Categories: Accessories and GearNostalgiaTechniqueTechnologyTradition

And the 39 Was Clean as a Whistle

What has four thumbs and loves climbing in big gears? Those guys!

I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft… As for me, give me a fixed gear!

— Henri Desgrange

I like to think that any time a rider running a compact punctures, Henri’s spirit is brought just that little bit closer to finding peace; I can only imagine what he might have said about the advent of these sorts of chainsets, let alone the wide-range cassettes we see in wide use today.

The thing that bothers me most about wide-range cassettes is the gaps between the gears. Growing up riding in Minnesota, I trained on a 12-23 and raced on an 12-21 because they were basically a straight block until you got to the lowest gears. Going to the mountains I would reluctantly use a 12-27 but I had to stop myself looking at the back wheel too much because I hated the sight of that 27t dinner plate. I’ve gotten used to what my bikes look like with the 12-25 I’m training on these days, but there are definitely times when I simply can’t find the right gear ratio for the terrain.

Growing up, I was considered a spinner for riding at 80-90 rpm; the thinking at the time was that mashing big gears at low cadences was more efficient. We are greatly influenced by what the Pros are doing, and the famous Cyclists at the time like Hinault and LeMond rode at 60 rpm, so that’s what we punters did, too. Today, I’m still riding at the same cadence, but now people consider me to be a bit of a gear pusher in our modern 100+ rpm climate. I like to flatter myself that the size of my climbing gear intimidates the spinners I ride with; my favorite question to ask them is why they are riding in the little ring already. I usually already know the answer (they are sissies) but I like to ask anyway because I enjoy their slightly bewildered expression before looking at my chainset and realizing that I’m still in the 53. I always give them that special look that makes them wonder whether or not I have noticed that the climb is steep already.

Before spinning high cadences became popular and, shortly after, the abominable 11-28 block became the mainstream choice in gearing, climbers would seek to intimidate one another by how tight they could keep their gearing and how few teeth they needed to use to get over a climb. Climbers like Manuel Fuentes would make sure to always ride in a slightly bigger gear than the rest of the group as a show of defiance to the ferocity of the gradient. In The Rider, Tim Krabbé recounts his suffering on the climbs of the Tour de Mont Aigoual in the South of France. His lowest gear was a 19, one which he considered his “bail out” gear. He was confident he could win the race, and throughout he imagines the onlookers admiring the fact that his 19 never saw the chain, “And his 19 was clean as a whistle,” he imagined them saying.

I personally can’t imagine climbing anything steeper than an overpass in a 19, but I do like to challenge myself to stay off my 39 and ride an entire training route in the 53. And his 39 was clean as a whistle.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Guest Article: Prim and Proper »

Previous « Son of a Gun

View Comments

Owen says:

Apr 30 2016 at 10:14 pm

@frank

I'm still going to call him a spider humping a lightbulb, because damn that's catchy.
Oli says:

Apr 30 2016 at 10:14 pm

@frank

Strength training. He'll be spinning up a storm come July, don't worry about that.
RobSandy says:

Apr 30 2016 at 11:15 pm

@frank

—–

“Jacques Anquetil, five-time winner of the Tour de France, used to take his water bottle out of its holder before every climb and stick it in the back pocket of his jersey. Ab Geldermans, his Dutch lieutenant, watched him do that for years, until finally he couldn’t stand it any more and asked him why. And Anquetil explained.

A rider, said Anquetil, is made up of two parts, a person and a bike. The bike, of course, is the instrument the person uses to go faster, but it’s weight also slows him down. That really counts when the going gets tough, and in climbing the thing is to make sure the bike is as light as possible. A good way to do that is: take the bidon out of its holder.

So, at the start of every climb, Anquetil moved his water bottle from its holder to his back pocket. Clear enough.”

—

It may not be accurate, but it’s True.

You missed the best part: “If Anquetil hadn’t moved his bidon, he would never have won a Tour de France.

This is also a very good argument for not having a saddle bag.
RobSandy says:

Apr 30 2016 at 11:17 pm

@frank

By the way, just looked at my strava data for the last time I rode that hill and for the steep bit (avg 14%) I managed an average cadence of 50. Can’t imagine what it’d be like with a 39×25 instead of a 36×28.

You can’t imagine yourself riding faster?

Hah. Good point.

Actually, I can imagine what it'd be like - me grinding up a very steep hill at 40rpm with my lungs trying to escape out of my mouth. Great, hey?
Randy C says:

May 1 2016 at 7:31 am

Interesting take on USA Cycling's Junior's gearing for all racers thru 18 years of age:

The max roll out is 26'. So, one turn of cranks and bike distance traveled must be under 26'.

