Best amount of Gears for Road bike..

[Boon 51]

I did do a searching but didn't find what I want to know so..
What amount of gears do you find best for your road bike.. would it be 10, 16, 20, 21, 24, 27. etc.
The reason I asked is I have seen many sports road bikes with all these amount of gears on.. and my last bike which was ages ago when big ben was a wrist watch only had 10.. but I know things have moved on from than..

 

[Cheshire Celt]

my scott is a triple with 9 at the back great for the hills lol

 

[wheres_my_beard]

Somewhere between 1 and 30 would be ideal really

What type of riding will you be using it for?

 

[smokeysmoo]

Modern bikes will have anything from 16 through to 30 gears. It depends on the terrain you will be riding as to what will suit you best I guess.

My road bike has 20 gears, (about the norm these days), and the chainset is a standard double, 39:53 ratio.

Most new bikes these days ship with a compact chainset in the ratio of 34:50. This is a great gearing arrangement for most cyclists IMO. A standard double just increases top end speed, but makes hills that bit harder as well.

Another popular chainset is a triple, (3 rings at the front), this makes hills very easy, but IMO is not neccessary on a road bike, (plenty other will disagree with that though )

Most new bikes with less than 20 gears will be cheaper 'budget' bikes, and most bikes with 10 will be 'vintage' bikes of days gone by.

 

[HLaB]

IMO the more gears at the back (ie 10 rather than 7) is better as there's less gaps between gearing which means when you are cruising along you can subtly adjust your gearing to suit the terrain, whereas if the gaps are bigger (less gears) you may be faced with a gear which is too high or too low either side of the one you are in.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

It's as much to do with the number of gears as the range of ratios you have available to you. There's no point having fractions of gear inches difference between gears, but you need a sensible range to be able to ride comfortably.

I have a compact double, with 9 at the back. and find most of my commuting hills are far easier on the big ring at the front and a medium at the back. But for some of the crazy hills I was riding in Wales on holiday recently, I just didn't have the gear range to get up some hills (one was 18% going up!!) at all. especially after some sapping uphill riding leading to them.

 

[Sittingduck]

20!

 

[Norm]

I don't think I've moved out of my middle ring in about 750 miles, so I'd say 8.

 

[pubrunner]

My scott is a triple with 9 at the back great for the hills lol

Glad to see you're looking confident, for the Trans Cambrian ride

 

[Cheshire Celt]

At this moment I am 65 / 35 in favour of not going lol

 

[Deleted member 1258]

1, I do most of my riding on a fixed, I also have a 10x2 for Summer Sundays.

 

[Boon 51]

Somewhere between 1 and 30 would be ideal really

What type of riding will you be using it for?

I live on a mountain so a far share of hills..

 

[mickle]

Eighteen in my opinion.

 

[cyberknight]

Enough so your top and bottom gears get you where you want to go and the gaps inbetween are manageable.
Currently use a 14 speed mtb,16 speed roadie and a 20 speed roadie and they all do the job.

 

[biggs682]

a lot delends on your route as a flat ride has kess need for as many gears as a hilly route