Easiest gear for steep hills

[Manonabike]

What combination of cog / chainring combination would offer the easiest gear to climb steep hills? A 28t, 30t or even a 32t large cog With a 30t small chainring

 

[Davidc]

On the tourer I've just fitted a 22 small chainring, and the large cog at the back is 32. I used it in anger for the first time yesterday on some 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 hills.

The difference from the 28/32 original equipment was amazing. (I still need a rest part way up Blagdon Hill, but that's down from 4!)

 

[Garz]

There is no 'easiest gear' as it boils down to personal fitness and the type of bike (laden tourer/mountain bike will weigh lots more than say sportive bike). Then there is what your 'step hill' actually is..

 

[Gary D]

In general, the smaller the number of teeth on the front chainwheel (as an engineer, I hate using the term "cog" ) coupled with the largest number of teeth on the sprocket at the back will give you the lowest gear.

Others may talk about "gear inches", but a very quick way to work it out for comparison purposes is just to divide the number of teeth on the chainwheel by number of teeth on the rear to give you a ratio. Therefore, 30T front with a 30T rear gives a ration of 1. Likewise a 28T front with a 32T rear will be 0.875.

If you want to go in to gear inches and gearing have a look at Sheldon Brown's website:

http://sheldonbrown.com/gearing/index.html

Good luck.
Gary.

 

[Tynan]

of course there's an 'easiest' gear for gawd's sake, it's simply the highest ratio of rotation so the front to rotations at the rear, mechanical

everything else is just other variables

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

mtb's are typically 17 inches,i.e. 22 front 32 rear. some touresr are similar. people who need that sort of low gear tend to use triples on the front which gives good range of gear

 

[RedBike]

Divide the number of teeth of the front chainring by the number of teeth on the rear sprocket to get a number (ratio). The smaller this number the easier the bike will be to pedal uohill.
However there does become a point whe you're pedalling but going nowhere quickly. At this point its probably easier to get off and push.

 

[Davidc]

However there does become a point whe you're pedalling but going nowhere quickly. At this point its probably easier to get off and push.

I have to agree. I've just gone to a 22/32 (see above) and I can't see any point in going to a lower gear. With that ratio I can go at 3 mph at a comfortable cadence. If a hill is too steep for that (and I did find one yesterday - coming north out of Upottery) I can push the bike at 2.5mph quite comfortably.

That said I might go to a megarange cassete when this one wears out and have a 34 bottom!

 

[Ian H]

The easiest gear is always the lowest one you've got. 64" (43x18) will get me up most things in Devon using the fixed-wheel. But, strangely enough, on gears, the same ratio feels far too high - I run a low of 28/26, which gives about 29". I do dislike wide ratio cassettes, so the only way I could get a lower gear is by fitting a smaller granny ring.

 

[Fiona N]

The easiest gear is always the lowest one you've got.

I'd extent this to - the lowest one you've got that you can make enough headway to stay upright.

Perhaps not so much of an issue for upright riders but on my recumbent bike any lower gear would mean going too slow to balance on long hills (whirring legs don't help )

 

[jimboalee]

How heavy is the bike?
How steep is the hill?
How overweight are you?

 

[Manonabike]

In general, the smaller the number of teeth on the front chainwheel (as an engineer, I hate using the term "cog" ) coupled with the largest number of teeth on the sprocket at the back will give you the lowest gear.

Others may talk about "gear inches", but a very quick way to work it out for comparison purposes is just to divide the number of teeth on the chainwheel by number of teeth on the rear to give you a ratio. Therefore, 30T front with a 30T rear gives a ration of 1. Likewise a 28T front with a 32T rear will be 0.875.

If you want to go in to gear inches and gearing have a look at Sheldon Brown's website:

http://sheldonbrown.com/gearing/index.html

Good luck.
Gary.

Thanks to everyone for the information.

Basically, I knew that a small chainring and a large sprocket was the thing to aim for. I just didn't know how small and how big was a good ratio. I used to run a small 42T chainring with a 23T sprocket at the back and that was quite hard to ride any hill for my old legs anyway. I went to a 30T sprocket and that made it much better but I still think on a long hill it was rather hard. Now I'm going to be riding a 32T sprocket with a 30T chainring and for a moment I thought the sprocket should not be larger than the chainring, hence the question

I'm still learning to ride hills. I find that combining standing on the pedals for the steeper parts and sitting back on a lower gear works best for me. I only recently started mixing it a bit, I was afraid of loosing momentum in the past. I guess riding hills is a very personal thing and I think I'm finding the style that suits me best.

 

[Garz]

How heavy is the bike?
How steep is the hill?
How overweight are you?

There is no 'easiest gear' as it boils down to personal fitness and the type of bike (laden tourer/mountain bike will weigh lots more than say sportive bike). Then there is what your 'step hill' actually is..

 

[TheDoctor]

Nowt wrong with having the sprocket larger than the chainring. I set my road bike up like this for alpine stuff - 24 chainring to 26 sprocket, and I'd have liked sommat lower. Even if the slope is only 1:10, it gets a bit tiring after the first 5 miles or so. Especially if there's another 10 miles to do.

 

[Wocce Racer]

It also depends on your body type. Some people climb more comfortably on higher gears (like Miguel Induran) whilst others perform better on lower gears (like Armstrong). The muscle type in your legs will have a lot to do with it.

On club runs I now see so often riders climbing in gears that are too low, mainly because of the way bicycles are built these days: 14 teeth between the chainrings and cassettes with teeth of 25 teeth or more, leaving very poor range of medium gears.

You really need to take time to find the the best gears for different gradients for you.