dpc1192

Started riding seriously about a month ago at 48x15, thought it was too stiff and hard on my legs so asked around and decided to swap out my cog for a 18t. Finally got foot clips today and went for my first long ride with 48x18 and clips...

I don't feel like I'm going particularly fast (probably 20mph), but can speed up if needed out of my "spin" and finally understand cadence and "spin", I also am feeling alot more of a burn in my leg muscles then before. I can't decide if this is too low of a gear or if it is just right because I get to a spin and then can also speed up out of that spin so I am not at my "max" cadence.

Just wondering any advice where to go from here? Just ride every day about 10 miles and work on my spin and then maybe gear down to 48x17?? (oh and I won't be posting any threads for a while now that my bike is all dialed in... i hope)

bones_mcbones

I ride 48x19 all the time, I have no desire to gear up.

Try riding with a group and see how you keep up. I suspect you are going plenty fast.

Bandera

You are all set, ride your bike for several hundred miles and adapt.

-Bandera

hairnet

Try the 17. Won't hurt to try a few different gears and go with what feels best.

TejanoTrackie 

+1

TejanoTrackie 

-1

dpc1192

yeah i'm gonna stick with 18t for a while even if i think 17t might be a bit better..

i really liked building up my bike and making little changes, now that it's all set just going on rides alone isn't nearly as exciting

GENESTARWIND

Just rock that gear and work on spinning, work on climbing and on the decent focus on not bouncing out of the saddle and following through with your feet, focus on being as smooth as possible with your feet in a circle. Sounds dumb I know

Don't let the pedals take you, follow through and control, apply back pressure or use your brake but always keep in control of the pedals.

Edit
Dont let yourself think this gear is easy later, anyone can mash a huge gear but learning to spin is what makes you fast so once you think this gear is easy start focusing on spinning fast, how hard you can spin till youre out of breath or near that point and hold it or hit a bigger hill, climb then focus on that decent.

There are tons of people hear with way more experience than me and if you ask they will come lol

dpc1192

thanks.. so is riding about 10 miles a day a pretty good amount of riding or is that not much in the cycling world?

GENESTARWIND

Any riding is good man.
Don't worry about the miles and enjoy your bike. I commute by bike and sometimes I go for long rides on my day off. If you're serious about getting better start interval training, ask here or hit the road cycling forum or even the 41

cobrabyte

N+1, man. Time for your next project.

bones_mcbones

don't worry about such things.

C Law

Its not a lot in the cycling world. But ride what you can ride, and don't sweat it.

Caliper

Maybe get a speedometer or use Strava (via smartphone) to start recording your rides. Put some actual numbers to things so you can track your distance, speed, improvement.

BTW, if you do try Strava, don't be discouraged the first time you see the top guys on the leaderboards...

dpc1192

messed with the speedometer today on my iphone... cruising speed is about 22-23MPH, if I'm sort of chilling my speed is 19-20MPH, and then if I really push it I got it up to 32MPH.

with those numbers I think the gearing is actually right for now.. what do you guys think?

UltraManDan

With that gear setup it puts your RPM's at 110 when you're "cruising" at 22-23 mph. That seems a little high to me for a cruising speed. What app did you use on your iPhone?

dpc1192

i mean by cruising I'm still pushing not "chilling"

and i dunno the top highest rated free speedo app

Flatulentfox

Well how will we know if you decide to think about possibly changing your cog, or maybe raising your seat a tiny bit?

Bandera

Your gearing is just fine, ride the bike.

'phone apps are rubbish. Get a $20 proper cycle computer for accurate data or better yet note the time that you left and time that you returned on the church clock and log seat time in a paper notebook. Choosing to ride a 19th century technology and measuring results w/ wonky 21st century gear is about as accurate and more ironic than 19th century stats.

-Bandera

europa

Speed is not the issue when considering gearing, it's how it feels and only you can tell that. If it feels like you need to go up a gear, try it (by changing the rear cog), similarly if you feel you want to go down a gear. You'll probably find the change will have little effect on your speed, particularly around town or on the flat, because the big determinator of speed is air resistance. Eventually you'll find a gear you enjoy riding... and as you get fitter and stronger, that may change.

ThermionicScott 

Got any friends you can ride with? If not, join a club or something.

Caliper

GPS isn't exactly wonky tech and speed calc/logging is far from a complex computer task. When riding a bike with a computer, my average speed is always the same as Strava +/- 0.5mph and top speed hasn't been off more than 1mph or so. I know some people have experienced top speed glitches and maybe if you're in a place where GPS reception is poor, that would be more common, but over a distance of several miles or more any momentary glitches should even out.

Plus, riding without the temptation to constantly watch my speed or average speed or cadence or average cadence, or whatever else is relaxing. Whenever I think "what's my speed?" I know the answer is "not fast enough!" without even having to look down!

Bandera

If the OP is getting the data that "cruising speed is about 22-23MPH, if I'm sort of chilling my speed is 19-20MPH" on a 48X18 "wonky" comes to mind, or something else.

-Bandera

UltraManDan

Phones do not use true GPS, they use cellphone towers to track your position, so there will always be glitchy data when using a phone. The only exact way to measure speed and distance is a bike computer correctly installed, or a true GPS moniter (Garmin, TomTom)

clengman

Phones use real GPS signals from real GPS satellites unless you tell them not to. It's still not a very reliable measure of instantaneous speed. I'm guessing if a dedicated GPS unit does better it's due to a faster sampling rate. I use the ridewithgps app on my phone and I think it does okay, but I don't use it to track my instantaneous speed as I'm riding. I use it after the fact to check average speeds over a few predefined segments of my daily commute.

I think if you want speed data as you ride, a traditional tachometer-type speedo is clearly the most reliable instrument.