If you want to run a 53,52 or 50 big ring your min cog in the back would be a 15 for the 53 and a 14 for the 52 or 50. Good luck finding an 11 sp cassette that starts at 14 or 15. So, the usual solution was to simply block off the smaller cogs using the derailleur set screw (and that's not allowed in nat's events) So, you end up with a ten or eleven speed cassette and wasted cogs/weight and eight or nine speeds to use.

There is a junior's team I came across when performing roll outs for our local race that runs the usual big rings and gets their cassettes custom made in Italy. Uhh… okay.

Two better solutions are 44x12 with a roll out of 25.4' on 25c tires or, if want to run an 11 on back one would need a 41x11 (25.8'). The 44 is easy enough CX chainring to use and match up with 12x25 or 12x28 cassettes. Plus, get the weight benefit of smaller rings. Checking out the very cool BikeCalc I can see what my daughter has to spin to keep up with our Tuesday club ride pushing 27+mph avg on a 6-7 mile stretch of flat road. On her 44x13 she's spinning approx 105 rpm when using 23c tires. I haven't seen her drop in to full 44x12 yet. And so far she's made it just over 4 miles before spinning out and having to drop off. I'm always happy to drop off with her as that little run is always a bi***.

Anyways, kids are getting trained early nowadays to spin.

Cheers all
RobSandy says:

May 1 2016 at 12:09 pm

@Randy C

All the juniors who ride with us use blocks with a 13, 14 or 15t smallest cog (depending on their age). The fact that some of them keep up with the paceline when we're hammering it with those gears is pretty amazing to me.

In fact, one of the junior girls has been finishing with the bunch in vets races (because they stick the women and vets in together and she's good enough to race against senior women), on junior gears, in fast races. And her max speed for her sprint isn't much behind mine. Chap-eau!
Dave says:

May 1 2016 at 12:16 pm

@RobSandy

@frank

—–

“Jacques Anquetil, five-time winner of the Tour de France, used to take his water bottle out of its holder before every climb and stick it in the back pocket of his jersey. Ab Geldermans, his Dutch lieutenant, watched him do that for years, until finally he couldn’t stand it any more and asked him why. And Anquetil explained.

A rider, said Anquetil, is made up of two parts, a person and a bike. The bike, of course, is the instrument the person uses to go faster, but it’s weight also slows him down. That really counts when the going gets tough, and in climbing the thing is to make sure the bike is as light as possible. A good way to do that is: take the bidon out of its holder.

So, at the start of every climb, Anquetil moved his water bottle from its holder to his back pocket. Clear enough.”

—

It may not be accurate, but it’s True.

You missed the best part: “If Anquetil hadn’t moved his bidon, he would never have won a Tour de France.

This is also a very good argument for not having a saddle bag.

I need to try that Anquetil technique. Particularly if climbing out of the saddle, anything on the bike becomes reciprocating weight wasting energy.
Randy C says:

May 1 2016 at 12:47 pm

@RobSandy

@Randy C

All the juniors who ride with us use blocks with a 13, 14 or 15t smallest cog (depending on their age). The fact that some of them keep up with the paceline when we’re hammering it with those gears is pretty amazing to me.

In fact, one of the junior girls has been finishing with the bunch in vets races (because they stick the women and vets in together and she’s good enough to race against senior women), on junior gears, in fast races. And her max speed for her sprint isn’t much behind mine. Chap-eau!

Outa curiosity I was looking at the British Cycling rules re: Jr's gearing and talk about a little complicated ?!? Anyways, there was a link to an outfit: BBB Cycling I found that is putting together 11-sp cassettes like 13/25 and 14/27. That's a 14 straight thru to 21 then 23, 25, 27. That's pretty cool! It's not the bro-sets or group-sans that are taking care of juniors. This is very interesting.

But you're right about these kids learning to spin. When they get the strength imagine what they'll do spinning the bigger gears some day as adults. Yowza.
frank says:

May 1 2016 at 3:41 pm

@Oli

@frank

Strength training. He’ll be spinning up a storm come July, don’t worry about that.

Jesus that looks so much better though. Holy crap balls.

@RobSandy

@frank

By the way, just looked at my strava data for the last time I rode that hill and for the steep bit (avg 14%) I managed an average cadence of 50. Can’t imagine what it’d be like with a 39×25 instead of a 36×28.

You can’t imagine yourself riding faster?

Hah. Good point.

Actually, I can imagine what it’d be like – me grinding up a very steep hill at 40rpm with my lungs trying to escape out of my mouth. Great, hey?

I had a light day today, and what really amazes me is that riding climbs at a slower pace in lower gears feels 80-90% as hard as climbing at a higher speed/intensity. Lower gears to do not really make climbs as easy as they should, it seems. Weird.

@RobSandy

Yes!
frank says:

May 1 2016 at 3:45 pm

@Randy C

There have always been gear restrictions on juniors and while they could build their cassettes more easily back then than they can now, the restrictions were the same. Kids learn to spin, and then they grow up and become hard men and women who push monster gears up grades.