bigfred 

I can definately understand riders using a 50 in combination with a 12-28 cassette for everything but steep hills. A couple of the grandpa's I ride with certainly do that. I know the Mrs. Fred's shift point with a 34/50 12-25 at 90rpm is right at 27kph. Unfortunately that's right in the middle of our cruising range. Subsequently, she performs a lot more left/front shifts with her new compact cranks than she ever did with her triples. With the triple she spent the vast majority of her time in the middle ring. Reserving the granny and big ring for steep hills, either up or down, respectively.

corwin1968

This is where I'm headed with my bike. I can't stand large jumps between gears but I also need a wide range of gearing options for wind and hills. Therefore, I'm pretty much stuck with a triple. 99% of my riding will be done with a 34 or 36 tooth chainring and a 12-23 9-speed cassette. If I only ride my bike in the neighborhood and around the local 10-mile bike path, those 9 gears are all I'll ever need. If I plan to ride anywhere else (and I do) I need a granny ring and will greatly appreciate a larger ring. I might be able to get by with something like a 36-24 cransket but I think if I continue to ride regularly, I'll spin that 36 out too often.

goldfinch

I want something a bit different than I currently have on my Madone with its compact double.

I'd like a gear or two that are lower. I did a hill a couple of weeks ago I barely crested and in the easiest gear I was barely able to turn the pedals and weave myself back and forth up the hill. My legs were not happy for a few miles afterwards. I could even lose a bit of the top end for a lower gear.

I also am not totally thrilled with the compact double. I keep shifting the front derailleur to find a gear I don't have. Assuming no cross chaining, the hardest gear on the rear combined with the small chain ring on the front may be too easy but the easiest gear on the rear combined with the big ring is too hard. I'm looking for a sweet spot that doesn't exist so I end up flirting with cross chaining a lot, trying to trim my rear derailleur to squeeze out another gear.

Mr. Beanz

I myself could probably get away with a 39 in the front and a 14/25 cassette in the back. 7 speed cassettes were more than good enough for me.

I've done 12,000 ft climbs on a 12/25 and while riding the flats, I can hold 22 mph on a 39/14. I rarely touch the big ring on my roadies unless I'm descending a mtn road.

bbeasley

I live in the flat lands and haven't used the front derailleur in 4,500 miles. I'd be happy with just 5 on the rear.

goldfinch

When I am in flat areas I never use the big ring. On the rollers where I am now I find myself shifting in and out of the big ring quite a bit, that is what I am finding pesky.

Mr. Beanz

compact or triple?

TrojanHorse

Dude, that's 100 rpm... do you seriously cruise along at 100 rpm? I seem to gravitate to about 85 and if I'm feeling good, maybe up to 95 for sustained periods of time, but over 100 isn't really that pleasant for any length of time unless I'm really, really trying to hammer it.

bigfred 

100+ for extended periods isn't difficult, if you train your legs for it. My average on some of my 50-80km rides has been into the mid 80's. To achieve that, I'm spending plenty of extended periods at 100 or greater. 110 seems to be around my current "usable" redline. A while back I was replying to one of the threads about cadences and such, so, just to make sure I wasn't spouting off, I went out and spun 170 during my warm up for a ride. I can break 180 on the trainer. And all this with the 180mm cranks, that supposedly prohibit spinning.

I believe a "climber" like Beanz wouldn't have any problem maintaining a hundy cadence.

redvespablur

I am always shifting to try and find "the one gear" I need at the moment.

I run Campy 2x11 so have 22 options. I don't think I need more but would not be in hurry to have less

davestv

I personally like one gear fixed riding. If I ride a geared bike, I probably don't use more than 3 gears. It's my opinion that the majority of bike owners, probably not the ones on this forum, but the owners that are able to get their bikes out a two or three times a year, would probably find a 3 speed more than enough.

bigfred 

This entire "how many gears is neccessary" question is even more interesting when you start looking at some of the internally geared rear hubs that are either already available, or, in the pipeline.

Pair an 11 speed shimano alfine with a single front via belt drive. With the exception of road racing, that could cover the vast majority of recreational riders needs. Throw a chain on it, so that you can run a double front and you've got steep mountain terrain covered.

Does anyone know the actually efficiency of an internal alfine versus traditional cogs and derailleur?

goldfinch

Compact.

nkfrench 

Good for you. I have 3 hills on a homebound commute that I struggle on in my 39-27. Two other local hills I barely can budge the pedals standing, cadence < 40rpm. And there are some local hills that I can't get the pedals to turn at all.
On flat terrain, I "spin out" at about 9mph in that gear. I don't consider riding faster than 9mph on flat land as "gravy". My stiff knee just can't make circles any faster.

