I’ve never been able to decide if choices are a gift or a curse; a lack of choices introduces simplicity but also with it the risk that the simple choices do not meet the demands of a complex world. An abundance of similar choices, on the other hand, often reduces the impact of getting things a little bit wrong, but also decreases the thoughtfulness in decision making. Finally, having many divergent choices mostly just leads to a lot of planning and ultimately indecision, assuming my experience in Corporate America is anything to go by.
These days, we tend to ride bicycles with 10 or 11 speed clusters made up of sprockets that are closely matched to their neighbors. This development removes the rider somewhat from the art of gear selection, a fact carried further by bar-mounted shifters; as gradients increase and decrease, we glide from gear to gear maintaining our cadence with hardly any consideration given to the ratios hard at work for us. It is a beautiful freedom to ride like this, but it is also another degree of separation between rider and machine.
I recently read an interview with Sean Kelly, who was discussing his defeat at the hands of Greg Lemond during the 1989 World Championship Road Race. With only seven sprockets at his disposal over a route slightly too hilly for a rider of his ilk, he was faced with a difficult choice: spare the legs on the climb with a 25T at the bottom end, or hamper his sprint with a 13T at the top end.
Kelly faced a tough decision: mount a gear that would carry him over the climb to contend the finale with the handicap of a 13T, or overload the cannons on too big a gear for the climb and never have the chance to go for the win in the first place. He deliberated over the decision while training on the course and finally decided for the low gear. Kelly made it over the climbs to contest the sprint, but his 53×13 was hopelessly outmatched by LeMan’s monster 54×12.
More recently, the Cycling world was aflutter about Tony Martin’s choice to ride a 58T front chain ring during a time trail. This wasn’t a display of bravado but rather a highly refined choice of chain line: knowing the speeds he wanted to ride, he chose his big ring in such a size that would provide the straightest chain line in the gear he’d be riding in during the majority of the race. The result was less friction, and a Tour de France stage win under his belt.
There is an art to gear and cluster choice that is nearly lost with today’s expanding sprocket ranges, but it remains within our grasp if only we are willing to seek it out. Don’t settle for knowing the maximum and minimum size gears in your block; know exactly which gears you have across the board, and understand what sizes you’ll be missing and gaining when switching between 11-23, 12-25 and 13-26 – there is more to it than just taking one off one end and slapping it on the other.
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@Jamie
Lots of CXers ride a single front, or just fix the chain on one of the two rings, which is the same as crossing but without the guilt because you don't have a choice. I can take the guilt, and my bikes are well-maintained so I don't see the need to fool with that sort of thing when I can also just not shift the front.
@Beers
If it was all WT stuff, then we'd be doing those crap races in China, too. We try to do the races with history at least and strong fields if we can - avoiding even many of the warm-up races like E3 just because we want to focus on the events that people show up to an take seriously.
Its not a perfect rule; we do the Tour de Suisse and this year we'll do the Dauphine, but Colorado won't be there and neither will TOC.
@NickB
I have a 44T but I've been too lazy to take off the 50T. You can still get up everything, you just have to replace your handlebars more often.
@unversio
Fair enough and @TommyTubolare advice is very good advice.
Just know that whenever you talk about "climbs" I assume you mean highway overpasses and not actual hills pushing a gear like that around!
@xyxax
Yeah, me too. That talk about so-and-so with his new 12T; allez la douze. It is a masterpiece.
And how he keeps talking to himself, "And his 19T was clean as a whistle."
@frank
One day -- ride together -- we'll see.
I've learned... I've learned that... I should keep this sort of thing between me and my road bike.
@frank
Grand prix de Montreal this year? It's a hell of a race. 4000m gain in 205 km. It's basically a double hillclimb crit. Awesome to spectate as well, as it's 17 laps in the city's core.
@frank
On bike 1 the last model Red front derailleur protests loudly when in small front and about 3 cogs from the 11 because of poor design without trim. The new Red fixed that but it's not compatible with old Red shifters.
Bike 2, the TT, doesn't have that problem because it sensibly has a friction shifter on the Ultegra FD.
Bike 3 has full friction Campa NR circa 1980, so no problem there but has only 5 out the back. Anyone know where to source old 5/6 speed chains and cassettes?
There's rumors floating around bike shops that engineers at the drivetrain companies are working on 12, 13, maybe 20 speed stuff. Ya, 20 cogs in the back. How much is too much? 11. That's how much.
I don't get too wrapped up in "the middle" of the block, instead focusing on the wether the route requires a 11/19 or a 12/25. The big one is always the "bail out" gear for the big climbs. If it comes home dirty, I've failed.