Gear Information ??

"Beverly" wrote

Any hints on the best way to shift to lower gears when climbing hills?
Most
hills in this area are rather short - not too many long gradual climbs.
Is
it best to shift the front chain ring as I approach the hill or while
climbing the hill?

I like to shift the front early, before my cadence drops too much, but it's
really a matter of personal preference, I don't think there's any "right"
way. For short hills, I'll stand to get over the top rather than shifting
lower. Standing is usually best 2 shifts higher than seated (at least for
me).

I don't seem to have a problem with shifting the rear
gears until I hit the smallest one and then if sometimes wants to skip.
I'll be taking the bike back to the LBS for some adjustments in a couple
weeks and I'll ask them about this problem. It hasn't been adjusted
since I
purchased it and it now has 600 miles on it.

There are only 2 derailer adjustments. The first is the "barrel"
adjuster -- usually at the rear derailer. This "centers" the gear selection
on the sprocket. The other adjustment is the high/low limit, which sets the
limits to how far the derailer can move at the highest and lowest gears --
this is a screwdriver adjustment on the body of the derailer.

When a bike is new, the cable & housings settle in, so the barrel adjuster
usually need a tweak. The limit screws usually don't need any adjustment.
It's not a bad idea to learn to tweak the derailer adjustments, although
newer bikes rarely need it. If you hang your bike off the ground, it's easy
to turn the cranks by hand as you run through the gears and see the effects
of adjustments. I just hook the saddle nose of my bikes over a rope
suspended from my garage ceiling or use the rack on the back of my car.

One thing to watch out for, if your bike suddenly stops shifting well, is
that the derailer may have been bumped and bent slightly. Derailers can run
very close to the spokes in the innermost sprocket, and a bent derailer can
actually cause contact, with potentially serious consequences. It can also
cause a chain to fall off and damage the spokes.

"Bill Baka" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:37:25 GMT, Beverly wrote:
Road bikes
normally only have two gears, like a 39 and a 52, so it sounds like you
have a multipurpose bike.

Trek labels it a "comfort" road bike. All the bikes in this category have 3
gears on the front. I believe they market this one to people who want a
road bike but are more casual riders. It really was a little more
comfortable than some of their regular road bikes I tried.



Beverly
(who's father was a carpenter and taught her to build things and nothing
about her bikes)

Bad daddy, girls need to know too. Of course my daughter is 25 and
doesn't know which end of a screwdriver is which, but she is a
genius at languages and will be teaching English soon.
It must be genetic, boys want hammers and tools, and girls want...well
you get the picture.

Daddy didn't have any boys so he taught my sister and I to use tools. We
rode bikes, swam and played ball instead of playing with dollsg

Beverly (who owns her own power tools including a chain saw)

"Jeff Starr" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:37:25 GMT, "Beverly"
wrote:
When you mentioned a problem shifting the smallest one, do you mean
the smallest cog[12] or the lowest or easiest gear[25]?

Life is Good!
Jeff

I was referring to the smallest cog (12). This usually happens when I'm
climbing a hill and have chosen the 30 front gear and shift down to the 12.
It often starts slipping and I lose my momentum. It will quit if I shift
back to the next rear cog but by this time I usually have to stop or stand
up and climb. I'm hoping this is just an adjustment problem and the bike
shop can fix it.

Thanks for all the info.

Beverly

"Badger" wrote in message
...
What I did was copy my cogs on a spreadsheet next to my training log and
then put the number of the gear above it, then start referring to the set
that I ride in various locations/hills, etc., and then thinking about it
in
those terms. You can even put the number on a piece of tape on your
shifter, I'd guess:

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25

...like the above.

Then when you're riding and can remember "I did that hill in 4th gear,
front chainring in the middle". When you get home you record it as 42x19.

Soon you'll start to think of the 'gear' in terms of that number instead
of
4th gear.

YMMV, but it's one way to get familiar with your gears if that's your aim.

-B

The bike has STI shifters. I really do miss being able to read the numbers
on the grip shifters I had on the other bikes. There are so many things to
try and remember while riding this thingg The most important thing for me
is to remember to unclip when I stop! I've only had that problem a couple
times since I bought the bike in March. Thankfully only one was witnessed
by others.

