Originally Posted by
Classtime
Who is refusing to modify the gearing on their Road bike from what was normal--like low gears of 42/24 for old bikes and 39/23 for newer road bikes?
AND, how's it going for you?
I'm 50+12, ride 5-9,000 miles/yr over the last 10 years with my weekend rides 100ft/mile elevation gain mostly 6-8% with some 10-15% as I get prepared for some big ride. I've had a couple meniscus repairs that were not cycling related, one or the other knee will bug me while riding from time to time but it goes away if I raise/lower my ankle or slide forward/aft in my seat. I have worried sometimes that a suddenly bothersome knee would get worse in the middle of a hard 200k and I would have to get in the wagon but it eventually passes and I forget to worry. For a really hard event (think Belgian Waffle Ride) I have used a 39/28 but I put it back in the bin when I get home. So far so good.
I'm not passing judgment or bragging since it is not a big deal. I just want to know how it's going for folks riding the gears of their youth on a regular basis.
Jeff.
Good question.,
First off, it would make more sense to refer to ratios are gear inches to account for stuff like rim sizes etc.
My bike came equipped with 40/52 front and 14/34 rear. 2x5. Personally I'm really happy with the extra ratio spread and find myself using 34 in the rear freewheel often enough. The ratios are well spread and useful for acceleration or hills when riding with a heavy load and what not.
I am currently using a 34/50 front crankset with 175mm. The extra 10mm in arm length over my previous definetly.makes a difference with gearing.
while I do like having 34/34 as my lowest gear, i find that 34 on the front chain ring is a bit too low for me. I think the jump between 34/50 can sometimes be too much when accelerating after a shift and there's nothing in between the two ratios to compensate. I'm planning to swap out my chainrings for 38/48 in the near future which should work well for most my riding conditions.
In short. I prefer having the lower gears and a slightly wider ratio spread versus something like 13-26 as you would see on many other race bikes. If I were to change out my freewheel , I'd use 12/13/14 - 34 again, but a 7 speed.