What's the point of having lots of gears? (21, 24, 27, etc)

[deptfordmarmoset]

Oh, is there no proper name for bikes with one chainring and a couple of sprockets?

I've never seen one, if you exclude those flip-flop wheels that single speeds can have (where, if you want to change gears, you take the wheel off and turn it round to use the cog on the non-drive side. Retension the chain and you're off again). In fact it hardly seems worth the bother of fixing a dérailleur to shift between only 2 gears. The first road bike I had was equipped with a single chainring and 5 speeds, which worked fine but the addition of a double chainring - a double clanger, as we called it - was a definite improvement, despite having to add a front changer.

In practice, unless you're very strongly one-handed, having shifters on both sides is not more problem than having the windscreen wipers and indicator on different sides in a car. It's just that you use different chainrings for the general terrain ahead and use the cassette gears like the fine adjustment.

 

[totallyfixed]

I use a 75" gear for flat stuff 75" gear for climbing, 75" gear for downhill, 75" gear..............mmm I may be the wrong person to advise on this .

 

[young Ed]

i reckon it's all marketing, they have managed to sell people on that more gears is better so now if shimano can release a new 30 gear system they can rave about how much better it is than campagnolo's that only has 27 gears and then campag will make a new 33 gear system etc etc
Cheers Ed

 

[winjim]

For fast road cycling, you used to have make a choice between wide ratio (for hill climbing) and close ratio (to maintain cadence). Nowadays with 10 and 11 speed cassettes you can have the best of both worlds.

 

[screenman]

You reckon just marketing Ed, you are kidding us surely this time.

 

[Crackle]

The range of gears is more important IMO, ie a 28t for climbing, a 11 for sprinting. The more gears though the smoother you can transfer from one extreme to the other.

This: Think of it not in an incremental way but as a range which suits your riding and the terrain. The idea is not to use all your gears, though on occasion you might but to match the gear range to you and to what you are doing and as said, some people like small incremental changes so that they can keep an even cadence as the road and conditions change. Others like to keep things simpler. All ways are valid.

 

[screenman]

Oh how very true (that said my 3 geared bikes all have the same gearing)

Blimey, none of my 5 are anything like. Could be mine have a larger age gap.

 

[screenman]

After driving my car the wife's with only 5 gears seems one short.

 

[vickster]

Reverse not working?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

As a beginner, I'm genuinely baffled. I've done a few test rides with bikes that have over 16 gears (so they all had two gear shifters on each side of the handle) and then I tried this bike http://www.evanscycles.com/products/hoy/shizuoka-000-2015-hybrid-bike-ec059169#features which only has 8 gears with only one chain ring (so it only had one gear shifter for the rear sprockets). Apparently there are many other bikes with that feature as well.

I've found the 8 gear bike was far easier to shift up/down to match my speed and the road incline, it's almost the same as shifting gears 1-5 in a car, only with this bike it's 1-8. And with only one shifter, it was far simpler to operate. Whereas with a 21 gear bike for example, I would have to adjust both shifters, and there's the problem that if I start off on gear 1 on the chainrings shifter (left handlebar side) and progress along the gears (1-7) on the sprockets shifter (right handlebar side), after I've reached 7 on that, I would then need to move to gear 2 on the chainring shifter, but I would have to move the sprockets shifter all the way back to 1, otherwise there would be a big jump and the gear wouldn't match my speed. Is this not an issue for other people as well?

I can climb up steep hills and go really fast on the way down just as effectively as with the bikes which had 16, 21, 24 or 27 gears, so it seems to me that the cons outweigh the pros with bikes that have many gears - not that I see any pros. And from talking to the bike shop people, they mentioned that the bikes with many gears (with more than one chain ring) are more difficult for maintenance and are more prone to faults in its lifetime due simply to having more moving components - is there any truth to this? And also, because they have more than one chainring, isn't there the issue of bending the chain diagonally with certain gear combinations?

Depends on what you call a steep hill.

 

[young Ed]

You reckon just marketing Ed, you are kidding us surely this time.

or at least I PERSONALLY don't find have a billion gears necessary and could quite happily ride with 3, just push a bit harder going up the hills
then again if you are focused on maximum speed with minimal effort and climbing mount ventoux as if it was flat and still going at 70mph down hill then fair enough you may well want 30 gears. but not me personally
Cheers Ed

 

[screenman]

or at least I PERSONALLY don't find have a billion gears necessary and could quite happily ride with 3, just push a bit harder going up the hills
then again if you are focused on maximum speed with minimal effort and climbing mount ventoux as if it was flat and still going at 70mph down hill then fair enough you may well want 30 gears. but not me personally
Cheers Ed

You obviously want different from your bike than I do from some of mine. The again I would not want another Landie.

 

[screenman]

You obviously want different from your bike than I do from some of mine. The again I would not want another Landie.

Would you be equally efficient on a 3 speed bike in say the Peaks as you would a 20 speed compact?

Horses for courses and all that.

 

[bpsmith]

Have you ridden anything with 2 or more chainrings @Thursday guy ?

If you're shifting from 1-7 on the cassette and then shift the chainring from 1-2, followed by going back to 1 on the cassette "to keep the gear right for your speed" then it doesn't sound like you have. This is not how it works.

Depending on your equipment, you will usually change from 1-2 on the chainring and then drop back 2 gears on the cassette to get to the next logical gear or vice versa.

 

[young Ed]

You obviously want different from your bike than I do from some of mine. The again I would not want another Landie.

well there we go, just a case of what each person wants from their bike or what ever
i know mainly people that would rather be dead than in a landrover but would love to be in a Bentley or Lamborghini or what ever, i wouldn't dream of owning such a thing...... alright maybe an incredibly old one just to restore and then sit in the garage
for me an old beat up landrover that seems on the verge of death is my dream!
Cheers Ed