how many gears?

41 said:

That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?i

I've been riding again for less than a year, but already my shifting is
pretty much automatic. I don't really think about it unless I run out
of gears at one end of the range or the other.

41 said:

That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?i

I've been riding again for less than a year, but already my shifting is
pretty much automatic. I don't really think about it unless I run out
of gears at one end of the range or the other.

"Ken Marcet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the

time.

Quoted message said:

I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
many gears? And it seems as though I am always shifting gears should I

just

Quoted message said:

toughen up and use less gears and shift less, or do others do this too? I
think I am using the gears properly.

I use all my gears, every day, but then again, I have a relatively hilly
commute. I'm also a wuss when it comes to hill climbing.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

"Ken Marcet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the

time.

Quoted message said:

I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
many gears? And it seems as though I am always shifting gears should I

just

Quoted message said:

toughen up and use less gears and shift less, or do others do this too? I
think I am using the gears properly.

I use all my gears, every day, but then again, I have a relatively hilly
commute. I'm also a wuss when it comes to hill climbing.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

The Wogster said:

...I would rather be able to drop into granny gear
and go up the hill at the same peddling speed...

I assume peddling speed is measured in sales per unit time.

--
Tom Sherman - Earth (Downstate Illinois, North of Forgottonia)

The Wogster said:

...I would rather be able to drop into granny gear
and go up the hill at the same peddling speed...

I assume peddling speed is measured in sales per unit time.

--
Tom Sherman - Earth (Downstate Illinois, North of Forgottonia)

Quoted message said:

When I pull the old Bridgestone out for a ride, its inconvenient
shifters and small choice of gears tends to cause me to just mash
along.

I do the same. I shift much more when I am riding my bike with twist grip
shifters compared to another bike with downtube shifters. I doubt it makes any
difference in performance but it feels better to maintain a steady cadence.

Quoted message said:

When I pull the old Bridgestone out for a ride, its inconvenient
shifters and small choice of gears tends to cause me to just mash
along.

I do the same. I shift much more when I am riding my bike with twist grip
shifters compared to another bike with downtube shifters. I doubt it makes any
difference in performance but it feels better to maintain a steady cadence.

Peter Cole indiscreetly blurted out:

Quoted message said:

If you do any fixed gear or single speed riding you'll find that gears
don't have that large an effect on average speed. I have gone so far as
to time trial with my fixer. My relative speed was 10% slower on a
rolling course, not a lot when you consider that a significant portion
of that was the no-coast and no-tuck penalties.

I see lots of strong riders having no trouble keeping up on a fast club
rides (20+ mph) on fixers. People think it's heroic, it's not.

Shhhhhh Peter! That's supposed to be our little secret, only shared
among the elect!

Sheldon "Bad-Ass MF Fixed Gear Macho Stud" Brown
+----------------------------------------+
| I never did a day's work in my life; |
| it was all fun. --Thomas Edison |
+----------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

Sheldon Brown said:

Peter Cole indiscreetly blurted out:

Quoted message said:

If you do any fixed gear or single speed riding you'll find that gears
don't have that large an effect on average speed. I have gone so far as
to time trial with my fixer. My relative speed was 10% slower on a
rolling course, not a lot when you consider that a significant portion
of that was the no-coast and no-tuck penalties.

I see lots of strong riders having no trouble keeping up on a fast club
rides (20+ mph) on fixers. People think it's heroic, it's not.

Shhhhhh Peter! That's supposed to be our little secret, only shared
among the elect!

Doesn't this depend on the rider? For example if your 17 years old,
ride 100 miles a day, with back to back double centuries on the weekend,
and hold the gym record for the leg press at 1,500lbs, then 20+ MPH on a
fixie is probably going to be easy, especially on a flat course....

However if your north of 40, in typical American shape, and ride maybe
50 miles a year, and your heading up the steeper face of big ass hill,
then doing 20MPH on a fixie is probably going to land you in one place,
the cardiac ward.... Then again doing 20MPH on any bike under those
conditions, will probably land you in the same place...

I had to drive a couple of places this morning, and was wishing I had a
bike, I am getting back into it, after last riding in 1984.... Getting
older, and gas prices that are climbing out of this world, are my
motives, however I don't think I will start with a fixie.....

W

Tom Ace said:

Quoted message said:

the fixed gear
bike can be a marginally more efficient climber than a comparable
geared
bike, likely due to the lack of "dead spots" in the drivetrain.

What is a dead spot, and what does fixed gear have to do with it?
Is it an April 1 thing?

