Lord, I ask ye, to forgive me !

[asterix]

What's it matter what ring you use, what you ride, what you wear, how you ride. Round Limoges I am probably the only cyclist who has mudguards and a saddle bag and don't wear team strip. No-one seems to care!
Round York yesterday everyone (and lots of people were cycling) were on hybrids and town bikes and my drop bars were the exception. No-one seemed to care!


The important things is to get out there on the bike!

 

[661-Pete]

...as an amateur, and the sort of person who would use a granny ring because they have no male pride or don't know any better.

Please tell us the above is a joke! Use smileys FFS! Or are you saying there are no female cyclists?

 

[asterix]

Use of the granny gear is just about acceptable off road on a mountain bike, although I noticed at a couple of MTB races that some cyclists used compact doubles. I believe the granny ring is also acceptable in the final stages of a ridiculously long audax. In fact, you may even gain added kudos as obviously you'd only resort to it when completely exhausted. It probably helps the effect if you have a big ring, slightly smaller ring and a much smaller bale out ring. Also acceptable would be something like a 52/39/36 and a straight through cassette on the back, as this gives the impression that you are thinking about chain line efficiency, and not just being a wuss. Using an equally spaced triple, such as a 50/40/30, especially if you also have big dinner plate gears on the back, marks you out as an amateur, and the sort of person who would use a granny ring because they have no male pride or don't know any better.

Mr Cholmondeley Warner presents

'Cycling'*

*sorry, could only find the Football one.

 

[Kirstie]

I must try to find my male pride...must be around here somewhere...dang where did i leave it? Hm.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm pretty sure that Yellow Fang is trying to wind us up!

Anyway, as far as I'm aware, the Reading area isn't exactly renowned for its stupidly hard hills.

I find a triple comes in rather handy for the kind of rides I do round here ...

 

[benb]

The other week, I was doing my normal commute, and it had been a week since I'd last ridden, for various reasons.

I struggled to the top of the long hill, nearly dead, and thought "I'm so unfit after only a week off" then realised I was still in the big ring.

 

[ColinJ]

I struggled to the top of the long hill, nearly dead, and thought "I'm so unfit after only a week off" then realised I was still in the big ring.

Ho ho - I've do that, only in my case I was in the middle ring rather than the little one!

"A 20% climb in 30/28 shouldn't feel this difficult ... Oh, I'm in 39/28!"

 

[Kirstie]

Ho ho - I've do that, only in my case I was in the middle ring rather than the little one!

"A 20% climb in 30/28 shouldn't feel this difficult ... Oh, I'm in 39/28!"

But think of the good that it did you (assuming your knees survived the ordeal)

 

[ColinJ]

But think of the good that it did you (assuming your knees survived the ordeal)

On the bike it's my hips that start to play up if I climb in too high a gear (early stages of osteoarthritis), but my knees have started to object when I walk down steep slopes.

I'd get away with the 39 ring on most climbs if I didn't have 3-4 stone of flab to take with me!

 

[Fiona N]

The other week, I was doing my normal commute, and it had been a week since I'd last ridden, for various reasons.

I struggled to the top of the long hill, nearly dead, and thought "I'm so unfit after only a week off" then realised I was still in the big ring.

That happened loads when I got a bike with a compact. On the other road bike, I've a triple and most of the time I'm in the middle ring. So I forget that a lot of rolling riding on the new bike is done in the big ring, so I get to a big hill...

 

[biggs682]

in 18 yrs of ownership i cant remember using inner ring on the marin