ganchan

I know nothing about gear ratios, etc., but I've noticed that on my 7-speed there's a huge difference between 1st and 2nd gears, while gears 2 through 7 seem to progress quite gradually. On visual inspection it certainly looks way huge compared to the other gears. Is this a normal feature of multi-speed bikes?

Homebrew01

You may have a "mega-range" freewheel. They are less common than more evenly spaced gears. They are usually used by people planning to go up some very steep hills, or for touring with cargo. Gears can be fairly easily changed if you want a different range.... You just need to make sure you get the right type for your specific bike.

Looigi

Count the teeth on each cog and report back to us.

Retro Grouch 

Megarange freewheels are fairly common. I like them because they give you relatively closely spaced gears for the huge majority of the riding that you do along with a bail out hill gear for when you need it. The first time I saw that arrangement was on Indiana's "Hilly Hundred" ride in the mid 70's. I think they referred to it as a "corn cob on a plate".

fietsbob

what did you do in school all those years?

Yea, that is the basics t# on crank turns t#on wheel in a simple math ratio



example 40:20. is [reducing to simplest fraction] 2:1. front goes around once wheel rotates twice.

Velo Dog

Bikes don't actually have a first gear, second gear etc. progression the way cars do. You don't necessarily start in your lowest gear and go through all the others on your way to the top. Try starting in the second- or even third-largest cog, shifting where you need to from there and save the largest cog for hill-climbing. Someday you'll be glad you have it.