So many gears, pointless?

[Blue Hills]

Aside from my fixed (48/18) , I have little idea or interest what gears are on my bikes. I have a 9-speed triple but no idea what the chainrings or cassette is. I have 10-speed and 11-speed bikes, each with 50/34 rings on the front but I can’t remember and don’t care what’s on the back. I just ride!

Er, am confused, isn't the 10 speed 10 on the back and the 11 speed 11 on the back? And about the mysterious cassette on the back of your triple bike, don't you ever renew the cassette?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Aside from my fixed (48/18) , I have little idea or interest what gears are on my bikes. I have a 9-speed triple but no idea what the chainrings or cassette is. I have 10-speed and 11-speed bikes, each with 50/34 rings on the front but I can’t remember and don’t care what’s on the back. I just ride!

That’s a lot of detail for someone who shows no interest.

 

[Landsurfer]

A gear longer than 81": that's what else you'd need. If you tried an end-to-end with that 1x9 you'd be frustratingly spun-out by the end.

Not sure when you did your LEJOG but i did mine in July 2018 .... 9 speed ... 13 / 36 cassette and a ...... (drum roll ).... 28 single front sprocket .......
I never spun out ... I freewheeled .... it's called cycling .....

 

[a.twiddler]

I had never heard of seven league boots until that post!

Mythological magic boots. Seems to be a thing in European and English (and even American) folk lore. They give the wearer the ability to cover seven leagues with each stride. A metaphor for covering a large distance with just the effort needed to cover a much smaller distance by normal walking. Still, no magic required if you have got a bike!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I never spun out ... I freewheeled .... it's called cycling .....

This is the bit that I don't get with a lot of cyclists. They are obsessed with having gears that allow them to pedal at their max cadence downhill! The way I look at it, unless you ride a fixed gear, there's no such thing as spinning out. If you get to an uncomfortably fast cadence you simply slow down a bit, or in the case of descending, you stop pedalling altogether and let gravity do the work not your legs.

 

[Sharky]

This is the bit that I don't get with a lot of cyclists. They are obsessed with having gears that allow them to pedal at their max cadence downhill! The way I look at it, unless you ride a fixed gear, there's no such thing as spinning out. If you get to an uncomfortably fast cadence you simply slow down a bit, or in the case of descending, you stop pedalling altogether and let gravity do the work not your legs.

Yep, I think the scientists have proven that once over a certain speed, it's quicker to adopt an aero/tuck position, rather than trying to pedal.

 

[ColinJ]

This is the bit that I don't get with a lot of cyclists. They are obsessed with having gears that allow them to pedal at their max cadence downhill! The way I look at it, unless you ride a fixed gear, there's no such thing as spinning out. If you get to an uncomfortably fast cadence you simply slow down a bit, or in the case of descending, you stop pedalling altogether and let gravity do the work not your legs.

I once did 83 kph (52 mph) down this descent on my singlespeed bike... (not the bike in the photo)

... which corresponds to a cadence of about 240 rpm.

Yes, I WAS freewheeling at the time!

 

[FrankCrank]

I once did 83 kph (52 mph) down this descent on my singlespeed bike... (not the bike in the photo)

View attachment 524237

... which corresponds to a cadence of about 240 rpm.

Yes, I WAS freewheeling at the time!

Did you enjoy the lovely view on the way down?

 

[classic33]

I once did 83 kph (52 mph) down this descent on my singlespeed bike... (not the bike in the photo)

View attachment 524237

... which corresponds to a cadence of about 240 rpm.

Yes, I WAS freewheeling at the time!

A58 into Littleborough, with the left then the sweeping right and left at the bottom?

 

[classic33]

Did you enjoy the lovely view on the way down?

There's a nice Roman road off to the left, about halfway down. Assuming it is the A58.

 

[ColinJ]

Yes, it was the A58, as seen from near the White House car park. That's Hollingworth Lake in the distance.

Did you enjoy the lovely view on the way down?

I have been known to get distracted...!

I got those favourable wind conditions today but they almost led to me 'doing a Froome'... (crashing on a high-speed descent).

There is a sweeping RH bend halfway down and you can carry a lot of speed into it. Normally there is a cross-headwind from the left which does 2 things - (1) It keeps the speed down a bit, and (2) It tends to blow you in the right direction to keep you on the road and take the bend. The wind today was in the opposite direction, which led to me going into the bend MUCH hotter than normal, and the wind was trying to blow me off the road!

