Some people are supremely good at it, reducing complex situations into matters of simple black and white. This isn’t my particular area of expertise; I enjoy wading through the pools of ambiguity a bit too much to go about bludgeoning this beautiful world into absolutes. In fact, I would venture that delighting in nuance is part of what distinguishes La Vie Velominatus from the simple act of riding a bicycle.
I’ve spent the summer wrapping myself in the Rules handed down by the Apostle Museeuw during Keepers Tour 2012, with particular emphasis on Rule #90. Climbing Sur la Plaque is a cruel business, rising upwards under the crushing weight of physics as you fight to maintain your rhythm and momentum. At first, it’s a struggle to maintain speed on the smaller climbs as you learn how to change your pedaling action to compensate for changes in gradient. You focus on loading the pedals and forcing them around; the moment you lose the rhythm, gravity sinks her claws into your tires and tries to drag you back down the hill. On the other hand, if you maintain your cadence and power through the ramps, what is usually an intimidating slope will disappear under your wheels, making molehills of mountains.
If the Big Ring is a hammer, then not every climb is a nail. (I realize too late that referring to the road as a nail is sure to bring the Puncture Apocalypse on today’s ride.) The guns get more massive from the practice of Rule #90, but it comes at a hefty price: souplesse withers like a delicate flower as one seeks to conquer the art of mashing a huge gear. Indeed, one of the great pleasures in Cycling is to sense a certain fluidity of your stroke which belies the feeling of strength in your muscles as you continue to heap coals on the fire.
This requires an art altogether different from moving Sur la Plaque; it relies on turning the pedals at a higher cadence and shifting gear whenever the gradient changes. Rhythm holds court over everything else and is maintained at all costs. As the gradient steepens, the chain is slipped into the next smaller gear; as the gradient eases, it is droped back down. Not every climb suits this style of riding; the rear cluster must be matched perfectly to accomodate the changes in pitch such that maximum speed is maintained and the legs allowed to continue their relentless churn. When synchronized perfectly, it is the gateway to La Volupté; when not: disaster.
Such is the nuance of shifting gear, such is the nature of Cycling.
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Three weeks ago after a cyclocross race I was chatting with a guy as we loaded our bikes back onto our cars. He had a touring bike with downtube shifters!
I asked him about it (did he try to shift on the bumpy course with deep gravel sections or just pick one gear for the whole race?). He had heard about cyclocross a week before and wanted to try it out. The most appropriate bike he had was a touring bike with downtube shifters, so he bought some knobby tires and lined up for the race on Sunday morning!
And yes, he tried to shift during the race (but it wasn't very easy!).
@G'rilla that's what I'm talking about! I hate Di2, power meters, and all other gadgets....yet, this is me just being a crotchety douche, because I've never used any of them. I just think it's all a stupid waste. Get up there on the bike you have/like/makes you happy and ride your heart out, like that dude.
@all: does it make me a hypocritical retrogrouch to be using Shimano STI, but refusing electronic shifting? I mean when STI were introduced, people probably truned their noses up at them as they preferred their downtube shifters. I mean to hear some people, everything will be electric in five years and this kills me....
@eightzero
Very true. But maintenance issues aside for the moment, there is the question of braking performance. Disks on a mountain bike make all kinds of sense to me. I've felt the difference, not that I especially like mtb'ing--maybe especially because I don't especially like mtb'ing. But unless I were trying to squeeze an extra km/hr out of my sphincter muscle I *think* I'd have a hard time mustering a boner for disks on a road bike. But I'm open to persuasion.
As a pedalwan learner, I'd always equated the big ring as the "power" gear. You need to move your fat ass up the hill- Big Ring. Beat the hill into submission, lest it beat you and make you go into the small ring and slow down.Or walk. Or worst of all, stop. All of this was my thinking, and continues to be as if the Apostle had revealed his knowlege and grace to me through my purity of spirit. If the point of going out on the bike is going fast and getting somewhere fast, then why go to the small ring at all? Bikes are for riding, and riding fast is most fun. Riding in the small ring is for letting your hippie buddy riding his MTB/wife/child along side to keep up without repeatedly dropping them. Anything less than the Big Ring is for when you are completely spent, bonked out, unintentional singletrack adventures, limping back injured from a crash, or hung over and spinning out the poison as far as I have gathered in my (limited) studies.
In all, this article encompasses many Rules, not just Rule #90. Of course Rule #V. It's a given. But Rules #6, #10, and # 55 reveal themselves as well, I've found. Also to be taken into account, Rule # 85. As anyone who has ever pedaled up a hill (in the big ring, of course) the prize we find at the crest- The downhill ride. Bombs Away and Chapeau!
@DerHoggz
Love the colors, but I have to say I'm sort of getting over sloping TT geometry... on my next bike it'll be straight unless there is a very compelling reason for it otherwise.
@frank If the big ring always gives the greatest leverage, why don't track and single speed cyclocross bikes always use a 53 ring?
A common CX gear is 38x18, which is the same as 53x25. But people regularly go for the smaller chainring to get the same ratio.
Or maybe I should try it! It would be intimidating to line up next to someone with a 53 if you only have a 38!
@PeakInTwoYears
Piston or lever fillers?
@frank Great article. I've always been a big fan of short steep climbs I can smash out of the saddle in the big ring. But as I widen my scope of climbs to things more "epic" I eventually came to realize that for long steep efforts nothing beats a high cadence only afforded by the small ring and sometimes, ahem, 26-28 tooth cogs.
With regards to electronic shifting, I'm against it, I think it's a waste of money for something unnecessary, and on top of that it adds weight. My shit works fine almost all the time.
As far as the Power meter bashing, I think the naysayers may be missing the point. It's a tool to make your training time more efficient SO YOU CAN GO FASTER!!!!!! You know the V and shit.
@niksch
I only have piston fillers. I'm not as who should say a collector or cognoscento. But I get a little thrill at the thought of a good chancery cursive.