Thread: Gear Inches
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Old 04-22-20, 05:17 PM
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Chrisp72
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Originally Posted by Clyde1820
A simple explanation: Gear Inches Explained @ Bike Gremlin.

Basically: (teeth on front chainring / teeth on rear cog) * diameter of wheel = gear inches. Or, roughly how far you travel for one revolution of the crank.

So, for example, on a 3x8spd 1990s MTB:
  • High gear = (42 / 11) * 26 = 99 gear inches.
  • Low gear = (22 / 28) * 26 = 20 gear inches.
  • Still lower gear (ie, with a larger cassette) = (22 / 34) * 26 = 16 gear inches.

Here is a useful tool, where you can plug in the specific chainring and cassette components your bike has, and you'll get the numbers calculated for you: Bicycle Gear Calculator @ Gear-Calculator.com.
Clyde1820...Thanks for linking the gear calculator. I'm not much of a math in my head kind of person so this is going to be something I will save to my bookmarks on my browser. It helps when you can see the numbers and where they come from.
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