6:00/12:00 position of the pedals, nothing, and I certainly hope so.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
_`\(,_ | -- Paul Erdos
(_)/ (_) |

In message <[email hidden]>, The Wogster
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I had to drive a couple of places this morning, and was wishing I had a
bike, I am getting back into it, after last riding in 1984.... Getting
older, and gas prices that are climbing out of this world, are my
motives, however I don't think I will start with a fixie.....

I did a little fixed wheel riding in my early teens and how fast those
legs built up with the natural hormone surge and the constant exercise
of a bike which had to pedalled all the time.

Now, considerably older, things are different. I restarted cycling four
years ago on an early 21 speed Raleigh MTB fitted with slicks. Not a bad
choice for this area of short hills and little else and it also suited
my level of skill after 28 years not cycling.

Something that has I did not expect was that although my muscle power
and stamina improved fast over a few weeks things went on improving over
a long period, perhaps as much as two and a half years. I think the
tendons and ligaments in particular have taken a long while to build up
and having plenty of easy gears was useful when my muscles had got ahead
of the other bits and my joints hurt.

I'm down to a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gear at the moment on my solo
(a Moulton APB) and enjoying it but am not planning to go lower. In fact
I'm going up to a heady 5 speed and plan to use each and every gear
without concern for fashion or the marketing efforts of the big
companies trying to sell me 20 or 27 speeds or the small ones trying to
sell me just 1.
--

Martyn Aldis, e-mail [email hidden]
==============================================================================

Martyn Aldis said:

In message <[email hidden]>, The Wogster
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I had to drive a couple of places this morning, and was wishing I had a
bike, I am getting back into it, after last riding in 1984.... Getting
older, and gas prices that are climbing out of this world, are my
motives, however I don't think I will start with a fixie.....

I did a little fixed wheel riding in my early teens and how fast those
legs built up with the natural hormone surge and the constant exercise
of a bike which had to pedalled all the time.

Now, considerably older, things are different. I restarted cycling four
years ago on an early 21 speed Raleigh MTB fitted with slicks. Not a bad
choice for this area of short hills and little else and it also suited
my level of skill after 28 years not cycling.

Something that has I did not expect was that although my muscle power
and stamina improved fast over a few weeks things went on improving over
a long period, perhaps as much as two and a half years. I think the
tendons and ligaments in particular have taken a long while to build up
and having plenty of easy gears was useful when my muscles had got ahead
of the other bits and my joints hurt.

I'm probably in your age group and I've never had 'tendon and ligament', or
joint pain from riding. In fact I've had some back problems and cycling has
improved them.

After the first couple months of riding I think it would be extremely rare
that one would have any muscle pain off the bike at all. I think your
results may be non-typical.

Riding a bike even at the level of advanced recreational rider is just so
gentle on the body compared to running or lifting weights that it's
difficult to hurt yourself short of having a pathologically bad fit or
falling off the bike, imo. Have you looked at your bike fit, cleat
placement and soforth? Are you still having 'joint' pain? If so, which
joints?

jj

Quoted message said:

I'm down to a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gear at the moment on my solo
(a Moulton APB) and enjoying it but am not planning to go lower. In fact
I'm going up to a heady 5 speed and plan to use each and every gear
without concern for fashion or the marketing efforts of the big
companies trying to sell me 20 or 27 speeds or the small ones trying to
sell me just 1.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What is a dead spot, and what does fixed gear have to do with it?
Is it an April 1 thing?

6:00/12:00 position of the pedals, nothing, and I certainly hope so.

Sheldon disagrees. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html

Chris Neary
[email hidden]

"We will teach our twisted speech to the young believers"
-- The Clash

Chris Neary said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What is a dead spot, and what does fixed gear have to do with it?
Is it an April 1 thing?

6:00/12:00 position of the pedals, nothing, and I certainly hope so.

Sheldon disagrees. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html

This still sounds like an April 1 thing.

fixed.html is 4500+ words, and "dead" isn't one of them.
Sheldon has other (i.e., real) reasons for liking fixed gear.

Tom Ace

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Sheldon disagrees. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html

This still sounds like an April 1 thing.

fixed.html is 4500+ words, and "dead" isn't one of them.
Sheldon has other (i.e., real) reasons for liking fixed gear.

" High-cadence pedaling improves the suppleness of you legs. High rpm's
force you to learn to pedal in a smooth manner--if you don't, you will
bounce up and down in the saddle."

A hint: it's that dead spot which causes the bounding.

<shesh...>

Chris Neary
[email hidden]

"Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the
same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on
a bicycle" - Helen Keller

Chris Neary said:

" High-cadence pedaling improves the suppleness of you legs.
High rpm's force you to learn to pedal in a smooth manner--if
you don't, you will bounce up and down in the saddle."

A hint: it's that dead spot which causes the bounding.

