rydabent

We now have 10, 11, and 12 sprockets in the rear. With a triple in front that means there are 36 gears available. Just how many gears does common sense and logic dictate a cyclist needs? For 60 years and more cyclist, even racing cyclist got by with 10 speeds. With even just a 10 sprocket in the year, and a single on the BB we can have a ten speed.

So I guess my question is---------------is a 12 speed sprocket the end of this nonsense? Comments.

fietsbob

NuVinci CVR hub and you have an infinite 'number' with in Its Range..

7 speed IGH used twice, as Rohloff does, works Fine for Me .
Pootling along the BSR 3 speed similarly used twice as on my Brompton-Mountain Drive, works fine too..

There are a lot of gear ratio redundancies with a triple crank and 11 'speed' cassettes

Add a Dual drive rear hub and if how many impresses You You have 3X as Many..

do the math.. what gear Ratio range do you want ?

A recumbent tadpole trike can use really low gears with out falling over because you are inching up a Hill.

cyccommute 

That's an odd question from a recumbent rider, considering that some recumbents can be made with a ridiculous number of gear combinations. Since upright bikes don't usually have jackshafts and secondary gear clusters, they are extremely limited in comparison.

I would suspect that we are approaching the limit using the current OLD standard of 130mm or even 135mm and the width of chains and cassette sprockets. I'm probably wrong but 14 to 16 gears is probably pushing the limit of how many gears you can squeeze into that space.

And, no, 12 gear cassettes aren't the end.

chasm54

"If it was good enough for Eddy Merckx, it must be nonsense to adopt anything better".

Nonsense. Nonsense on stilts. Eddy would have loved to race on aero Carbon Fibre with 11-speed Di2. Having really tight ratios makes riding more pleasurable and efficient.

Bandera

Has the timer for you to post this Same Thread yet again dinged?
You could review the posts in the last several identical versions, not much has changed in the last few weeks.

The timer for a re-post of the Disc Brake thread is next up. Same. same.

-Bandera

AlmostTrick

It's not uncommon for elderly folks to sometimes forget that they already told a particular story so they tell it again. Good for you that you are still riding!

SpeshulEd 

Technically speaking. One gear is enough.

Maelochs

I'd say two---one on the crank, one on the rear hub.

33 ratios sounds about right for all non-race applications. Drop duplicates and you have a couple dozen at least--so you can always find the right ratio on any road.

RPK79

I agree. One is enough. I often prefer to have some extra gears to vary with terrain though, not always though.

andr0id

Yep, more gears is about filling in the gaps so you are always at the cadence and torque you want. I'm changing gears up or down a click every time the terrain changes.

caloso

I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer?
We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!
--Henri Desgrange, L'Équipe article of 1902

Leebo

1 works for some. I have 1x8 on my winter commuter. Pedaling off road? Touring up steep grades, like + 8% ? Just ride what ya brung.

San Rensho 

3 speeds is all you need.

avidone1

I don't think it's a question of how many gears does a bike need, It's more a question of how many gears do YOU need.

Drew Eckhardt 

Enough to allow one tooth jumps to the 19 cog, a low gear which lets you climb any hill at an endurance pace, and high enough gear.

Using just two rings, because the bike companies make more money with fewer crank/front derailleur/shifter SKUs.

It takes 13 cogs just to match the range and spacing that's possible on a 10x3 triple

50-34 x 12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-26-29-34

not

53-39-26 x 13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-26

although that comes at the expense of more front shifting.

The mass market probably wants an 11 bumping the count to 14, and getting morbidly obese Americans up-hill takes lower gears suggesting even higher cog counts.

Trakhak

Runners adjust their stride length by infinitesimal amounts according to conditions---uphill, downhill, level ground, wind at back, wind in front, fresh runner, fatigued runner.

Even the smallest sprocket increments and widest-range gear setups approximate such stride adjustments only crudely. Anyone who has searched in vain for exactly the right gear between the two closest available gears has experienced that limitation.

