kayzee

I'm fairly new to this whole road biking thing. In fact, I did my first organized ride this weekend. It was a pretty long one--180 miles in two days--and I've been training for it fairly intensely this summer, but I'd never really ridden with anyone else before.

When training, I always kept my bike on the lowest gear, on the theory that I've always been more of a "muscle" girl than a "cardio" girl and it would make me go faster. Some of the people I ended up riding with last weekend, though, noticed what I was doing, and told me it was... well, crazy, that I was needlessly exhausting myself, etc. Over the course of the two days they seemed to be going steadier (and ultimately faster) than I was, so I want to adjust what I'm doing before my next big ride.

So, my question is... what gear should I be using as my baseline? (My road bike is a 24-speed, if that helps.) I know it's an individual thing, to a large extent; I'm just trying to figure out a good place to start.

10 Wheels

What bike do you ride?

gsteinb

That's what you came up with?

gsteinb

What gear you're in is determined by several factors: what's the terrain like; how fast do you want/need to go; something akin to 'personal preference.' Rather than thinking in terms of 'what gear' it'll help you to start thinking in terms of ideal cadence. That is, how fast are you spinning the pedals. Numerous studies posit numbers but for your sake consider that it's likely somewhere between 90 and 105 rpms. Many computers have cadence meters, but to get a bench mark you can use a watch to count and spot check where you are until you get a better feel for it. In this way you shift your gear to match the terrain (big hills will take you below your ideal cadence) or those you're riding with while keeping your cadence within a certain range.

Walter

First of all congrats on the ride! Back to back 90 mile days is impressive regardless of how long you've been riding.

As for gearing: First any advice you get from me can be contradicted by others and both points of view can be correct.

If you're sitting in your "biggest" gear (big ring in front/smallest cog in back) you do need to be using your other gears. Generally, you should keep your cranks spinning at 90-100 rpm or so (some will say higher). If the road is flat and you are strong you will probably spend most of the ride using the front big ring but you should use your rear cogs to find gear combos that you can easily spin and stay with your group. You don't need to try to count your rpms or go out and buy a computer with cadence (though some swear by that). When you have an easy spin going you can "feel" it.

So get out of that small cog and use the rest of your gears and look for that sweet spot where you are spinning at the speed you want to be going and not overly straining either the leg muscles or the lungs.

If you're doing 180 mile weekends this will come to you easily.

Walter

I simul-posted with gstein but I don't think we're contradicting each other.

Velo Dog

Too much thinking here...
The quick and easy recommendation is to shift into a gear that lets you pedal at 90-100rpm under all conditions--smaller chainring or larger rear cog on hills, larger ring or smaller cog on flats and downhills. There's some slack in that, but it works well for most people. You're obviously strong, and you'll soon develop a feel for it. Cadence counters aren't of much use in everyday riding, IMO.
Also, a minor correction: If you were pedaling slowly while everybody else was spinning like crazy, you were in a HIGH gear, not a low one. A lot of people mix that up. When you're pedaling fast against low resistance, that's a low gear. Pedaling slowly against high resistance is a high one.

SBRDude

Yep, just keep your eye on your cadence. You don't need a fancy bike computer to do it, just wear a watch and count your pedal strokes for 20 or 30 seconds and then multiply by 3 or 2, respectively.

FWIW, lots of new cyclists do what you did. I see it all the time with people struggling uphill in far too high of a gear.

Congrats on the ride, btw!

Retro Grouch 

If you sonsider yourself a beginner, here's all that you need to know:

Think of your bike as having 3 gear ranges that correspond to your 3 front chainrings. The little chainring is for uphills, the middle one is for generally flat roads, and the big one is for downhills. Within those 3 gear ranges you can adjust your gearing with the 8 rear cogs. If you think that your feet are spinning too fast, pick a harder gear. If you think that it's too hard to pedal, shift into an easier gear.

Do that for awhile and the rest will come.

iraform

I've always followed the theory that you should use the lowest gear you can to get the desired speed, because you can recover relatively quickly from being out of breath from pedaling fast, but once your legs are blown, they're blown. I have found that to be true for me.

StephenH

I started off riding with a $100 mountain bike. I have no idea what the gearing was, but on my local bike trails, which are fairly flat, after a few months, I could just ride it around in high gear all the time. I wasn't going that fast, it was just partly that high gear wasn't that high on that bike. Thus the question "What bike are you riding?" On the bike I've got now, I can't hardly ride it in the highest gear unless I'm going downhill.

I've never really tried to count cadence. But I'm learning by experience that if I'm spinning too fast, I get tired from that, and if I'm mashing too hard, I'll get tired from that, so I sort of know when to upshift and downshift. As I get more tired in a long ride, I'll use the lower gears more.