Another bike question
January 6, 2025 6:57 AM Subscribe
I'm thinking of buying a new bike [see previous]. Help me understand gears?
I want a bike that will last many years and can be used for a range of purposes including commuting, training for and completing an endurance-based fundraising ride, occasional light mountain biking, and occasional bike-packing. I have discomfort issues with my current bike (back issues, hand discomfort) even after doing a lot of fucking around changing stems and handlebars. The bike that has been most comfortable for me in my life was an All City and I'm looking at what they have now.
My main concern besides comfort as I'm shopping is hills - I'm not great at them. I plan to specifically train to improve my ability to ride hills but how should I think about gears? When I read online bike forums my eyes glaze over - I have no idea what they are talking about. Do bikes with a lot of gears and bikes with a few gears still have the same lowest and highest gear?
This is the bike I looked at yesterday. It has fewer gears, but does that mean it also doesn't have as low of a gear as bikes with more gears? I see all this stuff about gear ratio online that I don't understand. Intuitively I don't think I need a million gear options?
All suggestions welcome.
I want a bike that will last many years and can be used for a range of purposes including commuting, training for and completing an endurance-based fundraising ride, occasional light mountain biking, and occasional bike-packing. I have discomfort issues with my current bike (back issues, hand discomfort) even after doing a lot of fucking around changing stems and handlebars. The bike that has been most comfortable for me in my life was an All City and I'm looking at what they have now.
My main concern besides comfort as I'm shopping is hills - I'm not great at them. I plan to specifically train to improve my ability to ride hills but how should I think about gears? When I read online bike forums my eyes glaze over - I have no idea what they are talking about. Do bikes with a lot of gears and bikes with a few gears still have the same lowest and highest gear?
This is the bike I looked at yesterday. It has fewer gears, but does that mean it also doesn't have as low of a gear as bikes with more gears? I see all this stuff about gear ratio online that I don't understand. Intuitively I don't think I need a million gear options?
All suggestions welcome.
I missed the edit window but also wanted to say: that bike has flat bars, which only give you one place to put your hands. With drop bars, you can move your hands around more - on the flats, on the brake hoods, and on the drops. That gives you a variety of positions that you can use on longer rides or over different terrain, which sometimes can relieve some wrist, shoulder & back pain that might otherwise creep up on you if you only have one realistic riding position.
For commuting it's less of an issue - flat bars typically give you an upright position with your head up high for good visibility in traffic. But for longer distances on the road, drop bars are very much worth considering.
posted by rd45 at 7:34 AM on January 6 [2 favorites]
For commuting it's less of an issue - flat bars typically give you an upright position with your head up high for good visibility in traffic. But for longer distances on the road, drop bars are very much worth considering.
posted by rd45 at 7:34 AM on January 6 [2 favorites]
It's amazing that no one mentioned it in your century thread, but probably the biggest choice is whether you go e-bike or stay analog! Which is really a whole different thread. Have you thought about pedal assist? I mean, it would add a big margin of certainty to a century.
As far as gears -- you can safely ignore this, and I would. The vast majority of bikes you'll look at are geared appropriately for 99% of riders and rides. Don't worry about the details.
The biggest concern for a new bike is fit, which determines comfort over hours in the saddle. It's not a bad idea to pay for a session with a professional bike fitter, who can tell if and where your body deviates from average, and what you should look out for as you look at different bikes. Almost any bike can be tweaked in all the dimensions, but you need to figure out what you need.
posted by Dashy at 8:07 AM on January 6 [5 favorites]
As far as gears -- you can safely ignore this, and I would. The vast majority of bikes you'll look at are geared appropriately for 99% of riders and rides. Don't worry about the details.
The biggest concern for a new bike is fit, which determines comfort over hours in the saddle. It's not a bad idea to pay for a session with a professional bike fitter, who can tell if and where your body deviates from average, and what you should look out for as you look at different bikes. Almost any bike can be tweaked in all the dimensions, but you need to figure out what you need.
posted by Dashy at 8:07 AM on January 6 [5 favorites]
If you have a local bike shop, consider going there and talking to the staff. They should be able to answer your questions, and any followup questions, about gears and everything involved in riding different surfaces and distances.