Back to preferences. One of my bikes has 53-39 front, 11-28 back. I like it. I use all the gears on every ride [except cross-chaining]. I can find the exact gearing that is not too easy and not too hard. Anything that I can't do in the 39-28 combo I would probably just tip over from going so slow anyhow. I could probably lose a couple of gears in the middle of the range if I had to but don't see why.

rdtompki

Our tandem has 40 gears. My single has 20 gears. I would say 20, 40 or somewhere in between should work just fine.

Big Pete 1982

I used to have a bike with a triple + 9 speed rear cog. I almost never used the middle ring and found the whole setup to be far more pesky and troublesome than I wanted it to be. Now I ride a compact double with 11-28 ten speed rear cog. I shift between the big and little ring quite often but I usually only use the biggest 2-3 and smallest 2-3 gears of the rear cog. I could probably do without a few of the gears in the middle, but they are nice to have. The only thing I'd change is as I get stronger maybe get a tighter range cog like a 12-25 or something.

Mr. Beanz

I don't use a meter but most the riders I ride with will comment on my high cadence on SART. Most of the times I've posted on Strava (SART/Northbound bridge to bridge) are in the small 39 ring.

I do hold that gear for the entire 12 mile return.

This segment on Saturday was in my small ring (39/14) ave 20.6 for the 7.4 mile segment.

https://app.strava.com/rides/10454568#183496429

Hillbasher and I did a ride on SGRT a couple years back. From Encanto Park to Liberty Park and back. On the way there he said, "you can't tell me that you'r e going to spin that low gear all the way to the park". Well I did!

I spin a lot, probably a good reason of why I have such low wattage power outputs on Strava .

Mithrandir

I have 30. 3x10. 24/36/48 with 11-34.

24 ring: I use 8 of these. All but the highest 2. When doing hills or a 20+ mph headwind day, this ring is a godsend.
36 ring: I use all 10 of these. Minor hills at the bottom gear and flats to the top. 60% of the time I'm in this ring.
48 ring: the least used ring. Probably 6/10. Descents and tailwinds, mostly. Deliberately used a higher ring than my current skill level because I intend to grow into it.

So I use 24/30. Not bad. Probably would use 26 max to avoid cross chaining. I love gears. The more the better. Looking forward to 33 or maybe even 36 one day.

Mr. Beanz

This thread reminds me of a rider I once encountered. I passed him on the trail. He hopped on my wheel then later thanked me for the pull. Then he said he couldn't do my pace because he had a 50 ring and not a 53 like mine. Uhh ok I told him, but what does that have to do with anything when I'm spinning my 39?

chasm54

No. Not that I use an Alfine, but I do have.a Rohloff. I suspect some loss of efficiency, but that's a guess. Another guess is that it is small (I can't really notice it) and may be offset by the fact that the chain line is perfect and the gears equally spaced, so one is never shifting between chainrings looking for the "right" gear.

TrojanHorse

False! The only thing strava knows is the incline (which is frequently gets wrong), your weight and how fast you're going. Power = Force * Time so less force applied more often is the same as more force applied less often.

I never bother to figure out which cog I'm in... I usually know approximately where I am but they're so tiny these days! I am rarely out of the big ring, although I've thought about changing my habits. I shrank the small ring to a 36 so it's less appealing now.

FrenchFit 

I agree, I tend to use two gears the whole ride..one zoned in for my preferred cadence and one for overdrive, three and possibly a fourth if there's a climb. I stand if I need more leverage. But, my TriCross build has 30 gears, the issue for me on a brevet style bike is simply having the ... right gear.

youcoming

Sorry but muscle is part of the equation. I ride with those skinny 130lb riders and take them on the hills, it's all related to power to weight and you can't have power without strength,maybe not huge bulging muscles but strength.

vesteroid

This is odd to me, not from a I don't believe it standpoint at all, it's just so different from my experience. I ride in the big chainring (50) almost all the time with a rear of 11-28. I only shift to the small when I get to about two gwears from the largest sprocket on the back (so I don't cross chain)

And I pretty much stay there all the way up a hill then shift back to the large chain ring....am I doing this incorrectly?

Mr. Beanz

I knew that, I was pretty much kidding. That's the reason strava asks for weight. ...but I do find it funny that I have never snapped a chain, bent a chainring etc. A frame or two but never a chain.