preferdownhill

I'm curious what rule of thumb manufactures use for determining what the low gear ratio should be for hybrids. Many of them seem to have a gear ratio of 32(rear)/28(front) = .875. if the rear wheel circumference if 6.85ft at 80rpm on the crank, that some out to 5.44mph, which seems pretty fast for going up a steep hill. I go on a lot of meetups and the casual riders I ride with have difficulty going up steep hills on these hybrids and were generally resistricted to really level routes which limits our choices. Is there any logic to the typical hybrid gear ratio? the lower bound would be about .5 because at the point it would be faster to just get off and push.

pjthomas

My hybrid originally had 28/38/48 in front and a 11-34 in the rear. Low gear of 28/34 = .8. I found it way to low to be useful.

puma1552

I have a low of 26/34 = .765 (48/36/26 front and 11-34 rear)

It's useful on a couple totally rotten climbs around here

preferdownhill

don't just leave me in suspense, please explain...

HerrKaLeun

Doesn't seem to be a hybrid problem, but more a problem of rider and the specific gearing. My lowest gearing is 28 front /36 rear on 29"x2" tires. Most hybrids have smaller tires, so they should have even less development or gear-inches than I do. I never have that problem and on short extreme steep section would just pedal standing up.

Sounds like they have a 2x because 3x typically have 22T for the small chainring. They could install a cassette going up to 36T or even to up to 46T if they had 2x11. That would be overkill, though.

Bicycle Gear Calculator

preferdownhill

are you saying the target 90rpm crank speed is not applicable going up hill?
I use to run and had to give it up due to my knees. I've found that standing on my pedals does cause my knees some distress and thats one of the reasons I'm looking at lower gearing.

pjthomas

My bike, 2000 Trek 720 MT, originally came with 3x7, 28/38/48 in front and 11-13-15-17-21-24-34 in the rear. I found the 28/34 way to low of a gear to be useful. It didn't help that the next gear was 28/24, a 10 tooth gap. Most of my riding on hills, the 28/24 was adequate. The few very steep hills where I need a gearing lower than 28/24 the 28/34 was just too low. For the really steep hills I would alternate between the those two gears, mash until I couldn't then spin as long as I could maintain a high cadence.

The 34 "bail out" gear made the bike effectively 3x6.

I switched the rear to 11-28, same exact gears in the upper 6 gears, just the 28/34 became 28/28. This was fine.

I since upgraded to 3x9, 22/30/40 in the front and 12-25 in the front. This gives me back two granny gears, 22/25 (.88) and 22/23 (.96) which I don't need but since I have 9 cogs in the back no harm.

Darth Lefty 

Hybrids are all-purpose bikes. In granny gear it's not about cadence, it's about strength. I have gearing on my commuter that's pretty close to a hybrid. The low gear is 1 shift under unity, 30:34. I use it, often having a 3yo in the back seat or a trailer. On a bad day I wish I had one more shift, which would be MTB territory. I'll tell you what seems useless to me: the outer ring.

dslteck

agreed!!!

fietsbob

The parts on a new bike are bought by the many thousands, by the factories, once it's yours you are free to change things..

fietsbob

the math: count teeth.. front chainring turns the rear cog in a gear ratio..

you then multiply that x the wheel diameter

to know how far that you go for each crank rotation, then you calculate the circumference of that wheel.



...

Roamer2

"Hybrid" covers such a wide range of bikes that gearing is all over the place. The lowest on mine seems like it could ride up a tree.

pjthomas

Yes, that seems to be the problem, trying to be everthing to everybody. MTB cassettes in the back and compact road chainrings in the front.

HerrKaLeun

you know you can lower cadence to control speed? At 60 rpm you almost have to walk because the bike is too slow for balance. and you also have to take into account wheel and tire size. The same drivetrain on a 26" wheel will be lower than on a 29" etc.

unless we talk about Long San Francisco hills, I don't see a gearing problem with a 2x10 (28T front and 36T rear for lowest gear). I stand up on small hills to not shift down (I do that on large chainring.... I'm 99% on large) and to change position to not sit 100% of the time. On long climbs i stay seated and shift into small chainring, but can't remember the last time i needed to use that with the larges rear cog. I have 28/42 front and 11-36 rear and try to ride at cadence of 80+, but I'm not afraid to drop to 70 for a few seconds or go over 90.