You can also ask the staff about a bike fit. They will measure your height and reach and suggest bikes that fit your size. Comfort on the bike relies on a lot of factors. Something like a overly-high seat position could cause back pain.
You could also figure out some of these measurements at home:
https://youtu.be/1VYhyppWTDc
Or search for "home bike fit" for other videos or articles.
And if you do have a bike shop with used or consigments choices, don't rule out a used bike. Usually, shops will get them ready to ride (new tires, cables, chain, bar tape), and they can be great and last a long time. I have a used road bike I picked up a few years ago. It's been excellent over thousands of miles of riding.
posted by mr_bovis at 8:34 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]
You can also ask the staff about a bike fit. They will measure your height and reach and suggest bikes that fit your size. Comfort on the bike relies on a lot of factors. Something like a overly-high seat position could cause back pain.
You could also figure out some of these measurements at home:
https://youtu.be/1VYhyppWTDc
Or search for "home bike fit" for other videos or articles.
And if you do have a bike shop with used or consigments choices, don't rule out a used bike. Usually, shops will get them ready to ride (new tires, cables, chain, bar tape), and they can be great and last a long time. I have a used road bike I picked up a few years ago. It's been excellent over thousands of miles of riding.
posted by mr_bovis at 8:34 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]
If you want to think about gears, you need to do math. Each gear combination gives you a specific ratio calculated as chainring teeth ÷ rear sprocket teeth. In the USA, we typically multiply this by the tire diameter to produce a number called "gear inches"; in more civilized parts of the world, they multiply the ratio by the tire circumference to get "development," the distance you travel per pedal stroke (note that gear inches × π =development, when you take metric conversion into account). So we might say "this bike has a low gear of 30 inches," for example.
The ideal gearing setup would cover the range of gears you need, with uniform and reasonably close steps between each gear. Steps are thought of in terms of percentage difference, not number-of-teeth difference. So a step from 30 to 33 gear inches is 10%, as is a step from 90 to 99 gear inches. They would feel like equivalent changes in difficulty.
However, you can't have everything, and some bikes sacrifice range for closely-spaced steps, other bikes make the opposite tradeoff. For a bike with 2 chainrings, think of the chainrings as providing a high range and a low range, and those ranges overlap significantly. A bike with 2x11 gearing probably only has 14 or 15 meaningfully different gears, not 22.
Importantly, there are lots of options for gears, and you're not stuck with whatever was on your bike when you bought it. I have a 2×11 drivetrain on my commuter bike, but it has a narrower overall range than the 1×11 drivetrain on that All-City you're looking at. Every component manufacturer makes several cassettes (the cluster of sprockets in back) that will work with their drivetrains, and chainrings are also replaceable. In fact, cassettes are wear parts, as are chains (and to a lesser extent chainrings), and when you wear one out, you can think about whether you want to replace it with one that has different gearing. And when buying a new bike, shops will often make substitutions if you ask.
You can play around with different gearing scenarios here. If you look at the specs for a bike you're interested in, you can probably find the exact part on that gear calculator, or a near equivalent. You can see the development (or gear inches) for each ratio, and see how close the spacing is between gears; note that the development scale (or gear-inch scale if you switch to American) at the top is logarithmic, reflecting the idea of percentage steps. This will also show you how fast you'll be going in a given gear at a given cadence.
Hill-climbing advice: find a cadence that you can maintain up the hill and don't back off. Shift through the gears as you need to in order to maintain your cadence, but as soon as you take it easy for a moment, the rest of the hill gets much harder. With hills that you ride routinely, you get to know their specific rhythms: "start the climb in this gear, downshift one as I pass the speed-limit sign, stand up at the ripple in the pavement." That sort of thing.
posted by adamrice at 8:44 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]
The ideal gearing setup would cover the range of gears you need, with uniform and reasonably close steps between each gear. Steps are thought of in terms of percentage difference, not number-of-teeth difference. So a step from 30 to 33 gear inches is 10%, as is a step from 90 to 99 gear inches. They would feel like equivalent changes in difficulty.
