Is this true?

[CopperCyclist]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070721011630AA7sJnf

The point I'm querying is where the answerer states that the pros easiest gear is harder than a standard hardest gear.

Are they really saying a pros easiest gear is the equivalent of at least a 50/11!!!?

 

[VamP]

Of course it's not true

Gotta love the internet.

 

[HLaB]

Occasionally it'll be true but I think Cobo was on a compact or had a 34t rear (or bigger) when he won one of the mountain stages of last years Vuelta.

 

[screenman]

Never true, internet experts and all that stuff. Think about it most running 10 or 11 starting at what 11 so that would take you up to a 22 then on that front say a 53 x 42 and you can see not a lot different from us lot.

Nik Bowdler I think runs a 75 front and does quite well, but this is an exception.

 

[VamP]

Yeah, but HLaB, what the guy is saying is that the pros use 50/11 (ish) as their climbing gear!!!

Contador (and others) uses a specially adapted 34t (ish) for some of the climbs. Pros use what is most efficient for the race they are doing - sometimes that goes outside the range us mortals are used to (in both directions), but no-one can climb 15% with a 50/11!

 

[HLaB]

Yeah, but HLaB, what the guy is saying is that the pros use 50/11 (ish) as their climbing gear!!!

Contador (and others) uses a specially adapted 34t (ish) for some of the climbs. Pros use what is most efficient for the race they are doing - sometimes that goes outside the range us mortals are used to (in both directions), but no-one can climb 15% with a 50/11!

As a pure climbing gear the bloke is talking garbage in TT's, as you say maybe, they'll (their team) will modify their set up to suit. I forget what gearing it was but I was talking today to somebody doing a charity challenge with Obree and a couple of other celebs and Obree is using a stupidly high gear (for me anyway ).

 

[jay clock]

What a load of utter bollox!

the pros easiest gear is harder than a standard hardest gear.

let's assume you have a standard compact, but maybe have slipped on a 46 front ring. And you have smallest cog of 15 (unusual, but for the sake of argument). Your "hardest" gear is 82". In reality 95+% of road bikes with a compact will have a 50/34 with a cassette of something like 12-25, so a hardest gear of over 100"

The easiest gear a pro could have (with a "difficult" set up) would be 42-18, so a 63" "easiest" gear

As I say, bollox

 

[Hacienda71]

I wonder where the concept that brought us Sram Apex came from?

 

[cyberknight]

I wonder where the concept that brought us Sram Apex came from?

Did beefie bertie request the set up from sram for mountain stages?

http://www.theroaddiaries.com/2011/05/24/sram-apex-the-pro-rider%E2%80%99s-choice-for-giro-mountain%E2%80%99s-stages/ ​

In 2008, for the Plan De Corones TT, SRAM made a specific set up for Alberto Contador (Saxo-Bank Sungard Team): the Apex story with its WiFLi concept (Wider, Faster, Lighter) started there! Three years later Alberto, the original Apex test pilot, used the Apex in the Dolimites.

 

[Hacienda71]

Did beefie bertie request the set up from sram for mountain stages?

http://www.theroaddiaries.com/2011/05/24/sram-apex-the-pro-rider%E2%80%99s-choice-for-giro-mountain%E2%80%99s-stages/ ​

In 2008, for the Plan De Corones TT, SRAM made a specific set up for Alberto Contador (Saxo-Bank Sungard Team): the Apex story with its WiFLi concept (Wider, Faster, Lighter) started there! Three years later Alberto, the original Apex test pilot, used the Apex in the Dolimites.

Precisely CK not quite a 50:11

 

[boydj]

For his first World Hour Record, Chris Boardman used 53x13, and for his second, 56x13, covering 56.375 km. I don't see the pros going for gearing much higher than that at the top end on the road.

http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/hourrec.htm

 

[totallyfixed]

Never true, internet experts and all that stuff. Think about it most running 10 or 11 starting at what 11 so that would take you up to a 22 then on that front say a 53 x 42 and you can see not a lot different from us lot.

Nik Bowdler I think runs a 75 front and does quite well, but this is an exception.

Not on the time trialling forum are you screenman? We see Nik quite often, he doesn't understand the word "cadence" BTW that gear is on fixed.

 

[classic33]

Had a top gear of 228.27, that found a fair bit of use once up & rolling.
Front 62, rear 11 + 50% increase through a Sturmey Archer 5 speed hub.

 

[HLaB]

For his first World Hour Record, Chris Boardman used 53x13, and for his second, 56x13, covering 56.375 km. I don't see the pros going for gearing much higher than that at the top end on the road.

http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/hourrec.htm

Great find Obree's abandoned traditional hour record was to have been on a 67x13

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

If you have a road bike you should know that the pro's easiest gear is legs are harder than your hardest gear legs.

Not gramatically perfect but much nearer the truth