That bug to be a better rider must have bit me also as I purchased some
software to track my progress

Beverly

"Peter Cole" wrote in message
news:OyNmd.43964$V41.5132@attbi_s52...
"Beverly" wrote

Any hints on the best way to shift to lower gears when climbing hills?
Most
hills in this area are rather short - not too many long gradual climbs.
Is
it best to shift the front chain ring as I approach the hill or while
climbing the hill?

I like to shift the front early, before my cadence drops too much, but
it's
really a matter of personal preference, I don't think there's any "right"
way. For short hills, I'll stand to get over the top rather than shifting
lower. Standing is usually best 2 shifts higher than seated (at least for
me).

I don't seem to have a problem with shifting the rear
gears until I hit the smallest one and then if sometimes wants to skip.
I'll be taking the bike back to the LBS for some adjustments in a couple
weeks and I'll ask them about this problem. It hasn't been adjusted
since I
purchased it and it now has 600 miles on it.

There are only 2 derailer adjustments. The first is the "barrel"
adjuster -- usually at the rear derailer. This "centers" the gear
selection
on the sprocket. The other adjustment is the high/low limit, which sets
the
limits to how far the derailer can move at the highest and lowest gears --
this is a screwdriver adjustment on the body of the derailer.

When a bike is new, the cable & housings settle in, so the barrel adjuster
usually need a tweak. The limit screws usually don't need any adjustment.
It's not a bad idea to learn to tweak the derailer adjustments, although
newer bikes rarely need it. If you hang your bike off the ground, it's
easy
to turn the cranks by hand as you run through the gears and see the
effects
of adjustments. I just hook the saddle nose of my bikes over a rope
suspended from my garage ceiling or use the rack on the back of my car.

One thing to watch out for, if your bike suddenly stops shifting well, is
that the derailer may have been bumped and bent slightly. Derailers can
run
very close to the spokes in the innermost sprocket, and a bent derailer
can
actually cause contact, with potentially serious consequences. It can
also
cause a chain to fall off and damage the spokes.


Thanks to everyone for all the great information.

I was glad to see that I've been on the right track as I have been shifting
to the lowest front gear before starting to climb hills. I'll just have to
get out there and do more climbing. I'll be taking the bike to the shop
within the next couple weeks for adjustments.

I'm taking a maintenance class this winter. One of the fellow bike
patrolmen is going to teach the newbies tire changing, chain repair, brake
adjustments, etc. I could change the tires on the hybrids but I haven't
been able to change them on the new bike. I can get the tire off and the
new tube in but I've found it impossible to get the tire back on the rim.

Again...thanks and I'm sure there will be other questions.

Beverly

Beverly wrote:
I've always been a recreation rider and rode hybrid bikes. In the past
couple years I've become more serious about biking and just bought my first
road bike earlier this year. Now that I'm comfortable with the new bike and
the clipless pedals I want to learn more about my bike and maintenance of
it.

I often notice reference to gear sizes in the posts and want to know how I
determine mine. I have a Trek 1800C. The brochure on it has the following
info - Drivetrain Crank Shimano Ultegra 52/42/30. I think this refers to
the front chain rings. I'm not even familiar with the correct terminology
so please tell me if I'm using the wrong terms. How do I determine the
sizes for the rear gears (sprockets?)?
I've been reading the Sheldon Brown website and it's been helpful but I
still have several questions.

Google leads to Trek (who doesn't want you looking at last years bikes,
apparently). Your crankset if 52/42/30, you have a 9-speed cassette,
12-25. You can plug these numbers into Sheldon's gear calculator, and
find out you have a high of 116 and a low of 32 gear inches (try it
yourself for another 25 numbers). I don't know any other sources
besides Sheldon that talk about development or gain ratios, rational as
they may be, so that's the way to compare your gears to everybody else's.

Pat

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:00:17 -0500, "Beverly"
wrote:


"Jeff Starr" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:37:25 GMT, "Beverly"
wrote:
When you mentioned a problem shifting the smallest one, do you mean
the smallest cog[12] or the lowest or easiest gear[25]?

