Biggest gear on the flat

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Twilkes

Guru
50/14 on a good day or with a tailwind, anything bigger than that is unsustainable for me.

Edit: 700x25 tyres at 90rpm, that would be about 25mph/40kph.
 
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chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
Different tyres will also affect things too. I run a 1x drivetrain, so 36 x 10 is the biggest. But with fat 44mm gravel tyres on 700c wheels running at 35psi on average, I probably have a bit of rolling resistance.

I've seen a shade over 40kph on the Speedo with that.
 

SGG on a bike

Senior Member
Location
Lowestoft
Depends which bike for me. The GT is more of a tourer, steel framed and heavy, weighing in at just over 18KG in full riding trim with rack, full drinks bottles, tools etc. Running 26" wheels with City Jet tyres, I usually plod along using a 48/18 at around 14-15mph. With a little tailwind, I'll go up to a 48/15 and add a couple of mph. The road bike is lighter at around 12kg in full riding trim (as above), running on 700cx 23 road tyres and usually sits happily with a 50/16 at around 16/17 mph and with a tailwind 50/14 and a couple of mph more. Both bikes are sustainable over reasonable distances, but I'm not a fast rider generally.
 
52/11T and would like a bigger gear, i'm a grinder when it comes to gears and live in a very hilly part of the world so not able to switch to a standard, i have recently run a 52/34 up front for Exmoor which was amazing but managed to strip a chainring bolt in the process.

I've tried 50/34 here and found 34 too small and 50 not enough, a week in Wales last week and <34 would have been perfect with >52 for the downhills and anyone who says you'll spin out on a 50 before you get to a silly speed, just no! for me at 65-70 rpm is where i'm most comfortable up or down.
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
50-12 on a touring bike with panniers. It was one of those rare moments where everything was just right. Very smooth, very flat road with no traffic deep in the French countryside. Aided by a firm tailwind.

I had no bike computer, but I flew past another rider in our group who'd run out of gears on his Brompton. He later told me that his speedo read 36mph as I passed, so I must have been doing 40mph+.

It was a 4-5 mile stretch of cycling nirvana never to be repeated.
 

andrew_s

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucester
46/15 (83"), good for 25 mph in normal use, tailwind permitting. It would be good for 30, if I had any reason to put that much effort in (I used to be able to get up to 30 on 46/19 fixed on the flat).
The 13 sprocket is very rare, and I can wear out the cassette having never used the 11T.
 

Once a Wheeler

…always a wheeler
If we take the 'usually use' part of this seriously, there are some massive big-gear pushers on here. On 27" wheels 50 x 14 would be a gear of 7.68 metres. My ride-all-day on the flat in calm weather would be 5.64 metres (42 x 16) and average around 24 kph.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Depends on your cadence, I have a tourer with 32t chainring with a top speed of 23mph. I have a TT bike with 56t chainring at top out on the flat 30 mph.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
If the tarmac is really smooth, and there's no headwind, I'm quite happy with 50/13 on my road bike with 700x23 tyres. My cadence is appallingly low so I don't manage to get much above 24 mph on a good day, and only then for a very brief moment.
 
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OP
Chris S

Chris S

Legendary Member
Location
Birmingham
Would speed not depend on wheel size, as well as gear? unless the gear is expressed in inches (or centimetres) ;)
My bike has a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub. Top gear is 76 inches which gives me a speed of 13-14mph at my cadence. It's perfectly adequate around town but on the open road cyclists with derailleurs just glide past me. Most people here seem to use about a 100 inch gear, which would explain it.
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
My bike has a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub. Top gear is 76 inches which gives me a speed of 13-14mph at my cadence. It's perfectly adequate around town but on the open road cyclists with derailleurs just glide past me. Most people here seem to use about a 100 inch gear, which would explain it.

One of our bikes is a tandem. I have just changed the gearing to 42t chainwheel, 11-34 freewheel. It has 20” wheels. Our test ride on Saturday suggests we will do 16-17mph on smooth flat road at our normal cadence. Fast enough for us ;) But, our "normal" (ie mots frequent use) gear on the flat, on the Tandem is 42/13, which gives us about 12-13mph at our normal cadence.
 
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