Are you sure those people actually use the lowest gear? Reason I'm asking is I sometimes see people torturing themselves going at a cadence of 30 up a hill and I see them on the large chainring.

if we are talking long San Francisco climbs, then yes they should install a larger rear cog and/or smaller chainring. but most 3x8 or 2x10 should work for 99.99% of the people. If you have 2x8 or so, that may be problematic depending on wheel size and the rider's condition.

Doctor Morbius

That's a great site.

preferdownhill

yeah but i thought target cadence was 90. I can go down to 80 or even 75 but less than that starts to make the workout more strength training (not what I want) than cardio. Plus higher cadence and lower force on the pedal is more sustainable for me. I have thought that was a golden rule in bicycling.

hermanchauw

Mine uses 22-32-42 cranks and 11-32 cassette.

There were times i was glad i had the 22/32 (18.75 gear inch) in unfamiliar locations.

Never ran out of high gear. Mostly in 42/18 or 42/16 on the flats when cruising.

u235

I wonder about that myself. Seen that way many times. Never understood that. I'd never say anything because not my place but you'd think their friend/partner they are riding with would say something at some point.. Yo, change gears.

Roamer2

Seriously!

I gave my GF a short "lesson" on how/when to select gears (IE, downshift BEFORE you lose all momentum on a hill, target cadence, etc) the other day & she was amazed on how it changed her experience.

"Wow...it's SO much easier to go up stuff!"

She's quite fit (runner), but had not much of a clue on how to best use the gears available. Now she's psyched for longer rides...

andrei_r

At least she was eager to learn. I find it rather frustrating when people would rather pedal in one gear and not enjoy the ride than listen to a couple of instructions .

HerrKaLeun

There is no rule and every human is different. Ride what you are comfortable with. Yes there are generally accepted extremes you want to avoid long-term. For me it is between 70-90. If load is light, I'm OK at lower, if going uphill higher. Unless you have infinite gears, shifting and accelerating will bring you out of your optimum rpm anyway. I only look at my computer with cadence sensor occasionally.

Most people would advise them to buy a more expensive bike because the cheap bike has to be the reason for all pain.
Same about saddle height. When I'm around tourist type areas (many rental bikes and/or occasional riders) I barely see people with the saddle not too low. Sometimes they must even have standover height left over the saddle. I bite my tongue, hoping they only ride one day a year so no harm done to their knees. No wonder people think biking is hard, yes it is hard when you don't know how to shift and adjust the saddle. I often feel bad for not saying something because I see it as my duty to help... but people usually don't want to hear when they do things wrong and know everything better anyway... (this is the world where everyone is doing really great!!!)

preferdownhill

Took my bike out today for first real workout since I got my new low gear. went from 48/38/28 to 42/32/22. low cassette gear is 32. went from typical .87 to .68 . Made a nice difference. I was on some hill that i could only go up by standing on the pedals previously to now with relative ease. There were some short steep hills that I grimaced when I first saw them because I thought i would have to mash the pedals, but in low gear made it up without a problem. Even the middle crank gear felt a lot better, probably traded off some speed, but difficultly level was lower but I still felt I had a good cardio workout because i could keep my rpm up to 90. I wish i had done it years ago. Some of the responses posted are regarding what I said about women on meetups I'm on have difficulty with hills Some of responses said they probably werent shifting properly and werent in the lowest gear. One desgin issue i see with trigger shifters is the indicator for what gear your in is at very poor angle for readability. its best to rotate the trigger at the same angle as your forearm to get the best leverage with your thumbs. but then the face on the front of the trigger where the indicator is, is at an angle thats impossible to read. do any of the manufactures study how people really use these products?

HerrKaLeun

Glad it worked out!

I never had the issue of not seeing the indicator. Maybe lean a bit forward when they want to see it? My newer (more expensive) shifters don't have indicators at all. I sometimes look down to see where I'm. I assume they think people who buy expensive gear know what they are doing
On my 1x11 (fatbike) it doesn't matter anyway since that knowledge is useless in making shift decisions. On my 2x10 (hybrid) it also is almost useless since I use the full 10-speed on large chainring (don't care about cross-chaining) and barely use small chainring (I just have that much power :-)
not sure this is helpful....

preferdownhill

I'm not worried about seeing the indicators myself. Its when I'm on meetups with women and I need to have them check what gear they are in and so I know why hills are giving them difficulty.