BoodBianchi

Hey guys, I'm new to biking. My Bianchi Giro has 27 speeds, what do I do when I am in gear 27 and there is no resistance in the pedals because I am going too fast? Is this the top speed?

substructure

For your legs? Yes.

nycphotography

How steep is the mountain you're climbing?

mattm

If your top gear is 52x14 or something, going up to 53x11 will give you a higher end. Is this on downhills or flat?

Ratfish

Guad pics for verification required.

border reiver

You get off and put your chain back on

nixternal

Howzit

BoodBianchi

HAHA, not funny. But yea, mostly down hills, obviously.

Velo Vol 

Join the club.

mhamm

And what's your max cadence? No such thing as 'no resistance' with 300 rpms

Edit: Ok, it could happen

Garthr

I'm reminded of an old saying my brother said to me when we were kids and I asked him what time it was despite a clock being nearby.

Irritated that I could ask such a stupid question ......His reply ...... It's half past a Monkey's Arse, quarter to his ball$ .


But seriously, learn to pedal faster, get a 11t cog, or learn to descend better.

richard_dupp

go with a 55/11

DScott

Lose weight. You won't descend so fast.

BoodBianchi

Thanks for the constructive comments.

And I can't lose any more weight lol.

Garthr

It's understandable to want to go faster, especially starting out. You're learning quickly you can only go so fast. From here work on the quality of your riding, and stop looking at your cycling computer if you're using one! Black tape works good. Good luck!

kgabike

I can't tell if you're being facetious or not because there was a lot more chaff than there was wheat in those replies.

What would be helpful to know is the size (i.e. number of teeth) of your biggest ring in front and your smallest cog in back. That combination will be your "biggest" gear, although calling it 27th gear is a little misleading, since the gears don't get harder sequentially. Lots of gears in the middle overlap each other. A certain combination of biggest ring in the front and bigger cog in the back might be easier than another combination of the middle ring in front and a smaller cog in back.

But, anyway, if you're going down hill in the biggest ring in front and the smallest cog in back then you're topped out. If you aren't meeting resistance, that means your wheels are spinning faster than your legs can keep up. If your cadence, the RPM of your legs, is low (in biking terms) than you can work to improve it and might be able to "catch up" with your wheels. A cadence in the 90s is a pretty standard one for many cyclists. In sprints, or going down hills like you are, it can be considerably higher. Do you have any idea how many RPMs your legs are doing? You can measure it by counting or by buying a cyclocomputer with a cadence measuring function on it. Speeding up your cadence, if you're not too far behind your wheels, could make the difference.

On the other hand, if your big chain ring is on the smaller side, and your smallest cog is not as small as it could be, then you'll also run out of gears on the top end before you want to. So you could put a bigger ring on the the front and/or a cassette with a smaller cog in the back. That will make your top gear higher and give you a greater chance to keep pedalling usefully at higher speeds. The practicality of changing your gearing depends on the bike and your budget. Depending on wear (you might be forced to replace multiple parts at the same time) and the components your have, it could get expensive. So it depends on how big a problem this is (how often you are in this situation) whether you want to go that route (if you're not already topped out on gearing as it is). It certainly wouldn't hurt to work on the cadence thing first and make sure you're spinning your legs fast enough before spending money on hardware.

Welcome to the cycling world.

KevinF

First, which gear do you consider to be "gear 27"? The hardest to push gear is the biggest-in-front and smallest-in-back. If you're not in that gear when you say that you "lose resistance"... well, keep shifting until you are.

Ok, so if you really are in the biggest-in-front / smallest-in-back combo... How fast are you turning the pedals over in that gear? I consider about 120rpm (i.e., each knee reaches the top of it's stroke twice a second) to be "lost resistance". If you're not pedaling at a fast cadence in your biggest gear -- learn to spin faster. Do a search; there's a million threads on here concerning one-leg pedaling drills.

If you really are in the biggest-in-front / smallest-in-back combo, and you are pedaling really fast -- well, the only thing left is to get more aerodynamic. Pull yourself into a tuck -- i.e., hands deep in the drops, head down to the handlebars, butt up, etc. -- and create as little wind resistance as possible.

Camilo

With my 52 front and 12t rear I can pedal pretty comfortably up to about 40 mph. From there I coast.

What are your gears, and how fast are you going when you feel you're pedaling too fast for effectiveness?

laduckslayer

What exactly is gear 27? Since it has 27 speeds, does this gear put you at speed 1 or 27...or maybe somewhere in between??

BoodBianchi

Yes, sorry for the confusion. I am in the biggest ring in front and smallest cog in back. I guess my question is, is it better to coast or is it better to spin ridiculously fast trying to catch up with the gears at around 40mph? I say 40 because one of the streets this happens on I am usually around the same speed at the cars. Once again, I am just averaging this speed, I do not have a computer.

ericm979

Once you have spun out, hunker down in an aero tuck if you want to go faster.

IbikezLA

get to 200lb. You'll be coasting 45 while your friends spin their asses off

KevinF

Even pros in the Tour de France stop pedaling (for the most part) on long, fast descents. I think the general consensus is to start coasting in the most aerodynamic position possible once you've spun out your largest gear.

Spokejoker

Watch out for cops...your speeding