Originally Posted by
beng1
??? It has the standard 14-28 rear freewheel that almost every ten-speed bike ever made has, and it has a 52-tooth big chainwheel on the front, so you do the math. I usually ride around town on the big front chainwheel and I think the 19-tooth wheel in back, which is 8th gear. That is good for 19.2mph at 88rpm at the pedals, and you have two gears higher than that to go...... These are my calculations for 8th gear I made one day last year after I did a 12.5 mile lap of one old time-trial course at 19.2mph and wanted to see what my pedal rpm was;
when I was in junior high school, the bike I rode to school, a Sting-Ray with a 39x17 and 20" but with toe clips and straps was the nemesis of a guy on a fresh Raleigh International where he removed the toe clips and straps. He could not drop me and I always took a shot and blitzed by him before arrival at school. Of course he did not ask how much I rode, 250mi a week on my road race bike if he had asked. He thought the 52x14 was cool.
my race gear limit at the time was 44x14.
52x18 is about a 78" gear.
I see guys in the big ring all the time, usually a 53. Often with their hips rotating side to side too. I ask how much their knees and saddle, lower back hurts... " how do you know?"
I can see it. Goes with the knees swinging out too. These are guys with "clipless" pedals too.
poor blighters.