Your Favourite Gear Ratio

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hartleymartin
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Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby hartleymartin » Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:22 pm

I've been riding around my Raleigh Royal Tourer as a utility/commuting bicycle and I tend to find that I stick to one gear most of the time.

44t biopace chainring (does that make any difference?)
17t sprocket
27" x 1-1/4" wheels
70.1 Gear Inches
5.2 Gain Ratio

(This is roughly the same as 42/16 on 700 x 28c wheels if that is easier to relate to)

Calculated with to Sheldon's Gear Calculator.

I do shift down and make use of larger sprockets when climbing some hills, but this is the gear I use for most riding.

I could probably go single-speed with a similar or slightly lower gear ratio if I had the resources to spare to build yet another bicycle.
Martin Christopher Hartley

http://raleightwenty.webs.com - the top web resource for the Raleigh Twenty

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Quinns Rocks Roadie
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby Quinns Rocks Roadie » Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:00 am

I am reasonably new back to cycling (15 years) and getting fitter again except for 6 week lay off because of a broken wrist.
I ride 42/52 front with 19/18/17/16/15/14/13/12 8 speed rear.
I usually use (700c x 23) 42/15 (73.6") and go up to 42/14 (78.8") if conditions are favorable, or down to 42/16 (69.0") when they are not.
Back in my younger days I rode (narrow tubular) 46/52 front with 18/17/16/15/14 5 speed rear.
I used to ride from one side of Brisbane to the other in 46/16 (75.8") for pretty much all of the trip and only change up or down one tooth on the rear (71.4 or 80.9) in a couple of spots.
My first gear was 67.4" and I could get over any hill in that gear, including Mt Cootha faster than anybody else, and that gear set gave me 98" top gear but I nearly never used it except for big descents.
In my experience spinning a lower gear (100 cadence is my usual, sometimes down to 90, sometimes up to 110) will get you further and faster than pounding an overly big gear.
Your gearing sounds about right given that you are running heavier rims and tyres than what I ride now and rode in the past.
A 2" change (certainly 4") change in gearing can make a world of difference, so be prepared to change the front ring to get exactly the ratio that you want.
I have a Repco with Biopace rings that I have recently single handedly (joke) restored, but I have not tried it out just yet.
There are all sorts of views on Biopace rings and similar shapes, including arguments that the Biopace rings should be rotated away from the Shimano designated alignment.
I have not tried any of these rings so I am unable to comment either way.

Eric.
Newer does not automatically mean betterer.

high_tea
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby high_tea » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:22 am

42x17 on 700c/23 -that's a fixed gear bike
46x20 on 700c/37 -that's a multi-speed bike, yet the gearing is very similar to the fixie.

hmm

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familyguy
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby familyguy » Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:26 am

42/17 fixed, cause thats all its got.

I seem to hang around in 53/19 on the roadie a whole lot.

Jim

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itsaghostcar
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby itsaghostcar » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:14 am

70 gear inches is a good place to start when going singlespeed or fixed. From there you can play around and adjust.

Don't forget that the bike will be slightly lighter getting rid of all those gears, so if you are comfortable with 70 gear inches on the tourer, I'd stick with that and see how you go.

rkelsen
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby rkelsen » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:52 am

hartleymartin wrote:I've been riding around my Raleigh Royal Tourer as a utility/commuting bicycle and I tend to find that I stick to one gear most of the time.
That's a good way to wear out a cassette prematurely. Especially if it's of the 'newer' style with half height teeth.

My choice of gear depends upon my energy levels, terrain, wind and current speed. I have a Shimano Nexus 8 speed hub, and find that I'm tending to use gears 3 thru 8 over the length of my commute, probably spending most time in either 6th or 7th (80 or 92 inches).

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hartleymartin
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby hartleymartin » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:48 pm

rkelsen wrote:
hartleymartin wrote:I've been riding around my Raleigh Royal Tourer as a utility/commuting bicycle and I tend to find that I stick to one gear most of the time.
That's a good way to wear out a cassette prematurely. Especially if it's of the 'newer' style with half height teeth.
6-speed screw-on freewheel, steel sprockets with old-school tall teeth. Shifting gears sounds like this: clikity, clickity, clickity CLUNK! I also had the fore-sight to buy two more of them as spares. I own duplicates of most wearing parts, including all the running gear.
Martin Christopher Hartley

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elStado
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby elStado » Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:33 am

I've currently got a 17T fixed cog on a 42T Biopace chainring. 23x700c tires at 120PSI.

90% of the time it's a good ratio for the roads I am riding. Might look into a higher gearing setup like 42x15 in the future.
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mike.ayling
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby mike.ayling » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:11 am

I am an older bloke and I ride 42X19 or 18 on the flip flop hub with 28X622 tyres.

