newbie question on gears

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 14:04:44 GMT, Jeff Starr
wrote:



Hi, here is a helpful website, that will give you all kinds of good
info.
Gear shifting: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

For all things beginner [although also helpful to the oldtimer]:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/beginners/index.html

Although there are no absolutes in gear use, there are a few
guidelines. It is not a good idea to use the extremes, such as the
smallest chainring with the smallest cogs in back, ot the largest
chainring with the largest cogs. This causes, what is called cross
chaining and is harder on the drivetrain, totally unnecessary, and
inefficient.

With a triple, in front, you really don't need to use the smallest
chainring, unless you arer going up a hill. I use the middle chainring
and only shift into the larger ring, when I'm over 18mph, and am
spinning a cadence over about 95rpm. But that is me, using a custom
9-speed cassette of 14-28 with a 30-39-53 up front. Cadence varies
amongst riders, 3 years ago, 100rpm seemed crazy, now it is quite
comfortable.

Another thing that could help you better understand gear overlap and
duplication is a simple free program called GearCalc.
http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/gearpro.html

All of the above should make you quite knowledgable, then the rest is
just practicle experience. The more you ride, you will find what works
for you.


Life is Good!
Jeff

Hi, me again;-)
I would not use the GearCalc Pro that I linked too. Better to use the
one Sheldon offers.

I tried downloading the Pro version of GearCalc and I had nothing but
trouble with it. Unfortunately the original was a simplified version
that was very helpful.

practicle = practical [see above]


Life is Good!
Jeff

In article , * * Chas
wrote:



There were a number of good recommendation by other posters but several
may be a little too technical for your present needs,

One purpose for being able to change gears is to maintain a fairly
constant peddling cadence or number of revolutions per minute of the
cranks.

Top racers maintain a cadence of 125+, many experienced riders pedal at
90+ rpm while beginners may find it difficult to initially keep a
cadence of 60 rpm.

Working on gradually increasing your cadence will help build up your
heart, lungs and legs.

The lowest gearing - small front sprocket/ larger rear sprocket
combinations are designed for pedaling up hills. In these situations
cadence is unimportant for a new rider, just get up the hill.

The idea of 30 speeds is more a marketing feature than a reality because
there will be a lot of overlapping ratios. Ten sprockets on the rear
allows you to make gradual gear changes of around 5% on each shift to
adjust to changes in riding conditions that are affected by the wind or
road.

As some one else suggested, start off on the flat using the middle front
sprocket shifting between the middle 4-5 rear sprockets to get a feel
for differences in gear ratios. Work on developing a smooth cadence.

For best chain and sprocket life you should try to avoid using the
larger rear sprockets with the largest front sprocket and the smallest
rear sprockets with the smallest front sprocket. Big/big and small/small
creates too much chain crossover.

You will probably find that you are using 5-8 gear combinations of the
flat and 3-5 lower gears for climbing hills. You should avoid using the
highest gears except for fast downhill runs while you are developing
your cadence.

Chas.


Thank you all for your replies, as mentioned above, there were a lot of
great recommendations from other posters, I am grateful for all the
replies and indeed they are very helpful/will be very helpful. The
downhill/uphill seggregation surely opens my eyes and is giving me much
more fun in cycling, and there are too much knowledge to be acquired
from the referred urls. I am especially grateful that some of the
replies really addressed the confusions I was having as a newbie,
needless to say, they are very very helpful.

Thank you all.

Best regards
Zonta

Zonta wrote:

I have never had any proper training on cycling and found this very
difficult to do, now I am only shifting the rear gear until the
smallest gear is in use then I will shift the front gear, but this way
I only have 2+10=12 gear combinations. What is the proper way to do it?

You should just avoid extrem combinations, as front right and back left,
where the chain runs in a very sharp angle and would wear much faster.
Additionally, you should learn, to switch the back gear one or two steps
back when changing to a bigger chainwheel - and vice versa.

"Dan" wrote in message
...
jtaylor wrote:

You are right about the number of gears. Effectively, your bike only
has
12 steps from the lowest to the highest gear. However, there are some
intermediate steps available that can be useful for finding just the
right gear to work into a headwind or endure a long hill.

You cannot say this without knowing the various numbers of teeth the
original poster has. It is possible to have many more significantly
different (and therefore useful) ration than 12, given 3 x 10.



I didn't say he only had 12 gears. It is very likely that he has 30
different gear ratios. I also did not say that the other ratios were not
useful - in fact I pointed out that they were useful.

When, then, is a step not a step?

jtaylor wrote:
"Dan" wrote in message
...
jtaylor wrote:

You are right about the number of gears. Effectively, your bike only
has
12 steps from the lowest to the highest gear. However, there are some
intermediate steps available that can be useful for finding just the
right gear to work into a headwind or endure a long hill.
You cannot say this without knowing the various numbers of teeth the
original poster has. It is possible to have many more significantly
different (and therefore useful) ration than 12, given 3 x 10.


I didn't say he only had 12 gears. It is very likely that he has 30
different gear ratios. I also did not say that the other ratios were not
useful - in fact I pointed out that they were useful.

When, then, is a step not a step?


Friday morning, 5:23 am