However, you can't have everything, and some bikes sacrifice range for closely-spaced steps, other bikes make the opposite tradeoff. For a bike with 2 chainrings, think of the chainrings as providing a high range and a low range, and those ranges overlap significantly. A bike with 2x11 gearing probably only has 14 or 15 meaningfully different gears, not 22.
Importantly, there are lots of options for gears, and you're not stuck with whatever was on your bike when you bought it. I have a 2×11 drivetrain on my commuter bike, but it has a narrower overall range than the 1×11 drivetrain on that All-City you're looking at. Every component manufacturer makes several cassettes (the cluster of sprockets in back) that will work with their drivetrains, and chainrings are also replaceable. In fact, cassettes are wear parts, as are chains (and to a lesser extent chainrings), and when you wear one out, you can think about whether you want to replace it with one that has different gearing. And when buying a new bike, shops will often make substitutions if you ask.
You can play around with different gearing scenarios here. If you look at the specs for a bike you're interested in, you can probably find the exact part on that gear calculator, or a near equivalent. You can see the development (or gear inches) for each ratio, and see how close the spacing is between gears; note that the development scale (or gear-inch scale if you switch to American) at the top is logarithmic, reflecting the idea of percentage steps. This will also show you how fast you'll be going in a given gear at a given cadence.
Hill-climbing advice: find a cadence that you can maintain up the hill and don't back off. Shift through the gears as you need to in order to maintain your cadence, but as soon as you take it easy for a moment, the rest of the hill gets much harder. With hills that you ride routinely, you get to know their specific rhythms: "start the climb in this gear, downshift one as I pass the speed-limit sign, stand up at the ripple in the pavement." That sort of thing.
posted by adamrice at 8:44 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]
Gears help you maintain an even cadence/effort as the difficulty/steepness changes. I generally ride at a cadence of @80 rpm. The gear range on your chosen bike is pretty low, which may be fine for a city bike , but on a century ride you will have issues ‘keeping up’ with many others, as noted in other comments.. 11 teeth is a small as they go in the rear, so you would really need a bigger front chainring to have more ‘top-end’ speed, like a 48-50 tooth. May need a longer chain for that too. That’s a good general purpose bike and all the attachment spots for mudguards and racks is nice for commuting.
posted by TDIpod at 9:14 AM on January 6
posted by TDIpod at 9:14 AM on January 6
There are a number of options available from major manufacturers. For example, Giant Contend AR 4 is retail $1150 for an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and mechanical disc brakes and a 1-to-1 lowest gearing ratio. Meaning the largest cog on the cassette is 34, and the small chainring is 34. You should have no problem climbing on that gear ratio and the larger chainring of 50 means you’ll have a plenty hard enough gear to push on flats and downhills.
(Full disclosure: I work at a bike shop that sells Giant.)
Other manufacturers will make similarly specced bikes. This is just one option I pulled up.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 9:14 AM on January 6
(Full disclosure: I work at a bike shop that sells Giant.)
Other manufacturers will make similarly specced bikes. This is just one option I pulled up.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 9:14 AM on January 6
Response by poster: Great answers so far - thanks to all. Re: bike fitting - I always read about this but my experience at a few local bike shops is that though I have had some support futzing around with different sized frames, trying different handlebars etc, but have never had a super satisfactory experience with this. If there is a particular bike-fit professional in the SF Bay Area you recommend I could probably spring for it.
posted by latkes at 11:35 AM on January 6
posted by latkes at 11:35 AM on January 6
Okay, folks are getting into language that I am guessing will make your eyes glaze over. I have a bunch of bikes and know some of this stuff, and I can't keep up either.
Gears are different now. For many years, the way to get a bigger gear range and have easier gears was to have LOTS of gears (like three rings in the front in addition to lots in the back). This was so you could have easier gears for climbing and harder gears to go fast downhills like a racer. For me, I want it to be as easy as possible to go uphill; I don't care if I can't pedal on a steep, fast downhill as I am not racing. So I wouldn't worry so much about having a lot of gears. You want the easiest gear to be easy for you on hills.
