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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@scaler911
That just shows you what happens when you ride without socks. You instantly break the spindle on your crankset!
@Steampunk
My question is how easy are they to swap with a Campa BB? I'd love to have them for training, but really just for specific days - like for the Thursday Interval Hell ride or some such. Not for the 200km endurance training ride. I just blacked out thinking about it.
@Marcus
Really? You ignored the double decker and went for this one? I'd call you an Assie Jackhole, but I hate being redundant.
@Oli
Yeah, cross chaining is definitely more resistancified - and my use of that "word" should tell you all you need to know. But given an emergency shift under load, I'll cross chain over risking a Schleckanical.
As for the mechanics of the big ring / big cog, I'm still working on it. The back is easy; turn a wheel by the axle and then by the tire, the farther out your point of rotation, the mo'bettah.
The front is much more complicated, because the rotation point and crank arm length are fixed, and you're moving the chain along that lever to create your mechanical (dis)advantage. I have to jump back on the physics books (or Wikipedia if I can figure out how to make it reliable) to work out the math on it again. It basically boils down to the difference between torque and power.
To test it though, pick a gear that you can turn fairly easily on a moderate climb that has an equivalent (without crossing) in both chain rings - ride the climb in both gears and see what feels better. Its the big ring every time.
Not to disprove my own claims, but I was wondering today if the effect I'm feeling has more to do with being in a bigger cog in the back than it does with the big ring in the front.
I'll quote myself:
@Steampunk
@frank
I hate them. If you ride them, you will too for the first couple weeks. The best plan is to ride them 2 days on, 1 off at first. Don't plan on going out for more than 40K the first time. They will tell you with a vengeance where/ what side is weak. I'm assured by my friend who's been riding them for years, that of all the different things he's used for training, PC's have given him the biggest gains. Other people say it's a gimmick. Jury's out for me right now.
@Frank, my set is Octalink, but they come in square taper and BB30 too I believe. One day a week won't be enough on them. You have to go "all in".
What I will say, is having ridden them for a couple weeks now, I can tell that where I hurt after a ride, is probably going to be much stronger and helpful next spring when the RR season starts and KT2013 rolls around.
One more little tidbit; unless you're supremely comfortable with your bike handling skills, ride them on a trainer the first couple of times. Things you take for granted like speed bumps, clipping in after a stop, trackstanding (that's impossible on these) and cornering are issues that you have to actively think about, or you will crash/ die/ and/ or take hits to the nut sack (speed bumps).
Oh, and they're expensive. Look for them on e-bay. ~$500 is a good deal.
What a day it has been at Velominati!
Marcus and minion make up.
And Oli suggests that there might be actual science behind Frank's cycling ideas!
@frank
Shit, I also forgot that there's a version that you can "lock out" so they work like normal cranks. But no sense having a crutch I say.
@frank
(Redd Foxx voice) Frank, you big dummy! The Big Ring pulls more chain length on each rotation. The Lil Ring pulls less chain length on each rotation. Big Ring -- Big chain distance -- more revolutions on the cassette. Lil Ring -- Lil chain distance -- less revolutions. Dummy! Now go unload that bath tub off the truck!
@Oli
You are a proponent of cycling in absolutes. It's 100% vector math (forces) and true grit.
I had an old coach (who was old school 30-years ago) insisted on not just riding a fixed gear all winter, but changing the gear daily by extremes based on other exercises like weights and hill running. The objective was to increase the gear size I could ride tempo at by spring.
what I ended up getting better at was changing cogs, chain rings and sizing/tensioning the chain. This was also before pinned and ramped chainrings so riders often switched inner chainrings from 42/44/46/48 from race to race.
I guess now with 10 or 11 cogs The gearing range is not only larger but has less gaps. Add the ease of shifting and one is more inclined to maintain rpm rather than push on the pedals to get stronger.
I llike Frank's choice of DT shifters in the lead photo as I think DT shifters force one to consider the shift vs. pushing harder on the pedals when the pitch changes.Beyond nostalgia, I enjoy DT levers on my current winter bike for this reason.
Having spent many, many winters on a fixed gear, and more recently reading about the power cranks I think they better address strengthening the pedaling circle of which was the purpose of the fixed. But ultimately one needs to practice big gear/ low rpm and low gear/high rpm to develop true souplessa, wether that be with a fixed, PC's straingauges or just going back and forth with the front mech.
@unversio
Sadly, you get the award for "doesn't get it". You just defined the difference between gear sizes. Completely different thing. We are talking about same gear inches, different ratios of gears and what the mechanical advantage would be.