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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@frank
have you still not fitted an edit button to this site for the carefree typists to take the bad look off their post on reflection?
53-39 and 12-23 for me. It's fairly flat around me so it's not often on the 39 (short steep bits only). I've got a couple of other cassettes kicking around that I can chuck on if I go somewhere hilly on holiday, a 12-25 and an 11-25 which goes well for really hilly holidays when the compact is also needed.
I tend to spin at a fairly high cadence - 100+ probably because I don't have the leg strength (major target for this year) which also means that I change gear a lot to maintain the cadence rather than push the same gear through the rollers as Frank describes above. Ideally I'd get a 12-21 as I hate the gaps especially when my legs are cooked but Dura Ace doesn't really fit the budget.
@Nate
Got it. This is my main cross bike that I use for many applications, from racing to just hitting the woods and trails when I need a quick, spirit-enlivening spin and the weather is tough or it's a busy time for drivers and I want to avoid the roads. With a 12x26 I often found myself near the biggest cog. It's a 42x39 in the front. The 26 was fine when I was training, but if I'm just out for some fresh air and fun, I thought I'd try the 28 to provide a broader range of gears to suit many different riding needs.
Noted. Thanks for the input! Looks like this means I need a dedicated race cx bike and a dedicated cruiser cx bike. Thankfully I do have my eye on a full carbon frameset at a great price!
Many years (and many pounds ago), I suffered so much to Look Pro: 52/42 175mm cranks with a 6-speed 13/19 rear. The jump to 19 was for the inclines around Washington, DC, the wimpy equivalent of today's Triple!
@David Booth Beers We understand each other then. Found the beauty (efficiency) of 52/42 175mm cranks with 10s 11-21. 21 as the escape gear if and when escape was imminent with no where to go. 19 was all that was needed.
@frank
I made a bit of a smarmy, roundabout way of it, but yes, pretty much. I've nothing against downhill racing per se. But I really have a problem with a bike that's great at going downhill and lousy at going up. The reasoning behind a single ring is sound - remove one of the worst performing bits on a MTB and clean up an area that tends to get jammed with mud - but in practice it's just far too limited, at least for the kind of riding I do. If it won't go up a loose wash like a trials bike with fist-to-bowlingball-sized rocks in my path, then I'm not buying it. And if it encourages the proliferation of XTREME sports douchenozzles that ride the chairlift half the day... well, I hope they stay up a Crystal.
@Ron
That is a monster gap, my friend. Basically, the broader the jumps between cogs, the worse the shifting...Unless you can find a way to alter the laws of physics, you will have this to some extent no matter how masterfully you adjust it. The only solution is to buy a 12-27 or 12-25 to replace what is likely an 11-28.
This is why when I swap to my climbing cassette, I choose a 13-26 over 12-27 because the gaps are smoother between cogs.
@Nate
This.
@Dr C
I like making all you idiots stand by your drunken gibberish the next morning.
@Ron
Cheaper might be just getting a spare wheel...
The biggest of my eight cogs is a 28, which serves an important purpose by remaining unused (remembering I live in the hilliest, as well as the rainiest, city in Germany): I may go into the small (42T) ring as I weakling my way up some hills, but at least I didn't bloody well end up in bottom gear. Win.