Right now there's a newer style of bike called a gravel bike that will probably best suit your needs. Try not to get too stuck on a specific brand. That bike didn't fit you well because it was a City Bike. Instead, the way to approach this is to ride a handful of different bikes in roughly the style you want, choose the one that feels the best, and then work with a bike fitter to customize it. You said you swapped out handlebars and stuff, but it's pretty hard to get this stuff right if you haven't gotten your bike fitted in the first place. Bike fitters know so much more than an average person.
It's okay if it has flat bars or drop bars. Sometimes drop bars can be more comfortable for longer, endurance rides on a bike that fits you well, and it's the style for road riding and longer rides. But, what I really recommend you do: go to your local bike shop and ride some gravel bikes in different brands and a few sizes and see what fits and feels good. Then, dial in the fit with a professional fitter after you buy it. Fitting is not the folks in the bike shop making suggestions; it's a professional who may also be trained as a physical therapist. It's a whole thing where you make an appointment and bring your bike in and they put your bike on a trainer and take measurements and swap out different parts. The bike shop can probably tell you who are good fitters and may have some relationships with them.
I'm not sure what you mean by light mountain biking. Do you mean riding on a dirt road, like a forest service road? Then a gravel bike is perfect. If you mean something like real mountain biking, then I'd say you can't really do all these things. Mountain bikes are heavier and geared differently and won't be fast enough on these endurance rides.
You can get a gravel bike and put slick tires on it for longer road rides, if you want.
Go to your local shop and try a few different gravel bikes, including with drop bars, and you'll see what I mean, and then come back with more questions!
(I used to have a proper lighter road bike and a cyclocross bike; now I have a gravel bike. I might do a century on a my gravel bike, or, if I was going to do longer and longer road rides, might think about getting a dedicated road bike. However, my gravel bike can and does almost all of what you are asking.)
posted by bluedaisy at 12:03 PM on January 6 [1 favorite]
Gears are different now. For many years, the way to get a bigger gear range and have easier gears was to have LOTS of gears (like three rings in the front in addition to lots in the back). This was so you could have easier gears for climbing and harder gears to go fast downhills like a racer. For me, I want it to be as easy as possible to go uphill; I don't care if I can't pedal on a steep, fast downhill as I am not racing. So I wouldn't worry so much about having a lot of gears. You want the easiest gear to be easy for you on hills.
Right now there's a newer style of bike called a gravel bike that will probably best suit your needs. Try not to get too stuck on a specific brand. That bike didn't fit you well because it was a City Bike. Instead, the way to approach this is to ride a handful of different bikes in roughly the style you want, choose the one that feels the best, and then work with a bike fitter to customize it. You said you swapped out handlebars and stuff, but it's pretty hard to get this stuff right if you haven't gotten your bike fitted in the first place. Bike fitters know so much more than an average person.
It's okay if it has flat bars or drop bars. Sometimes drop bars can be more comfortable for longer, endurance rides on a bike that fits you well, and it's the style for road riding and longer rides. But, what I really recommend you do: go to your local bike shop and ride some gravel bikes in different brands and a few sizes and see what fits and feels good. Then, dial in the fit with a professional fitter after you buy it. Fitting is not the folks in the bike shop making suggestions; it's a professional who may also be trained as a physical therapist. It's a whole thing where you make an appointment and bring your bike in and they put your bike on a trainer and take measurements and swap out different parts. The bike shop can probably tell you who are good fitters and may have some relationships with them.
I'm not sure what you mean by light mountain biking. Do you mean riding on a dirt road, like a forest service road? Then a gravel bike is perfect. If you mean something like real mountain biking, then I'd say you can't really do all these things. Mountain bikes are heavier and geared differently and won't be fast enough on these endurance rides.
You can get a gravel bike and put slick tires on it for longer road rides, if you want.
Go to your local shop and try a few different gravel bikes, including with drop bars, and you'll see what I mean, and then come back with more questions!