Life is Good!
Jeff

I was referring to the smallest cog (12). This usually happens when I'm
climbing a hill and have chosen the 30 front gear and shift down to the 12.
It often starts slipping and I lose my momentum. It will quit if I shift
back to the next rear cog but by this time I usually have to stop or stand
up and climb. I'm hoping this is just an adjustment problem and the bike
shop can fix it.

Thanks for all the info.

Beverly


Hi Bev, you really shouldn't be using 30-12, as that is the worst
cross chain angle, that there is.
Somehow, I doubt that you are really in 12, as that is the hardest
combination, for each chainring.

On the front, the smaller the number of teeth, the easier it is to
pedal, on the back, it is the opposite. So your easiest, to pedal,
combination is 30-25 and the hardest to pedal, is 52-12.
My guess is that you are having a problem with the 25t cog.

I think if you download and install that simple program, Gear Calc, it
will help you see what each combination does. It is far superior to
making your own spreadsheet. I have a couple of spreadsheets that have
the basic info, but you can't make cadence changes as easily or
benefit from the graphs, that Gear Calc has. It took me about a minute
to put in your gear info and save it. It allows me to have both my
bikes entered and any other groupings of cranksets with various
cassettes.

Your old bike had the numbers on the shifters. If you had numbers on
this one, they would correspond to the following -
1=30, 2=42, 3=52.
Now on the back, the numbers would go like this -
1=25, 2=23, 3=21, 4=19, 5=17, 6=15, 7=14, 8=13, 9=12.


Life is Good!
Jeff

"Jeff Starr" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:00:17 -0500, "Beverly"
wrote:


"Jeff Starr" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:37:25 GMT, "Beverly"
wrote:
When you mentioned a problem shifting the smallest one, do you mean
the smallest cog[12] or the lowest or easiest gear[25]?

Life is Good!
Jeff

I was referring to the smallest cog (12). This usually happens when I'm
climbing a hill and have chosen the 30 front gear and shift down to the
12.
It often starts slipping and I lose my momentum. It will quit if I shift
back to the next rear cog but by this time I usually have to stop or
stand
up and climb. I'm hoping this is just an adjustment problem and the bike
shop can fix it.

Thanks for all the info.

Beverly


Hi Bev, you really shouldn't be using 30-12, as that is the worst
cross chain angle, that there is.
Somehow, I doubt that you are really in 12, as that is the hardest
combination, for each chainring.

On the front, the smaller the number of teeth, the easier it is to
pedal, on the back, it is the opposite. So your easiest, to pedal,
combination is 30-25 and the hardest to pedal, is 52-12.
My guess is that you are having a problem with the 25t cog.

I think if you download and install that simple program, Gear Calc, it
will help you see what each combination does. It is far superior to
making your own spreadsheet. I have a couple of spreadsheets that have
the basic info, but you can't make cadence changes as easily or
benefit from the graphs, that Gear Calc has. It took me about a minute
to put in your gear info and save it. It allows me to have both my
bikes entered and any other groupings of cranksets with various
cassettes.

Your old bike had the numbers on the shifters. If you had numbers on
this one, they would correspond to the following -
1=30, 2=42, 3=52.
Now on the back, the numbers would go like this -
1=25, 2=23, 3=21, 4=19, 5=17, 6=15, 7=14, 8=13, 9=12.


Life is Good!
Jeff

You're right, it is the 30/25. Your comparison of my current shifters to
the old ones really helps.

I bookmarked the Gear Calc site and will be checking it out.

Thanks
Beverly

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:00:17 -0500, Beverly wrote:


"Jeff Starr" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:37:25 GMT, "Beverly"
wrote:
When you mentioned a problem shifting the smallest one, do you mean
the smallest cog[12] or the lowest or easiest gear[25]?

Life is Good!
Jeff

I was referring to the smallest cog (12). This usually happens when I'm
climbing a hill and have chosen the 30 front gear and shift down to the
12.
It often starts slipping and I lose my momentum. It will quit if I shift
back to the next rear cog but by this time I usually have to stop or
stand
up and climb. I'm hoping this is just an adjustment problem and the bike
shop can fix it.

Thanks for all the info.

Beverly


Sounds like loss of chain tension by using a non-ideal set of gears.


--
Bill (not always politically correct) Baka