Bandera

Which is a good reason to ride a Fixed Gear for winter base miles. ( That would be One gear ratio for the OP.)
Developing an efficient pedaling dynamic with the ability to deliver grunt or spin on demand helps to get the most out of whatever gearing is available on the road bike during the season as well as a determined mindset.

-Bandera

cyccommute 

If you are racing, this might be a good way to go but how many people actually race on their bikes? For most of bicyclists, having one tooth jumps on the high end of the scale offers no benefit and many would benefit if the gearing choices were aimed at the lower range rather than the high end of the range.

First, how about you keep the insults to a minimum? People who are out riding their bikes are at least doing something proactive about weight problems. Additionally, you don't have to be "morbidly obese" to appreciate low or even ultra low gearing. As a self-supported bicycle tourist, I have occasion to use every gear in my range and I do so proudly. Just because I use low gears doesn't make me "morbidly obese" nor a weakling. It makes me a smart cyclist.

As for your gear combination above, consider this comparison. Granted, the gear calculator doesn't have the ability (yet) to do 12 tooth cassettes but, for comparison, it illustrates the problem with 2x systems. For example, if you are cruising along at 14 mph in the 50/25 combination at 90 rpm and you round a corner with an unexpected steep up hill in front of you, a down shift to the lower range would have to be accompanied by an increase to 120 rpm (which wouldn't be enough) or three upshifts on the back to maintain the same speed. More likely than not, both an increase in rpm and an upshift would be required to maintain even a slight decrease in speed. Just the increase to 120 rpm would be uncomfortable and difficult.

A 53 tooth outer on a triple would require a similar increase in rpm but the number of upshifts is less. If a more realistic 50 tooth high gear is used and an 11-28 cogset is use, the gear range is still similar but the jump from the outer ring to the middle ring is more manageable without as large an increase in rpm.

And if an 11-34 cassette is used with the triple, the range of gears is drastically increased from a 20 inch low to a 112" high with a close ratio crankset.

GovernorSilver

One gear, with a 104T chain ring.

?100mph Bike? | Donhou Bicycles





Somebody should make an e-bike version . It'd be a nice motorcycle alternative.

caloso

What Bandera said. The beauty of a fixed gear is that you are so often in the wrong gear and you are forced to spin it or mash it, as the case may be.

Seattle Forrest

Logic and common sense don't dictate how many gear combinations a bike should have. A rider's experience, terrain, and fitness dictate how many they need.

How does it ruin your day if I have an 11 speed when I'm riding in the Cascades while you're on your bike in Nebraska?

Juan Foote

On average, I probably actually use 4 of my rear cluster at any given time, on either of my bikes. I like to coast, so the higher gearing honestly accounts for very little on most rides. Even on my bent, I have 81 gears available and use probably four, now. When I first started riding I utilized the low end quite a lot.

Have to say that riding my SS probably has decreased my use of gearing on the bikes that have it available.

veganbikes

I would say the magic number is 42. I mean it is at least the meaning of life, the universe and everything ; )

I would love to build a bike with a Pinion P 1.18 and a SRAM DD3-30 which would be 540 different combinations if I am not mistaken. You have the 18 speed pinion gear box at the front and then a 3 speed IGH with a 10 speed cassette body at the rear. Absolute insanity, totally blows Sheldon Brown's (RIP) Quad Crank with a 3 speed IGH with 8 speed cassette to shame. Plus if you were handy enough and it was possible with a Pinion system you could maybe even set it up as a double or triple chainring and maybe use a fat bike FD to shift those and destroy the fabric of space and time.

fietsbob

There was the past , then made not legal 10mm pitch chain system , so teeth were 2.7 mm closer together than 1/2"

and so a 1 tooth difference could be even less by that much.

rex615

I came here for this

And then saw this, is also pertinent.

So yes, another fixed gear fan here (though I do have geared bikes too)