That wouldn't have been a huge problem if I had been paying attention, but (ridiculously!) I was distracted by thoughts about some software I was working on before I took a break for my ride. When I finally got my mind back onto cycling I looked down at the GPS and saw that I was doing 76 kph (47 mph). Instead of that making me pay more attention to the road, it actually made me pay more attention to the GPS to see if I was going to hit 80 kph (50 mph)...

Until I finally looked up and saw that my time on this Earth was suddenly looking rather limited!

I did what braking I could and leaned the bike over as far as I dared and everything went into slo-mo as I watched my front wheel drift ever closer to the kerb on the outside of the bend. I got within a few cms of it before I regained control and managed to get away from it. After that, for some reason I kind of lost interest in going down the hill quickly...

I sat up, dabbed my brakes to scrub off some speed, and spent the rest of the descent giving myself a good tongue-lashing!


DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, FOLKS!!!

 

[Blue Hills]

Not sure when you did your LEJOG but i did mine in July 2018 .... 9 speed ... 13 / 36 cassette and a ...... (drum roll ).... 28 single front sprocket .......
I never spun out ... I freewheeled .... it's called cycling .....

Didn',t know you could get a 13 to 36 9 speed cassette. Shimano?
(Haven't done the maths, but much as i like spinning/twiddling i think i'd find that gearing frustrating - each to their own)

 

[Ajax Bay]

i did mine [LEJOG] in July 2018 .... 9 speed ... 13 / 36 cassette and a ...... (drum roll ).... 28 single front sprocket .......
I never spun out ... I freewheeled .... it's called cycling .....

I guess there are all sorts of ways you can make things hard for yourself. Adjust your brakes to drag a bit for additional value.
http://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=...8,32,36&UF=2215&TF=100&SL=2.6&UN=KMH&DV=teeth
In 28/13 (58") at 100rpm cadence offers one 17mph.
The idea of riding 1000 miles limiting one's max speed to 17mph (except freewheeling short stretches on downhills) seems to me like ..... (drum roll ) .... self flagellation. Unless you were riding with 20" wheels, or 4 huge panniers or a trailer, or you had riding companions whose capabilities were much lower.
Gears offer massive benefits especially on scenic routes and there are two defining parameters: range and ratio proximity. 28-13/36 offers neither.
For the record I (boringly, no drum roll) rode 52/42/30 and 12-27. For a hilly ride (Mille Pennines 16 and 17) I ran a 12-30 and substituted a 28t ring for the 30t to help me up the key climbs (Hardknott and Wrynose Passes, double chevron Dales ones, Rosedale Chimney). Your 28/36 option (20", assumes 700c wheels) would have been very welcome on those.

 

[Landsurfer]

Didn',t know you could get a 13 to 36 9 speed cassette. Shimano?
(Haven't done the maths, but much as i like spinning/twiddling i think i'd find that gearing frustrating - each to their own)

Your right ! it was a 12 / 36 ...

 

[Landsurfer]

I guess there are all sorts of ways you can make things hard for yourself. Adjust your brakes to drag a bit for additional value.
http://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=...8,32,36&UF=2215&TF=100&SL=2.6&UN=KMH&DV=teeth
In 28/13 (58") at 100rpm cadence offers one 17mph.
The idea of riding 1000 miles limiting one's max speed to 17mph (except freewheeling short stretches on downhills) seems to me like ..... (drum roll ) .... self flagellation. Unless you were riding with 20" wheels, or 4 huge panniers or a trailer, or you had riding companions whose capabilities were much lower.
Gears offer massive benefits especially on scenic routes and there are two defining parameters: range and ratio proximity. 28-13/36 offers neither.
For the record I (boringly, no drum roll) rode 52/42/30 and 12-27. For a hilly ride (Mille Pennines 16 and 17) I ran a 12-30 and substituted a 28t ring for the 30t to help me up the key climbs (Hardknott and Wrynose Passes, double chevron Dales ones, Rosedale Chimney). Your 28/36 option (20", assumes 700c wheels) would have been very welcome on those.

17 MPH!!!! Our average was 9 mph .... 2 week Lejog .... and loads of fun and laughter ..... Cycling is Fun .....