tell you if you are more or less than a cadence of 60.

I always feel bad when I see someone riding on the upside of an overpass, going pretty slow and pedaling REALLY slow. I want to stop them and tell them to downshift and use the gears on the bike.

Higher cadence is better, but it's harder. At least for me it's harder on my knees. But I'm working on improving average cadence. Some days when I commute to work, my goal is to stay in a gear and pedal really fast. If I find myself pedaling slower, I downshift.

locolobo13 

I don't really know but think my normal cadence is around 90. When the pedals are easier such as in a tailwind and my feet start spinning too fast I shift up. When it is harder to push the pedals and I'm no longer "spinning" I shift down. I start in a lower gear and work up 'til the pedals "feel" right.

Just practice. It's OK to ride the harder gears sometimes just to get a feel. You will find they aren't efficient and will learn to shift down when needed. The same with tailwinds and downhills. You can only spin your feet so fast then it's time to shift up, or coast.

Remember to have fun.

CliftonGK1

42/17 on my Cross Check.
44/18 on my Trek 400
39/18 or 42/18 on my Conquest Pro (depending on what gearing I slapped on it for the previous weekend's race)

aggiegrads

A good primer written just yesterday by Kent Peterson:

https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2012/0...e-how-why.html

Very good advice for the budding cyclist.

dcrowell

When I ride my single-speed, well, there's only one gear. I often reach for a shifter that isn't there though.

On my 'bent, I try to keep cadence between 80 and 90. It's easier on the knees than mashing.

gearheadgeek

I focus on maintaining my standard cadence that I've stuck to forever. It's around 80. My commute has hills. I seldom leave the middle chain ring, but use the entire set of rear cogs (old 6 speed suntour freewheel, 13-28 if I remember right). When I started commuting again after a few year hiatus I used the granny several times but now I never touch it. I hit the big ring on a few downhills during my commute, but drop back to the middle fairly quickly once the road flattens out.

- John

mrleft2000

If you are just curious about your cadence and want to find out on a budget, here is a way to make any cheap speedometer bike computer measure cadence https://www.instructables.com/id/Very...-Your-Bike-12/ You can do this with the $12 computers at walmart or the $5 ones from dealextreme or ebay. I feel this was very helpful when I was first starting out as it trained me to spin faster than I was doing before and kept me from coasting.

devianb

42/15.

fietsbob

The German 14 speed IGH.. I use them all ..
external cog a 16t, 2 bikes, chainring the inverse of the wheel size.
26"~38t, 20"~53t.

gerv 

Is that what they call phantom shifting?

Although have to confess to the same. When I switch from my downtube shifter bike to my STI, I'm always reaching down there. Often I'll just grab the water bottle and have some... just so I don't feel as stupid.

RaleighSport

This.

I do ride SS myself too, but I keep my cadence high on it.. as it's 52x16... and that's not something I want to be doing for 20+ miles.