(I used to have a proper lighter road bike and a cyclocross bike; now I have a gravel bike. I might do a century on a my gravel bike, or, if I was going to do longer and longer road rides, might think about getting a dedicated road bike. However, my gravel bike can and does almost all of what you are asking.)
posted by bluedaisy at 12:03 PM on January 6 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: [to clarify my 'mountain biking' comment - I mean going on dirt roads periodically]
posted by latkes at 12:05 PM on January 6
posted by latkes at 12:05 PM on January 6
Okay, clarification. What some folks call gravel bikes, others, like All City, call "all road" bikes. The idea is that you can take them on dirt and gravel roads, not just pavement.
If you hover over the Bikes menu on the All City website, you get these categories:
Road
All-Road
City
Race
The bike you road yesterday is categorized more as a city bike, with upright bars and lots of ways to set it up as a commuter. Compare that to their description of the Gorilla or Space Horse (the Apex versus GRX just refers to the cost/level of components, with Apex being a less expensive component combination versus GRX). I'd say to ride both those bikes and see what you think. You might have to try a few sizes. See if you can find a hill, even a small one, and ride it a few times and try out all the gears.
If you really want upright bars, the Super Professional is worth considering, but it's worth riding a few others and trying some other brands too.
Giant, as another example, widely categorizes their bikes as road, mountain, and cross/gravel bikes. Specialized, another big brand, does road, mountain, gravel, and city. I'd say to try some of their entry level gravel bikes, like the Diverge.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:23 PM on January 6
If you hover over the Bikes menu on the All City website, you get these categories:
Road
All-Road
City
Race
The bike you road yesterday is categorized more as a city bike, with upright bars and lots of ways to set it up as a commuter. Compare that to their description of the Gorilla or Space Horse (the Apex versus GRX just refers to the cost/level of components, with Apex being a less expensive component combination versus GRX). I'd say to ride both those bikes and see what you think. You might have to try a few sizes. See if you can find a hill, even a small one, and ride it a few times and try out all the gears.
If you really want upright bars, the Super Professional is worth considering, but it's worth riding a few others and trying some other brands too.
Giant, as another example, widely categorizes their bikes as road, mountain, and cross/gravel bikes. Specialized, another big brand, does road, mountain, gravel, and city. I'd say to try some of their entry level gravel bikes, like the Diverge.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:23 PM on January 6
Also, going on dirt roads periodically is not really want the industry calls mountain biking. I'm not saying this to scold but so that you know the lingo. If you tell someone in a bike shop you want to be able to mountain bike, they are going to be thinking about something super different than a dirt road. So, using the lingo, you could go into a bike shop and say something like:
I want a gravel or all road bike I can use for endurance road rides and also set up as a commuter.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:27 PM on January 6 [4 favorites]
I want a gravel or all road bike I can use for endurance road rides and also set up as a commuter.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:27 PM on January 6 [4 favorites]
I have a gravel bike with 2 gears in the front and 11 in the back for 22 in total. The way I use them is that I usually stay in the bigger gear up front and if I'm going up a hill where I think I'll need the extra gears I'll switch to the smaller gear up front, doing that is about the same as going 2-3 gears easier on the back. The ratio of my gears was more for faster riders because the only way I could pedal at a reasonable cadence on my hardest gear was going 50+km/h downhill, which isn't something I do, I'll just start coasting once my speed gets into the 40s, and I could use an easier gear. When it was time to replace the gears at the back I changed to one that was easier and have been happy with the switch. I couldn't tell you what the actual cassette was before or what it is now, just that when I was getting my cassette replaced I asked them to give me one with a slightly easier ratio. Knowing how I ride my bike now I'd be fine with just 1 gear in the front and 12 or 13 in the back as long as they gave me the same range as what I currently have.
To that end, when you're trying out a bike you want to buy ride it on a hill. If you find that it's still harder than you'd like on the easiest gear then you can ask the shop to give it to you with an easier cassette. They'll charge you but the last couple of times I bought a bike the shops discounted anything I bought at the same time by 50%.
