jim p

My bike has a low gear of 40/28 and I use this gear quite often on some of the small hill along my daily ride. Well my wife calls me from the thrift store and said that there is a road bike there for $25 and asks if I want it. Well we all know the answer to this question. She brings it home and I air up the tires and I am looking at the gearing. The lowest gear is 42/23. I keep telling myself that I will just have to man up and pedal. Today I take it for its first loop. I had a little tougher time on the hills but I survived. My legs were suffering more and my cadence was a little lower but all in all it was not unbearable. Now that I don't have the low bail out gear on this bike I am hoping that it will make me a little stronger which would be helpful.

My time for the loop was the same as the time for my previous bike so it does not appear that gears alone will help with average speed.

Maybe a couple of bikes with slightly different fits and gearing will be a good training aid for using different muscles.

The Weak Link

Diclofenac works well for chronic knee pain.

stonecrd

It takes some time to get use to different ratios. Just going from a 52 to a 53 big ring has affected me this week. I find I either have to spin at a higher rate or mash more to get in the same speed ranges I was normally riding in. My muscles will take some time to get use to the change.

I would think going between bikes with different gearing might cause me some trouble.

Bill Kapaun

Well, you didn't say what bikes you have, and what speed cassette combos you have.
A 40/28 is a 1.43 ratio, while a 42/23 is 1.83 ratio. That's 28%!!! It would be like riding a 40-22.
Maybe change the cassette to an x-26 or so.

Mojo Slim

This does bring up a question I have had for a while. Nearly all of my friends who ride even semi-regularly are faster riders and climb hills better. However, I have to friends who mash high gears all the time. In fact, on just completed the AIDS/LifeCycle from SF to LA with me. He did the entire ride on his big ring.

Does one become stronger by at least training in high gears? Since Lance started spinning, it has seemed like that has become the thing to do.

maddmaxx 

I could be wrong but I think that you want to invert this division for the drive ratio's as in 28/40 or 23/42.

BluesDawg

Lance was probably spinning bigger gears than your friends are mashing.

jim p

If I even get a hint of knee pain this bike will be leaned against the wall until better gears can be put in place. But for now this is just an experiment for me to see how the different gearing will act. For now the main difference is that there is no good gear for just sitting and spinning up a hill. This means that I have to use a slower cadence and sit and push harder on the pedals of I stand and slowly pedal up the hill. Once I get on level ground the lack of the lower gear is of no concern. My thinking is probably flawed but I am thinking that as long as I don't pull up on the handlebars while I am pedaling that I wont put much more load on my knees that I would by walking up stairs.

I do know that two years ago when I started riding that these higher gears would not have been right for me because I was struggling and could barely climb an ant hill.

Hermes

I do not know if this helps but... https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=4011 This article discusses the effect of cadence on power output. There is companion article in the Tool Box where a power meter was used in intervals to see which cadence produced a better result.

Tom Bombadil

If your bike has a front double of around 53/42 and a rear cassette of 12-23, then you are riding one of the more aggressive bikes out there.

Even a race level bike, like a $6500 Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL SRAM has a 53/39 double with 12-27 cassette.

So if you can take those hills on that bike, you can do it on any bike short of some wild fixie.

tcs

On the subject of gearing, you may enjoy:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features....woodland_gears

TCS

jim p

I am in way over my head with these high gears. The bike came with the gears and I am just going to see how it goes for a few rides. I would like to have a 38 or 39 up front and a 28 or 30 on the back for my lowest gear. With a 40 up front and a 28 in the rear my cadence drops down to around 65 on some of the little hills around here. It would be nice to be able to hold a cadence of 80 on these hills. So maybe I can find some new parts after I finish my experimenting.

rschleicher

A couple of things to consider would be:

1. Seeing if the 40 chain ring from your old bike would bolt onto the new one. (Easy and cheap if the bold spacing is the same.)

2. Buy a 39 or 40 ring for your new bike

3. If you have the same sort of cog design on the old and new bikes, possibly the 28 cog would fit onto the new bike's cluster (this is probably the least likely possibility)

4. buy a larger rear cog, something like 25 or 26 instead of 23.

5. Go to a compact crank up front, with 50/36, or even 50/34.

Choices 1 and 2 are unlikely to require any change to your front derailleur, but choice 5 might. You will need to determine what the largest "tooth difference" is that your FD can support. Most FD's seem to be OK with the 14 or even 16 tooth difference that a compact crank has, since it is not much different than the 14-tooth difference of a 53/39 combo. (The 14-tooth difference between a 53/39 regular crank, and a 50/36 compact crank, is obviously the same number of teeth, but there is a slightly different radius difference, which is what the FD actually cares about.)

Choices 3 and 4 are a bit more effort, may or may not work for compatibility reasons, and also may cause some problems for your rear derailleur.

Or, as you said, you can keep the new bike as is, and develop "thighs of oak". (Remember when speed-skater Eric Heiden took up cycling? All right, perhaps not quite that "oaky".)