Setting gearing for you.
 

This week I had a member of our cycling group borrow My Bianchi Grizzly as he wanted to take his son out for a mountain bike ride up on the hills. His bike is a Giant Frame built up from his old frame that broke. Over the years that bike had been built up with parts suitable for him. Upgrades to XT. sensible hanbdbuilt wheels and he had kept the gearing on his old 8 speed and the old style ATB crankset. This bike suits him and he is always the one to chase.

He decided to give his bike to his son for the day and he used the Bianchi. Well he bought it back today and as he walked through the gate his remark was "I now know how you can get up those Hills"

Our offroad hills are only about 1 to 1 1/2 miles long and vary from 10 to 15% with the occasional steep bit. There are a few of these hills where he has to walk and I refuse to. Pushing a bike up those hills is harder than cycling- even if I do struggle.

So quick check on the gearing

His bike is 8 speed and 11/28 cassette. Mine is 9 speed and 11/32.

His crank is 52/36/24 Mine is 44/32/22

His lowest gear is 24/28 Mine is 22/32

So it is obvious that he has his bike too highly geared for the use---------Or does he. I don't use granny so do all the hills in 32/32. He is fitter- younger and stronger than me and he uses 24/28. So he actually uses a lower gear than me and yet he struggles. I struggle but never go into that granny unless it is the hill I know no-one else can climb- or I drop back to the slowest rider to keep him company.

Now all I have to get him to do is enjoy the scenery instead of tearing up the hills at twice my speed and giving me a target that I leave alone. Funny thing is that when we leave the hills- or do a Road ride on the MTB's it is me that is in the lead. I can pull 44/11 on the roads at a sensible speed- He can only pull about 52/16 unless it is downhill.

Gearing is only a part of the equation, but you know that. The motor is what matters, both in the amount of power it generates and the total weight it has to move. And gearing is complicated - I have years of data relating to speed and cadence, which could be turned into precise gearing info with the right spreadsheet. Moving from a triple to a compact double was one of the smartest things I've ever done. I have no hills to climb ("Our offroad hills are only about 1 to 1 1/2 miles long and vary from 10 to 15% with the occasional steep bit." Holy smokes - reading that gives me heart palpitations) so I'm almost never in the small cog. But I'm thinking of changing the 50 for a 48 or even a 46 to give me more flexibility in the use of the cassette. I've never come close to spinning out on the high end, and there are times when I could use a lower gear on the low end without shifting to the small ring.

I changed the 52 42, 12 28 10 speed to a 48 39 (still12,28, 10 sp ,,made all the difference in the world...very good...
Bud

Have you ridden in the Mt. Dora area? I haven't ridden there but have driven that area many times and there are some really nice climbs there. Some nice rolling hills between Winter Haven and Orlando as well.

Have you considered something like cyclocross gearing? I would think 38-48 or 38-46 would give you the smaller big ring you want plus a much more useable small ring for flatlands with a smoother transition between the rings. The compact 34-50 works well in my area, but if I didn't need the low gear from the 34/28 combo, I would rather use a 39-53 standard double with a 12-whatever cassette.

stapfam, I wonder if your friend liked your gearing better because the ratio difference between the 22-32T chainrings is less than his 24-36T. Just wondering.

Brad

These are mountain bikes and both of us are Mountain bikers when out together. His bike jiust does not have low enough gearing for offroad on our hills so has to use his granny. On my bike with the wider cassette and the lower chainrings- he was able to use the middle ring to better effect and I doubt he got into granny. He has set his bike up for speed on the road- but with gearing that is not usable on the higher range.

Now on the road- I have a compact and a triple. Severity of our road hills is about the same with 10 to 15% but asphalt has less drag than rough chalk. 12/27 on the compact 50/34- and 12/25 on the triple 50/39/30. The compact is low enough at 34/27 but I do struggle with 39/25. I have to use granny on the triple.

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Just to show you our grade of hills- I mainly do XC on the MTB and these are the sort of hills we have only 6 miles from home. None of the hills are high- 850ft max above sea level- but most climbs start from sea level. We can arrange rides from 10 miles to 100 miles completely off road within our area Only problem is that Road rides have the same hills- and just as many.

Looks like a great place for XC riding! Mostly around here are trails that are much more narrow and technical filled with numerous tree roots. I never use my 42T chainring. I'll take pics next time I can get to my favorite place.

Brad

Since the highest gears I ever use are in the mid-to-upper 90s, I do not waste valuable combination space on anything over 100 gear-inches. My road bikes have top gears of 49/14, 50/14, and 47/13, and my mountain bike is 48/13, which is equivalent to 50/14 in a road bike.

On the bottom end, I use 42/26 or 38/23 on the road bikes and 28/28 on the mountain bike, although w/ more combinations I could justify dropping the latter to something like 24/28 or 28/32.