My bike is my everything bike, I commute on it daily and use it for long rides on paved roads, gravel roads and things like ATV trails and easy singletrack. Over the summer I took it on a week-long bikepacking trip where I rode on all those surfaces and ended up walking a couple of sections where the singletrack was a bit much for me and my loaded up bike.
One trend in bikes is that tires are getting wider. The specs on the bike you linked to says that the max tire width it can handle is 45mm and only 40mm with fenders (which you should get if you're in an area that gets rain). This might end up pushing you to gravel bike territory but you might want to consider something that'll let you handle tires wider than that. They aren't going to be appreciably slower than narrower tires and will be a lot more comfortable, which would be helpful for longer rides especially. When I got my bike it came with 38mm tires but I've gotten wider tires over time and was running 43mm tires up to the end of the summer. I had to replace my tires a bit quicker than I would have liked and am running a 40mm up front and 38mm in the back right now but once it's time to replace these I'm probably going to try something 45mm or wider.
My bike has drop bars and on long rides I will alternate positions but I don't think a bike with flat bars is a dealbreaker. If you want additional positions you can get things like aero extensions or inner bar ends that you can put on your existing handlebars.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:10 PM on January 6
To that end, when you're trying out a bike you want to buy ride it on a hill. If you find that it's still harder than you'd like on the easiest gear then you can ask the shop to give it to you with an easier cassette. They'll charge you but the last couple of times I bought a bike the shops discounted anything I bought at the same time by 50%.
My bike is my everything bike, I commute on it daily and use it for long rides on paved roads, gravel roads and things like ATV trails and easy singletrack. Over the summer I took it on a week-long bikepacking trip where I rode on all those surfaces and ended up walking a couple of sections where the singletrack was a bit much for me and my loaded up bike.
One trend in bikes is that tires are getting wider. The specs on the bike you linked to says that the max tire width it can handle is 45mm and only 40mm with fenders (which you should get if you're in an area that gets rain). This might end up pushing you to gravel bike territory but you might want to consider something that'll let you handle tires wider than that. They aren't going to be appreciably slower than narrower tires and will be a lot more comfortable, which would be helpful for longer rides especially. When I got my bike it came with 38mm tires but I've gotten wider tires over time and was running 43mm tires up to the end of the summer. I had to replace my tires a bit quicker than I would have liked and am running a 40mm up front and 38mm in the back right now but once it's time to replace these I'm probably going to try something 45mm or wider.
My bike has drop bars and on long rides I will alternate positions but I don't think a bike with flat bars is a dealbreaker. If you want additional positions you can get things like aero extensions or inner bar ends that you can put on your existing handlebars.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:10 PM on January 6
Stick with your intuitions, and stick with your All-City thought - it's a great all-around brand. I might nudge you towards the Space Horse, though. It gives you more handlebar positions (better for longer rides) and more gearing options (better for hills), which is as technical as you need to get, really. The Space Horse also has braze-ons where you can install racks for packs, should that become a thing you want to do for commuting/bikepack trips etc.
I want a bike that will last many years and can be used for a range of purposes including commuting, training for and completing an endurance-based fundraising ride, occasional light mountain biking, and occasional bike-packing.
That's the Space Horse in a nutshell. Literally its job. Ride one, and if you like it, buy it then spend the money to get it professionally fit to you (ask at the bike shop if they have a fitter they recommend), and that's all you need.
Diving into forums as a casual rider: that way, madness lies. Don't go mad.
posted by pdb at 9:29 PM on January 6
I want a bike that will last many years and can be used for a range of purposes including commuting, training for and completing an endurance-based fundraising ride, occasional light mountain biking, and occasional bike-packing.
That's the Space Horse in a nutshell. Literally its job. Ride one, and if you like it, buy it then spend the money to get it professionally fit to you (ask at the bike shop if they have a fitter they recommend), and that's all you need.
