njt32

I've acquired an older bike that's going to be my "real" (i.e. not commuter) road bike for the foreseeable future. The gearing is 52-40 up front, and 14-28 in the back. I'm not that experienced; is this pretty standard 12-speed gearing? Anything I need to know about shifting patterns, etc? I don't race, but I do go on long rides. Thanks!

umd

It's fairly close to what you would find on a modern bike with a "standard" double. They are typically 53/39 or 52/39 up front. Older bikes I've seen often had a 42, 40 seems odd but I'm not that familar with older bikes so I can't really say. The gears in back don't go as high as you would usually find now, other than for junior gearing. Mostly see 11 or 12 on the high end or 23-26 on the low end, although 27 and 28 seems to be increasingly common.

As far as what to know, try not to "cross chain", which is running big-big or small-small such that the chain is at an extreme angle between the front and back. As you are shifting up or down the cassette, when you get near the end, shift the front and then go back a few in the back to arrive at a similar gear.

datlas 

That is/was pretty much standard gearing from a few years back (approx 1990). I suspect it will be fine for you to start.

Enjoy the ride.

trinamuous

I rode my commuter with that exact same gearing for 8 months or so. As stated, overall range is very similar to standard double. When shifting the from the small to large chainring, you only need to upshift one cog in the back.

njt32

Thanks all, very helpful.

ptle

I have an old steel bike as my commuter. It use to have a 52/42 with some high gearing freewheel. I changed the front chainrings to 50/39 and put on a 11-28 7 speed freewheel on the bike. It makes it a bit easier because I have a low gear for hills. However, the gearing is still adequate if I wanted to do some road rides.