useing gears

[MontyVeda]

I've come across several folk in the past who come out with statements like "I'm a really good cyclist, so good I only need two of my 18 or 21 gears" to me that just says "I don't know how to work my gears properly"... however i did find on my daily commute in the north lakes many moons ago that over time, my lowest gears became obselete... so much so I seldom dropped onto the smallest front ring after a year or so.

 

[Dan B]

54, really? 39x12 is 88 gear inches, which is midway between 54x17 (85.8") and 54x16 (91.1"), either of which would put less load on his chain.

He may be a strong rider but he doesn't exactly sound mathematically gifted.

[ edit: nor am I mathematically gifted today, it seems. 20 miles in 50 minutes is really quite respectable, for some reason I was reading it as 10 miles ]

 

[reacher]

i would have said that route was fairly taxing to do in 50 minutes , for a guy who just go's out once a week or so to train for an hour , i dont know what it equates to in mph though , i think i would be pretty happy to do that time ,
the bench mark seems to be 20 mph on an undulating route when i asked before which is what i was aimimg for when i start riding ,
to be fair he has never said he was good , or that he only uses 2 gears to show off , it was me that asked on here, as i did not know the reason why he did this ,
i'm new to cycling so i was curious is all ,
but i agree it is a strange way to use a bike ,

 

[Dan B]

Yep, my brain fart there I'm afraid - sorry. Have edited my post so it makes more sense, at the expense of making yours make less

 

[JonnyBlade]

All exercise is good and it's all relative to age, current fitness and so many other things. Don't let anyone tell you that it's not really worth putting the effort in. The arrogance of some is quite a different thing

 

[reacher]

All exercise is good and it's all relative to age, current fitness and so many other things. Don't let anyone tell you that it's not really worth putting the effort in. The arrogance of some is quite a different thing

blimey you lot talk in riddles on here ,
whats that mean ?
look i'm an old codger i need plain english ,
the arrogance of some is quite a differant thing ???????

i dont think anyone is bragging , its a straight forward question about gears , and the way a buddy of mine uses them who trains down the gym is all , its not like he is a cyclist , he just uses a bike as part of his training on the weights once a week if that , to keep fit ,
now , is it fast slow or what ? for that route

woops

now i'm playing catch up , i just read the amended post about the time , ok

 

[Arch]

blimey you lot talk in riddles on here ,
whats that mean ?
look i'm an old codger i need plain english ,
the arrogance of some is quite a differant thing ???????

i dont think anyone is bragging , its a straight forward question about gears , and the way a buddy of mine uses them who trains down the gym is all , its not like he is a cyclist , he just uses a bike as part of his training on the weights once a week if that , to keep fit ,
now , is it fast slow or what ? for that route

woops

now i'm playing catch up , i just read the amended post about the time , ok

I think the thing some of us are saying, and I admit it's a slight departure from your question, is that cycling doesn't have to be about power and speed, but some people think that's all it's about. Some people see it as a matter of pride never to use the lower gears, whereas many (most?) of us use anything we can to help us.

The problem is that if someone new to cycling sees too many posts that are centered on power and speed, they might think "Oh, I'm nowhere as fast as that, I might as well not bother" and get discouraged and give up, which is a bad thing - we all want more cyclists in the world, be they for sport, or transport, or pure leisure.

Your buddy still hasn't really answered the question about why he choses to use those gears in that combination. It's not so much the ratio itself, but the fact that he's getting it in a way that stresses the chain more, when he could get something very similar in a better combination. It seems he's all power (nothing wrong with that) but no mechanical sympathy. And to get that time for 20 miles, on a smallish ring like a 39, his feet must be going round in a blur. Ok, if that's the way he prefers it, but I know once I get about a certain cadence, I'm less stable on the bike because my legs are moving so fast, and it's hard to put the power through.

 

[marzjennings]

Your buddy still hasn't really answered the question about why he choses to use those gears in that combination. It's not so much the ratio itself, but the fact that he's getting it in a way that stresses the chain more, when he could get something very similar in a better combination. It seems he's all power (nothing wrong with that) but no mechanical sympathy. And to get that time for 20 miles, on a smallish ring like a 39, his feet must be going round in a blur. Ok, if that's the way he prefers it, but I know once I get about a certain cadence, I'm less stable on the bike because my legs are moving so fast, and it's hard to put the power through.

I've also wondered how important it is to maintain a clean chain line and so I'm sort of testing the theory of how chain line messes with chain stress on my new bike. I've set it up as a 1x10 (32x12,36) on a 29er. And so far so good. With the big old tyres (85 gear inches) I can maintain 20mph pretty easily on the flat, pedaling about 100rpm. So hitting 20miles in under an hour with a 39t on a road bike seems pretty easy. I usually get about 3-4 months out of a chain on a triple crankset and if this 1x10 setup means a shorter chain live time, I guess I'll see the impact of extreme chain lines.

 

[reacher]

actually i totally agree with what you say Arch , i was thinking more along the lines that he had some secret method out on the road , but it appears not , i'v adopted some of his training methods from the gym on the spin bike , being new to cycling i was intrigued as to how he actually trains in the gym , and how he trains on the road , but now i'v looked at it its not that benificial to what i'm trying to achieve long term , i can see now what he is actually doing but haveing tried it a few times with him , sure its interesting and to be fair something that is worth trying just to see what its like , but as an over all strategy for long term fitness as you age would be pretty useless , how ever the way he sets targets in his training and works towards them is actually pretty good , you would have to be the right age to follow it in its entirety , but targets are one of the reasons most people never improve or lose interest in training ,
cycling for pure leisure as you say is differant altogether, i'm more interested in the training aspect
its a learning curve as they say ,