Higher or Lower Gear

[DaveReading]

Pushing a pedal with 20kg/f is still 20kg/f regardless of the gear you happen to be in. Think about it. Knee problems are more likely to be a symptom of bike fit or riding style - but it is wrong to suggest that high pedalling forces simplistically equate to knee problems - they don't. If it did, then every cyclist pushing a high hear would have knee problems - which they don't.

I didn't say that,

Pushing a pedal with 20kg/f is still 20kg/f regardless of the gear you happen to be in.

Yes, but for a given speed, you're pedalling more slowly in a higher gear so you need to push with a greater force in order to transmit the same amount of required power to the wheel..

So higher gear/same speed = more stress. Whether or not that translates to more pain/injury depends on a lot of other factors, as I referred to in my earlier post.

 

[Citius]

Yes, but for a given speed, you're pedalling more slowly in a higher gear so you need to push with a greater force in order to transmit the same amount of required power to the wheel..

Of course if you push harder, then you are using more force. Cadence makes no difference to that equation though and such forces would not damage an otherwise healthy knee.

 

[Blue Hills]

It was only by burning calories to loose that initial 8½ stone through dieting and Slimmers World that I was able to resume cycling

impressed. Very. I read your earlier post quickly and thought you meant that you weighed 8.5 stone, which, since you appeared to be on a weight loss regime, worried me a bit.

 

[mickle]

Knee pain definitely exists - for lots of different reasons. Pushing a big gear isn't one of them though.

I'm entirely sure that you're wrong about this.

 

[Citius]

I'm entirely sure that you're wrong about this.

Well then you'd have to support your beliefs with some evidence. If it were universally true though, everyone who pushed a big gear would have knee problems - and I'm entirely sure that they don't...

If we accept that we are putting an average of around 20kg/f through each knee when cycling - but when we stand up our knees are routinely supporting at least three or four times that amount, why on earth would pushing a high gear give everyone knee problems?

 

[mickle]

I do know several old gits who blame their bad knees on their use of high gears, Richard Ballantine included. I know that my knees grumble when I've used excessively low cadence.

However. I shall seek some actual evidence..

 

[Citius]

We all know people like that. I know people who swear they have seen flying saucers....they still lack the evidence though...

My own anecdote is that I have been (rightly or wrongly) favouring higher gear/lower cadence for more than 20 years now - and my knees are fine.

 

[albion]

When I run out of low gears on my road bike I purposely push slowly and consistently to lower the maximum force I use.

With my knees, it is a fact that the left knee fails if I push at too high a gear for a fair length of time.
I really do wish that I had an old git warning me about the mechanics of bone/cartilage wear in my, if you can just keep rolling the gear is fine, youth.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've added knees: cause of injury and discomfort (subtopics: high gearing, exposure to cold) to my long list of taboo subjects on Cyclechat.

 

[Hacienda71]

Surely you are more likely to damage your knees by walking than riding a bike in any gear. Cycling by its nature is low impact, hence doctors telling people they are ok to cycle even with arthritis.

 

[Tin Pot]

Here is the question, what is better to burn more calories or is more beneficial? Riding on a level road say at 15mph and maintaining that speed is it better to choose a lower gear so increase your pedalling rate with less effort or a higher gear pedalling slower but which takes more effort?

Is no one grasping this?

 

[Citius]

You're going to have to help us out....

 

[iandg]

I'm a low gear spin person. I cringe when I see someone thumpin' along at the same speed churnin' a high gear. Each to their own, eh?

 

[Venod]

Is no one grasping this?

IMO, spinning the lower gear will increase your heart rate and increase the calories burnt, not everyone will agree.

I'm 5' 10" weigh 11st and a spinner, if that helps.

 

[Blue Hills]

I do know that the year i kinda decided to keep to a lower gear on the dunwich dynamo i just kinda rolled there. It seemed like very little effort. Real "dancing on the pedals" as they say. As a kid i routinely used a high gear as i had the impression, as a kid, that i was somehow getting more advantage from the gearing. The folly of youth/childhood.