Cycling UK Forum

I ask this as it seems Galaxies always seem to come with such rings that those who buy them must have super strong legs

For me on my Dawes 1D on 26" wheels it is 36 front and 20/17 rear. I must be very slow then

General hacking around, 46 with 19 on the rear. 700c wheels, so around a 65" gear. Heavy weight machine.

Non ATM
But usually when approaching something like fit with 700c x 38mm tyres cruising it's 46t x 21t or 19t but I pedal highish 90rpm cadence.

38 single front and usually 16 rear ..... since i started to "twiddle" my knees don't hurt any more ...

The highest of my 8 gears allows me to "spin out" at about 21 - 23 mph ..... that will do for me..

Just lately, 34 x 13 or 14 (road bike - compact double).

Really nice on a flattish route but I'd like to get back to a more traditional chainset at sometime. 52/39 was my favourite.

mercalia wrote:I ask this as it seems Galaxies always seem to come with such rings that those who buy them must have super strong legs

For me on my Dawes 1D on 26" wheels it is 36 front and 20/17 rear. I must be very slow then

Tourers are like road bikes. They come fitted with too high gearing for most people, and perhaps that's why many riders have a tendency to labour in a high gear instead of using a more efficient lower gear and higher cadence.

In flat south Manchester I mostly use 32/15 to get going and 42/15 once I'm up to speed. I change the front gear more often than the rear one.

I only use the lower gears when I'm out in the countryside where it is hillier.

32/14 (commute) 32/20 (off road).

20/20

Most used 50/21, then 50/19 and 50/23

Of course it depends on the bike

Sportive bike it's 52x14 (52/36 + 11-27 cass)
Touring bike 50x18 (50/34 + 12-29 cass)
Audax bike 50x15 (50/34 + 12-27 cass)

I'm on a 50-34 chainring and 12-32 cassette. When normal riding (unloaded except for day rides and commuting) I rarely.drop out of the big chainring. I range the full length of the cassette (to hell with cross chaining). Mostly I sit in the middle of the cassette.

BTW always had very strong legs so tended to ride with lower cadence and higher gears. Came in handy on a very heavily loaded cycle tour where I couldn't drop out of the big chainring. I only had an 11-25 cassette too. It was the one trip my partner could best me on the.hills. On the steepest of hills we both ground our way up. My partner in granny gears and me in 50-25 gearing. Lung bursting and not something I'm repeating any time soon.

On my 'Audax' bike - 50/39/30 and 12-34 - it's 50 & 21
On my 'road' bike - 50/34 and 12-30 - it's, er, 50 & 21

It's been so long since I rode my tourer - 44/32/22 and 12-32 (8 from 9 set up) - I can't remember, but I was on the 44 chain ring...

Why does it matter, if you can rotate your legs without falling off then you've got a gear for cycling, the only relevance is if you're worried about wearing out certain sprockets before the others and potentially 'stretching' the chain if you're sitting on a few select gears most of the time.

i honestly prefer to be on the 36 or 39, it means I'm more likely to wear the cassette more evenly, I'm quite happy at 90+RPM without any bother whatsoever even though I'm a big guy. However i don't think too much about it, I shift when i feel I want to shift and whatever that gear is, it's what it is for that terrain, that bike, the mood I'm in, what the weather is and how I'm feeling physically so I don't really have a 'most used' tbh. Even when I nip to the supermark 2 miles away I'm gear hopping but 36-18 to 36-13 is where you'll usually find me.

mercalia wrote:I ask this as it seems Galaxies always seem to come with such rings that those who buy them must have super strong legs

For me on my Dawes 1D on 26" wheels it is 36 front and 20/17 rear. I must be very slow then

define 'slow', compared to whom/what, it's just a number, if it gets the job done or gives you exhilaration and you had the gear to get you to your destination (& hopefully back) it shouldn't matter should it.
due to cronic illness sometimes I'm king of the world and can go pretty fast, then there are other days when a short trip to the supermarket is like doing an epic hill climbing expedition and the snails are whizzing past me on the verge, it took me a long, long time to accept that some/most days were going to be more like that than the 'superman' days and it's being most of my adult life, maybe that's why I'm a bit more relaxed about what speeds/gear combinations I can maintain/attain/most use.

48/21+33% IIRC. I seem to end up around 80" for cruising along with most of my bikes. Slightly higher if I'm not carting much and the gear is there.

What I don't understand is why so many three speeds were supplied with 46/18, leaving bottom gear at a knee-popping 52" or higher on bigger wheels.