What is your lowest gear and how low is too low. Are new bikes geared too high?

[ColinJ]

I'm not doubting how steep it is where you are now, but what side of Coventry were you riding? I have a regular 24 mile circuit to the north-west and it has 470m (1542 feet) of ascent - that's not relatively flat in my mind (but I did grow up in the fens). Round here though, it is rather short ups and downs instead of long slogs

That's actually where I used to ride!

I admit that it didn't seem flat at the time, because it isn't...

I used to ride up Barkers Butts Lane on my way back from school and that felt like a mountain to the young me! I really struggled on my 5-speed Raleigh. The thing is, when I did it again 40 years later I sprinted up it on a singlespeed bike with a 39/15 gear.

Northbrook Road-Staircase Lane was one of my favourites. That has since been chopped in half by Coundon Wedge Drive.

Corley and Fillongley were my stomping ground, aged 10. That was before the M6 extension was built through there. There is no way that I would let a 10 year old ride solo round those roads now with the huge increase in traffic. I used to ride Brownshill Green Road, Long Lane, Tamworth Road and would only see a handful of vehicles. I was shocked (and intimidated!) by the heavy traffic when I rode up there again aged 50.

Rock Lane up from Corley Rocks still seemed a tough slog!

Yes, maybe "relatively flat" was the wrong description... "Pretty undulating"?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm not doubting how steep it is where you are now, but what side of Coventry were you riding? I have a regular 24 mile circuit to the north-west and it has 470m (1542 feet) of ascent - that's not relatively flat in my mind (but I did grow up in the fens). Round here though, it is rather short ups and downs instead of long slogs

I do a bit of riding to the south and west of Coventry (Sort of Rugby - Leamington area). It is pretty flat round there. Until you get to Edge Hill and Ebrington Hill and then you're in reach of the Cotswolds.

 

[freiston]

That's actually where I used to ride!

I admit that it didn't seem flat at the time, because it isn't...

I used to ride up Barkers Butts Lane on my way back from school and that felt like a mountain to the young me! I really struggled on my 5-speed Raleigh. The thing is, when I did it again 40 years later I sprinted up it on a singlespeed bike with a 39/15 gear.

Northbrook Road-Staircase Lane was one of my favourites. That has since been chopped in half by Coundon Wedge Drive.

Corley and Fillongley were my stomping ground, aged 10. That was before the M6 extension was built through there. There is no way that I would let a 10 year old ride solo round those roads now with the huge increase in traffic. I used to ride Brownshill Green Road, Long Lane, Tamworth Road and would only see a handful of vehicles. I was shocked (and intimidated!) by the heavy traffic when I rode up there again aged 50.

Rock Lane up from Corley Rocks still seemed a tough slog!

Yes, maybe "relatively flat" was the wrong description... "Pretty undulating"?

Very similar to me but I avoid those busier roads and take to the little lanes - and they are hillier than the main roads . There's a cycleway through Coundon park which means I can avoid Long Lane and get almost straight onto Wall Hill Road. I tend to do Harvest Hill, up to the Fillongley/Meriden road, cross onto Kinwalsey Lane then towards Maxstoke before turning north towards Shustoke and Daw Mill, then returning via a tiny lane called Newtown Lane.

Barker Butts Lane is on my commute - it's a cycleway now but there are a lot of schools and the school run drivers terrify me.

 

[freiston]

For illustration, here's the elevation profile (metres/miles) from Garmin. Definitely undulating but not "pretty flat" - especially when you come from the fens

 

[Dadam]

Compared to 20 years ago, new road bikes have much lower gearing, even if you think they are still too high.

The norm 20 years ago would have been a 53/39 chainset with 11-28 (or sometimes even 11-25) cassettes. And probably 23mm tyres, pumped up to over 100psi.

I'll take your word for it; I had no interest in bikes back then. And if I'd tried one, I think that interest would have dried up quite rapidly! Especially as I was about 10kg heavier.
So it's gone in the right direction but not far enough IMHO. Gravel bikes do seem to do a little better in this respect though.

 

[TheDoctor]

Well, of the bikes I'm actually riding at the moment...
E-bike 12-32T 7 speed, 36T chainring and 700*32C for a range of 30" - 81"
Flat bar Ribble 11-36T 9Speed, 36T and 700*32C for 28" - 88"
Modded Brompton 12/14/17T, 50T chainring, BWR hub for 30" - 105".
Very nearly as much range as the new 12 speed Brommies but no overlaps.

 

[MontyVeda]

my lowest is 22/32. It wasn't too low many many years ago on my Cumbrian commute to work, but after a few months i stopped needing the 22 tooth chainring as my fitness improved.... so i guess it is too low now.

 

[presta]

I doubt anything in the Petorborough area would be more than 8% but amazingly Cambridgeshire/Huntingdonshire not that far south of here had a few hills.
View attachment 802100

The problem with digital mapping is that the quantisation noise exaggerates the calculated height gain, and it causes the biggest errors on the flattest terrain. See here, the calculated height gain is 79 feet, when you can clearly see that the underlying change in altitude is a small fraction of that:

For years I have been big gear, low cadence and out of the saddle on climbs.

Optimum cadence increases with power output, so you need a lower gear for lower speed, then a lower gear still for the higher power.

Coast & Welch: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00422850

 

[ColinJ]

For illustration, here's the elevation profile (metres/miles) from Garmin. Definitely undulating but not "pretty flat" - especially when you come from the fens

View attachment 802361

For illustration, the local audax route profile below shows why I put a 28/30 bottom gear on my CAAD5!

 

[freiston]

That is hilly!

 

[ColinJ]

That is hilly!

That is probably the most extreme example! I think that the organiser was trying to see if he could plot a metric century route without any flat roads on it. He almost succeeded... Something like 2,200 m of ascent in 100 km (7,200 ft in 62 miles). (That profile was plotted when the event started a bit further along the valley from where the climbing starts and finishes.)

 

[HLaB]

The problem with digital mapping is that the quantisation noise exaggerates the calculated height gain, and it causes the biggest errors on the flattest terrain. See here, the calculated height gain is 79 feet, when you can clearly see that the underlying change in altitude is a small fraction of that:

View attachment 802365


Optimum cadence increases with power output, so you need a lower gear for lower speed, then a lower gear still for the higher power.

Coast & Welch: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00422850

I dare say the site exaggerates things, but its not using digital mapping, but plotting what has been recorded by the garmin.

 

[Saracenlad]

Crikey, this site is getting more tecky by the minute. My lowest gear is when I get off and push!! Sorry. Please don't ban me.

 

[avecReynolds531]

22T chainring & 32T sprocket on an 8-speed triple works well: for touring and 20% + gradients.

I recall hearing of a pennyfarthing trip from Geneva back to England - when asked how they got through the Alps, the response was: "I've never seen a hill yet that I can't walk up."

 

[Dogtrousers]

I recall hearing of a pennyfarthing trip from Geneva back to England - when asked how they got through the Alps, the response was: "I've never seen a hill yet that I can't walk up."

Now I have no experience of Penny Farthings but they look to me like an excellent device for propelling a person forcefully head first into the ground. Especially so on a downhill gradient.

I expect the downhills in the Alps would also be challenging!