ToddAF

Sorry is this is the wrong place for this but (is there a beginner forum?)

I'm 58 and got a bike for the first time in over 30 years a month ago. So far I've put in about 160 miles. My average ride is 15 miles, 500 feet of elevation, roughly 13.5 average mph, cadence average about 75.

My question: my bike is a hybrid with 3 chain rings 28/38/48. So far, I have never used the large 48 sprocket, and I use the small 28 maybe 5 percent of the time. Is this normal or weird that 95% of the time I'm on the middle ring? Should I be using the 48 a lot more, especially on flats in order to gain more speed? Do any of you guys ride like this? Tomorrow I'm going to try the big ring for the first time on my usual course, but I'm interested in whether I'm missing something currently.

Thanks.

shelbyfv

When you are in your middle ring and a smaller sprocket, try shifting to the big ring and a larger cog or two. You may notice that pedaling seems smoother though the overall gearing may be similar. Chains are generally happier on larger cogs. Try it and see for yourself. No rules at this point, just enjoy it.

ToddAF

Cool. I'll test it out tomorrow.

big john

You know there are people who ride single speed and fixed gear bikes? You should try the Fifty plus forum. Lots of older people like us there.

ToddAF

Thanks I'll take a look. Just was wondering how important the 48 ring was to most riders.

HTupolev

Depends.

What matters with gearing is the ratios. If you're on a 48-tooth chainring and a 14-tooth rear cog, the ratio is about the same as being on a 38-tooth chainring and an 11-tooth rear cog. So a 38-tooth chainring on a bike with an 11-28 cassette can go just as high as a 48-tooth chainring on a bike with a 14-28 freewheel. A 48-tooth chainring paired with an 11-tooth cog would be much higher than either.
(Rear wheel diameter plays a role as well, although the variance in rear wheel diameter on most bikes isn't that big, so this is usually subtle.)

The rider matters too. Different cyclists vary massively in their abilities, and in their preferred cadence. An elite sprinter who wins races in 40+mph efforts is likely going to need much much larger gears than someone who struggles to ever exceed 25mph on the flats.
The terrain matters too. Someone who lives in a flat area may find no need for a tiny bailout chainring, but someone whose terrain includes climbs that average 10%+ over miles at a time may have a different stance.

I wouldn't worry overly much about what random people on the internet use. And I'd retain some amount of inquisitive/healthy/whatever skepticism even toward what local friends of similar ability use. My friends all said I was nuts when I outfitted my gravel bike with a super-low bottom gear (24-32), but after watching my pedaling stay almost-smooth on the 15%+ spots out in our mountainous double-track, they started looking into reducing their own gearing.
Care about what you have use for.

BCDrums

I run a 24-37-42 triple with a 13-28 9sp cassette, and do most of my riding on the 37. So, not weird. I agree with everything HTupolev says.

dabac

You might want to watch that a bit.
While an important fraction of riders people are entirely content on that average, it is at the lower end of the recommended scale.
And running into issues from using heavy gears is far more common than running into issues from using light gears.

No.
What gears you use is hugely dependent on ability, preference and type of riding. The smallest chainring on my previous commuter only got used in winter, on steep hills, with studded tires fitted, and fresh snow on the roads. The speed range for 95% of the time for that bike was 10-25 mph, which was comfortably covered by the middle and big ring.
I ran a 46 big on my drop bar road bike for several years. It worked fine for solo riding, but I eventually went to a 50T when I started doing more group rides. The 46T got me dropped during powered descents. I could do a lot of my solo riding on the 34T, at a higher average cadence than yours.

Mechanically, you have two conflicting preferences:
- cross-chaining(big-big, small-small) is sorta bad, and increases wear.
- bigger sprockets - more teeth engaged is sorta good. Bending the chain around a bigger radius reduce losses, more teeth engaged reduces wear. All good things. So while no big deal, you might want to go to the biggest front and 3rd smallest rear instead of middle front and smallest rear.

There is no guarantee that a bigger front will give you more speed, unless you are spinning out (not being able to pedal any faster) on the middle ring.
If you're happy with it, there is nothing importantly wrong with staying on the middle, maybe use the big for powered descents. Or tailwind runs across the flats.

Not quite. But not too differently either.
I've got finicky knees, and keeping the cadence up is an important part of keeping them content. So I run tight-ratio cassettes. And to get the overall range I want, I use more front shifting.

topflightpro

My old MTB is a triple. I'm nearly always in the middle ring. The terrain doesn't demand I use anything else. So, yeah, nothing wrong with what you're doing.

ToddAF

great feedback. thank you.

drewguy

One thought to add (maybe) to @dabac - if at your current fitness you find yourself using the middle cogs on the rear while using the middle front ring for the most part, then it makes sense to use the middle ring mostly. That means you don't have to shift as much from one ring to the next. Shifts on the rear are almost always faster and smoother than on the front. If, however, you find yourself mostly on the little cogs on the rear while in teh front middle ring, you might be better off on the big ring in front and using the middle cogs in the rear. As pointed out, the ratios are what matters, as well as your ability to turn the cranks comfortably, and finding which combos work best for you may take a little time.

LeoGrand

I have 30/44 on the front and 11/40 rear on my Trek DS4, using mostly 30 ( trying to save my knees ). Ordered yesterday Shimano Deore crank with 24/34. Probably will take out 24t ring and will use only single 34t.