Mike

yehuda
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby yehuda » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:11 pm

51x17 on my bike.

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nickobec
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby nickobec » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:54 pm

52x17 80GI Singlespeed that is regularly used on 42km commute, max gradient 5%, no climb more than 400m long, good for 32-35kmh.

Crawf
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby Crawf » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:38 pm

55/20t + 170mm + 28c = 73"

Seems to cover me for most routes.

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PeteV
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby PeteV » Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:11 pm

Was running 44/17 fixed but swapped out to 44/18 fixed as my commute and local streets are appaulling. I cross 3 train lines, 6 roundabouts and travel along a very neglected and corrugated main road.

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elStado
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby elStado » Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:52 pm

PeteV wrote:Was running 44/17 fixed but swapped out to 44/18 fixed as my commute and local streets are appaulling. I cross 3 train lines, 6 roundabouts and travel along a very neglected and corrugated main road.
1 extra tooth on the rear cog makes all the difference?
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PeteV
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby PeteV » Sat Feb 05, 2011 1:24 am

Believe it or not, it really does!

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elStado
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby elStado » Sat Feb 05, 2011 1:42 am

PeteV wrote:Believe it or not, it really does!
Fair enough. I've got a 17T cog on my fixed side and a 18T cog on my freewheel side, so I'll be able to check out the difference once I actually bother to try out the SS side. Mind you I am running it on a 42T Biopace chainring so I have a bit less resistance.
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Wee Jock
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby Wee Jock » Tue Feb 08, 2011 4:57 pm

I'm on 46-17 with my Ricardo SS. 73 GI roughly, pot luck really that it works out so well for my trips about Adelaide, seems like a big decision when you're new to it all (like I was) and about to part with cash for cranks and cogs, but ultimately, aiming for a conservative 70 GI, give or take, you can't go wrong.

mitzikatzi
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby mitzikatzi » Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:08 pm

Image

HTFU get one of these
Image

aaron
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby aaron » Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:49 pm

68-70 G.I

toppity
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby toppity » Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:38 pm

on the track (all gear inches) -

Warm up 86
General purpose 92
sprints 89
pursuits/long time trail 94
motor pace 96/98
I ride several bicycles, but not at once.

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hartleymartin
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby hartleymartin » Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:27 pm

On the flat I have never managed to ride happily on a gear much more than 83 gear inches, so I figure that you must be using some skinny tyres and be riding on flat ground to be using gears approaching 100 gear inches (My tourer has a top gear of about 94 gear inches).
Martin Christopher Hartley

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il padrone
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby il padrone » Wed Feb 16, 2011 11:30 pm

Around 65-70" is good. Better to have 65" for hilly areas.

My SS has a double freewheel on one side and fixed sprocket on the other, so I have the choice of 65", 73" or 77". Mostly I use 65" and the 73" if I do a flatland ride. The new Thorn Nomad has 14 gears but the 1:1 ratio is the 11th (the gear you should use most often) and with 42-16 on a 26" wheel it makes it 67.6"- so a very similar riding gear to the SS.
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Dastirum
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby Dastirum » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:07 pm

I suppose after a while, most of us would accumulate a collection of chain rings of varying sizes plus a few rear sprockets as well. We could then change them around to suit the conditions. Now, if we could just take the spare ones with us when we go cycling and swap them over when we go up or down hills it would improve our cycling. Maybe, instead of carrying them around in our backpack, we could mount them together on the axles or cranks and devise some way of moving the chain from one to another ......

yehuda
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby yehuda » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:57 pm

Dastirum wrote:I suppose after a while, most of us would accumulate a collection of chain rings of varying sizes plus a few rear sprockets as well. We could then change them around to suit the conditions. Now, if we could just take the spare ones with us when we go cycling and swap them over when we go up or down hills it would improve our cycling. Maybe, instead of carrying them around in our backpack, we could mount them together on the axles or cranks and devise some way of moving the chain from one to another ......
not original, and i'm sure we have all heard this many times before.....

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Wee Jock
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Re: Your Favourite Gear Ratio

Postby Wee Jock » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:33 pm

Dastirum wrote:I suppose after a while, most of us would accumulate a collection of chain rings of varying sizes plus a few rear sprockets as well. We could then change them around to suit the conditions. Now, if we could just take the spare ones with us when we go cycling and swap them over when we go up or down hills it would improve our cycling. Maybe, instead of carrying them around in our backpack, we could mount them together on the axles or cranks and devise some way of moving the chain from one to another ......
Made me chuckle anyway :)

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