Gears

[paulb55]

Hi all,

I have a Trek 7.5 FX with a triple chain ring of 48/36/26 and a rear 9 speed cassette of 11/32 and my granny gear of 26 front and 32 rear gets me up 99% of hills.

Now i am looking at another bike and it has a triple chain ring of 52/42/30 and a 8 speed rear cassette of 12/26 so the granny gear on it will be 30 front and 26 rear.

Now the question is will i struggle up the hills ( if i purchase the other bike) as i have 4 extra teeth on the front and 6 less on the rear, so will that more or less be the same as my Trek 7.5 FX granny gear

Any Help for a total dumbo on gears would be helpfull

 

[HLaB]

That's the same gearing my Sirrus has but it was far lighter and had narrower less knobbly tyres than my previous bikes with 26t granny's, so it actually better at climbing up hills, there's probably an element of me getting fitter too, so its not just the gearing thats a factor in hill climbing unless everything else is identical.

 

[oldfatfool]

The fewer the number of teeth on the front (chainring) the easier it is to peddle up hills.
The greater the number of teeth on the rear (cassette) the easier it is to peddle up hills.

The new bike loses out on both counts all things being equal (weight, tyres etc)

 

[theloafer]

hi paul
lots of info from here mate ... http://sheldonbrown.com/gearing/index.html

 

[Scilly Suffolk]

These two websites will prove useful to you:
1) graphical gear analysis
2) textual gear analysis

With the graphic display particularly, you can open a couple of tabs in your browser to easily compare your current bike and the possible purchase.

 

[Peteaud]

These two websites will prove useful to you:
1) graphical gear analysis
2) textual gear analysis

With the graphic display particularly, you can open a couple of tabs in your browser to easily compare your current bike and the possible purchase.

Cool sites, very useful