Diving into forums as a casual rider: that way, madness lies. Don't go mad.
posted by pdb at 9:29 PM on January 6
I did a 100km charity ride when I first got into cycling and a cycling-experienced friend I did it with said something to me during that ride that immediately enlightened me on how to best use gears: when riding a bike, you want to generally always try to be pedalling at the same cadence (that is, your pedals should be rotating at the same rate), where there is kind of a perfect relationship between the effort you're putting into it and the resistance of the pedals so it's smooth and not difficult for you.
When you find that it is too hard or too easy at that cadence, that's when you want to shift gears to something higher (harder) or lower (easier) so the effort feels around the same at nearly all points, to the extent possible. This is also much nicer to your knees, which should almost never be straining to push down the pedals. Also, always gear all the way down at stops and gear back up again.
For hills, just take your time and think about something else, gearing down to maintain your cadence until you hit the lowest gear. Use the downhills to gain speed and save energy by continuing to maintain your cadence in a way that allows you to recover from the climb and possibly have good momentum to get a running start on the next hill. I also like to speed up on the approach to a hill if I can to get some of that momentum to make the hill less of a slog.
From my nearly two decades of experience since that original century, I'm of the strong opinion that the average rider in a not very hilly city needs only three gears and one in a hillier city/region needs only seven, with or without e-assist as they wish. More gears are fine but they just complicate things for most people who don't understand them and for the most part most people don't need to understand them - we're not riding the Tour de France; we're just trying to get around.
posted by urbanlenny at 8:24 AM on January 7 [1 favorite]
When you find that it is too hard or too easy at that cadence, that's when you want to shift gears to something higher (harder) or lower (easier) so the effort feels around the same at nearly all points, to the extent possible. This is also much nicer to your knees, which should almost never be straining to push down the pedals. Also, always gear all the way down at stops and gear back up again.
For hills, just take your time and think about something else, gearing down to maintain your cadence until you hit the lowest gear. Use the downhills to gain speed and save energy by continuing to maintain your cadence in a way that allows you to recover from the climb and possibly have good momentum to get a running start on the next hill. I also like to speed up on the approach to a hill if I can to get some of that momentum to make the hill less of a slog.
From my nearly two decades of experience since that original century, I'm of the strong opinion that the average rider in a not very hilly city needs only three gears and one in a hillier city/region needs only seven, with or without e-assist as they wish. More gears are fine but they just complicate things for most people who don't understand them and for the most part most people don't need to understand them - we're not riding the Tour de France; we're just trying to get around.
posted by urbanlenny at 8:24 AM on January 7 [1 favorite]
I'd add that not only do you want to pedal at the same cadence but the optimal cadence is probably higher than what's comfortable for a casual rider but keep at it and it'll become comfortable with practice. You can buy inexpensive cadence sensors and then use an app on your phone to keep track of your cadence while you're riding and give you stats for the ride so that you can see how you're doing at certain times, such as when climbing hills.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:58 PM on January 8
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:58 PM on January 8
+1 to that. I think naive cyclists tend toward a cadence of about 60 rpm, but if that's true for you, it's a good idea to train up from that. Aim to be comfortable at 80+. Save your knees.
posted by adamrice at 2:06 PM on January 8
posted by adamrice at 2:06 PM on January 8
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On the other side (of the argument, and of the hill) the highest gear is 44/11, which is not that high. You'll be free-wheeling on steeper/longer descents - you likely won't be able to pedal fast enough to add any further speed.
The gears in between (doesn't matter very much how many of them there are in total) are there to give you comfortable choices so that you can pedal smoothly on a range of gradients between steeply-up and steeply-down. Eleven gears is fine. Pro cyclists happily completed three-week grand tours through mountain ranges with fewer gears, until quite recently (albeit with overall much bigger gears, to make best use out of their bigger thighs).
To me it looks like a great bike at a semi-reasonable price. Bear in mind that you're paying extra for all that fancy detailing on a steel frame. You'll want to add lights, mudguards & a rack while you're commuting. Can you ride a century on it, per your last question? Yes you can, as long as you can get comfortable enough on it to sit there for 8+ hours as you're grinding out the miles.
posted by rd45 at 7:18 AM on January 6 [7 favorites]