Cycling UK Forum

Like CJ,I am a little sceptical about the need for closely spaced gears for leisure cyclng. I often ride behind riders with closely spaced sprockets and regularly notice that when they change gear it is more often two or three cogs at a time than just one. Of course, the roads in Devon are seldom at a constant gradient for long, but there isn't usually much sign of trimming into exactly the "right" gear.

BigG wrote:Like CJ,I am a little sceptical about the need for closely spaced gears for leisure cyclng. I often ride behind riders with closely spaced sprockets and regularly notice that when they change gear it is more often two or three cogs at a time than just one. Of course, the roads in Devon are seldom at a constant gradient for long, but there isn't usually much sign of trimming into exactly the "right" gear.

It begs the question,how close is close ratios of the riders you're following?
I can't deny sometimes needing to change more than on sprocket at a time,but then IMO neither can anyone else.

Bmblbzzz wrote:….. whereas headwinds last for an unknown length of time.....

IME 'all day' would be about right....?....

cheers

Hi all,

Happy new year all!

Thank you all for the info
Really good food for thought, it’s not just about the Lowest gear, it’s about the usability of the gears is well.

Thanks again

Martin

I ride a 11-36 10sp with 40/30/22, and note that 11-36 9sp is now pretty much standard as well. I also have an 36/22 11-34 9sp I ride quite a lot.

11-36 10sp is
11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-36

11-36 9sp is

11-13-15-17-20-23-26-30-36

12-36 9sp is

12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36

Note the large gap from 30 to 36 on the 11-36 9-speed, which works fine on millions of bikes, so there is nothing at all untoward about an 18-21, which is a slightly smaller jump than the 11-13 which is bog standard.

I spend rather a lot of time in 40/11 as I have a ~1% downhill for a good few miles the way I usually ride. TBH IME there is quite a wide range of gears I could cycle in from slightly hard to quite easy, and a single sprocket, even at 20%, is well within the bounds of 'I can go either way' here - TWO fairly widely spaced gears, for normal cycling, might be a step too far, but one gear is not.

I would always prioritise total range including in particular bottom end over 'perfect spacing'.

Clearly I am becoming very old, if I am the only person on here who remembers when 5-speed was the state of the art and tourists in need of low gears used such ranges of sprockets as 14,17,21,26,32. THAT mons enfants, is what "too spaced out" looks like!

Never mind 17%, there we had an average jump of 23%, maximum of 24% - a big jump, but remarkably constant. And in steep hills that's just what you want, because by the time you've shifted the bike has slowed even more! In easier country we got around the spaced-out-ness by using triple chainsets with a half-step between outer and middle, like 52,47,28. You'd better believe it, those were the gears on our tandem from 1978 until the 1990s, on which we did all our longest and hardest rides and tours, including all the biggest cols in the Pyrennees. And they shifted just fine, hardly ever missing a beat.

And do you know what? People even used to tour on 3-speed hub gears, with a 33% jump from each gear to the next! How could anyone tolerate that! But they did. Some still do.

So I put it to you that the 12-36 9-speed cassette is reasonably spaced out. Not closely, I'll grant you that, but in the overall scheme of things: averagely, nothing out of the ordinary, good for most purposes. Just not quite as close as those of a more sporty bent are nowadays accustomed to, but years ago would perhaps have been very happy with.

RideToWorky wrote:...it’s not just about the Lowest gear, it’s about...

Nah.

It's like the lady says: all about the Bass!

when I first started to ride the default was 5s. Some racers used 6s but they were still the minority.

As soon as I could I bought compact 6s freewheels (that fitted onto 120mmOLN 5s wheels) and then converted those to 7s. For the (racing kind of) riding I did then, more was definitely better and for some types of riding it probably still is.

I don't think gappy gears are a large problem for a lot of touring type riding. However if you have a bike with lots of gears (3x9 for example) a discussion about how best to arrange those is for the most part a pretty harmless thing...?

cheers

Whats funnier?
Me assembling a cassette that suits me?
Somebody else fitting a staggeringly expensive ultra-compact chainset, and un-matched brifters and rear mech.?
Ride what you like, its no business of anybody else, theres no need to get all superior and snippy about it.
In the sixties I used to tour with 5 gears, steel rims and Weinman sidepulls and now i don't have to.

531colin wrote:In the sixties I used to tour with 5 gears, steel rims and Weinman sidepulls and now i don't have to.

My Wife's Father toured the Loire Valley throughout the 1950s on his Hobbs of Barbican with only three speeds (S/A), I did the same on his bicycle 50 years later with the same hub - albeit refurbished.

My Father rode from his home in Surrey for a tour of the south west (as far as Bigbury-on-Sea) in late 1945 with a friend on his F.W Evans tandem - they only had 5 gears (he was 16).

John.

Hobbs1951 wrote:...........My Father rode from his home in Surrey for a tour of the south west (as far as Bigbury-on-Sea) in late 1945 with a friend on his F.W Evans tandem - they only had 5 gears (he was 16).......

Must have been 20 years later that I set off from South East London in the school holidays....memory fades....I remember being turned away from Salisbury hostel (unusual in those days as a youngster on a bike to be turned away, they would usually find you somewhere to sleep, even if it was the common room floor) I remember Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, Exmoor; I certainly stayed at Truro, the warden kept chickens and the hostel was due to close.....I could stand chicken for dinner two nights! I think the hostels west of Truro were full and that was my turning point. Bellever hostel in the middle of Dartmoor, Winchester city mill.....happy days!