So how does this bear on what you originally claimed--

Quoted message said:

What most folks without fixed experience don't understand is that
on uphills where the gearing is relatively well-matched to the
grade, the fixed gear bike can be a marginally more efficient
climber than a comparable geared bike, likely due to the lack
of "dead spots" in the drivetrain.

which says the _bike_ is more efficient,
not a pedaling technique (which can be
learned even if you don't ride a fixed gear) ?

Tom Ace

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What most folks without fixed experience don't understand is that
on uphills where the gearing is relatively well-matched to the
grade, the fixed gear bike can be a marginally more efficient
climber than a comparable geared bike, likely due to the lack
of "dead spots" in the drivetrain.

which says the _bike_ is more efficient,
not a pedaling technique (which can be
learned even if you don't ride a fixed gear) ?

"Fixed for (e)Fficiency

fixed-gear bike is considerably lighter than a multi-speed bike of
comparable quality, due to the abscence of the rear brake, derailers, shift
levers, and extra sprockets. A fixed-gear bike also has a substantially
shorter chain.

A properly set-up fixed gear has a perfectly straight chainline. This, plus
the abscence of derailer pulleys, makes a real improvement in the
drive-train efficiency, an improvement you can feel."

Chris Neary
[email hidden]

"Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate,
is better understood as its by-product." - Christopher Lasch

The Wogster said:

Sheldon Brown said:

Peter Cole indiscreetly blurted out:

Quoted message said:

If you do any fixed gear or single speed riding you'll find that

gears

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

don't have that large an effect on average speed. I have gone so

far as

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

to time trial with my fixer. My relative speed was 10% slower on a
rolling course, not a lot when you consider that a significant

portion

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of that was the no-coast and no-tuck penalties.

I see lots of strong riders having no trouble keeping up on a fast

club

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

rides (20+ mph) on fixers. People think it's heroic, it's not.

Shhhhhh Peter! That's supposed to be our little secret, only

shared

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

among the elect!

Doesn't this depend on the rider? For example if your 17 years old,
ride 100 miles a day, with back to back double centuries on the

weekend,

Quoted message said:

and hold the gym record for the leg press at 1,500lbs, then 20+ MPH

on a

Quoted message said:

fixie is probably going to be easy, especially on a flat course....

However if your north of 40, in typical American shape, and ride

maybe

Quoted message said:

50 miles a year, and your heading up the steeper face of big ass

hill,

Quoted message said:

then doing 20MPH on a fixie is probably going to land you in one

place,

Quoted message said:

the cardiac ward.... Then again doing 20MPH on any bike under those

Quoted message said:

conditions, will probably land you in the same place...

I had to drive a couple of places this morning, and was wishing I had

a

Quoted message said:

bike, I am getting back into it, after last riding in 1984....

Getting

Quoted message said:

older, and gas prices that are climbing out of this world, are my
motives, however I don't think I will start with a fixie.....

I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting with a fixed gear, either. On
the other hand, fixed gear bikes are a lot of fun and offer an
opportunity to learn a little bit more about biomechanics. Ideally, a
fixed gear should allow a favored cadence up a very slight incline.
This will make you slightly under-geared on the flats and over-geared
on steeper climbs.

Climbing with a fixed gear involves different techniques as the grade
gets steeper. First, you stand to pedal, next, you start pulling up on
the opposite pedal, finally, you start zig-zagging across the grade --
terminally, you walk.

If your local terrain is flattish or gently rolling, fixed gear bikes
can keep up with geared bikes in all but a complete hammer-fest.
Keeping up with any serious group will require you to be in shape, no
matter what you're riding.

Oh, BTW, I can time trial a fixer on a rolling course at over 20 mph,
and I'm considerably "north of 40". Like I said, it's not heroic. Since
you're getting back into things, you might be better off not psych'ing
yourself out with age [censored].

If you want to practise on hills, a fixie with a freewheel will allow you to
get a better workout, because you can get back down the hill faster
for the next "up" interval.

It's an interesting exercise to climb hills with a 36 (and lower) cadence.

Climbing is probably a safer workout than going 20+mph, because
you're going slower when you keel over.

-- a 57-year old...

The Wogster said:

Doesn't this depend on the rider? For example if your 17 years old,
ride 100 miles a day, with back to back double centuries on the weekend,
and hold the gym record for the leg press at 1,500lbs, then 20+ MPH on a
fixie is probably going to be easy, especially on a flat course....

However if your north of 40, in typical American shape, and ride maybe
50 miles a year, and your heading up the steeper face of big ass hill,
then doing 20MPH on a fixie is probably going to land you in one place,
the cardiac ward.... Then again doing 20MPH on any bike under those
conditions, will probably land you in the same place...

W