noglider 

Terms such as little, middle, and big don't mean much when those sizes vary so much. The ring I use the most is the largest I have that is under 50 teeth. My Volpe has 26-36-46, and I ride the 46 the most. My other bikes have larger rings than those, so I am not usually using the largest rings on those bikes.

rhm

Yes, but since the whole point of 56t chain ring is high gears, let's focus on the high gear. Back in the days of five speed freewheels, the smallest cog was usually 14t, sometimes 13t. Now we have 12t and even 11t. My 56/14 is the same as 52/13, 48/12, or 44/11.

Oldpeddaller

When younger, I went just about everywhere, all the time on a 52 front and rarely anything but the 14 tooth sprocket. 45 years later I spend 90% of my time on the 39 front but use all nine sprockets! Getting older is a bear, but beats the alternative!

OldsCOOL

I'm thinking that 56 would be no mistake when shifting up.

OldsCOOL

My road rocket has a 39/53. The 53 is almost always in use on the open road until big hills are under my wheels.

due ruote 

I try to set things up for using the big ring. It's flat here, so I don't need much gear range, and I very much prefer small jumps between gears. It would be much easier if sub-50t chainrings for NR and mod. 93 cranks, or something like 15-24 freewheels were common. Or if I was a lot stronger. For years I rode 42/53 with a 14-19 freewheel, but with that setup, I always seem to be on the wrong end of the cogset, whichever ring I use.

seedsbelize 

Per my avatar, I rarely ride very far without encountering the ubiquitous topes. Being too lazy (also) to shift the front, I ride the 42 most of the time. My mountain bike, which I use in town, remains on the 52 all the time.

Velognome 

Big ring until the hills start

non-fixie 

Voted 'big ring'. 50/40 is my favorite chain ring combination. I can (and often do) ride the 50-20 all day, here in the flats. 40-28 gets me up many hills, as long as they're not too steep or too long.

jimmuller 

It isn't so much a question of efficiency as of wear. A 52/24 combination is exactly the same as 39/18, same efficiency, same speed. But the 39/18 means 1/3rd more tension in the chain and 1/3rd more pressure on the ring and sprocket teeth for the same drive torque put into the ground.

gugie 

I follow Rule V and sur la plaque, put that thing in the big ring.

But I cheat and my big ring is pretty small.

Lascauxcaveman 

Uphill: small ring
Downhill: big ring

Yup, it's a tie. We hill people have all our decisions made for us by our terrain.

79pmooney

I found the 52-42 and close FW 42 years ago and fell in love the first ride. That love is still there. I use small inner rings to acknowledge that fact that I am no longer in my 20s, that I live where there are real hills and I love climbing them. So my bikes are (gearing and preferred chainring):

TiCycles good bike: 53-42-28 X 12, 13 or 14 - 23, 25 or 28. That 42 gets by far the most use.
Peter Mooney: 50-38-24 X 12-21. 38 is where I spend most of my time. (I re-geared this bike in '95 with SunTours "Microshifting")
Raleigh Competition: 52-42-26 X 13-28. The 42 gets the most use.
TiCycle fix gear: 42 (or 43) X 12 to 23 usually 16 or 17
City/rain/winter fix gear: 44 X 17

As you can see, 42 or its close brothers get a lot of use on all my bikes. (I find the Mooney is fine with 38 because the FW is 13-21, tight and small. But I hate bigger FWs/clusters and 53-39 cranksets. Rode a race bike 10 years ago with that for one year, took it off and put on the 52-42-28. I loved the bike but hated the 53-39. Performed the sacrilege of triplizing a pure race bike and was back in love. I could ride a 42 again. All was right.

Ben

lostarchitect 

+1.

When I have a triple, I probably then spend more time in the middle ring. But otherwise, big ring.

nlerner

Seems like @rhm has laid claim to having the biggest big ring. I guess size matters.

Barrettscv 

+1

I'm very happy with a 46t & 42t chainring set with a 13-30 or 13-32 six speed freewheel. I'm not a masher and like to sit and spin at a 90 to 105 rpm cadence. I get a tight range from about 10 to 28 mph, using the 46 & 42 half step set-up. A 46 chainring is ideal for me. I can hold almost 30 mph on a 46 chainring chainring with a 13 cog on the freewheel. Much more useful and enjoyable than a 52t & 42t with a 14-(twenty something) freewheel.

bradtx

I agree with this also. The article I read had to do with the larger circumference options allow for less power loss due to a less acute reversal in chain travel.

Brad

Velocivixen

Most of my bikes are doubles with big rings ranging from 46-52. Rear is typically 6 or 7 so I mostly ride in the big ring.

jyl

53 (big) ring, since with a reasonable cluster that covers me from downhills to 5% long/8% short uphills. That's riding unladen. With a backpack (i.e. commuting) I'm in 53 (or 52) and 42 (or 39) about equally. I have one road bike with a triple, the granny (30) is a bailout gear, and if I'm there it means I'm feeling pretty miserable and will be walking if the road doesn't change pretty soon.

lostarchitect 

This is a good opportunity for a joke about a certain kind of "ring," but I'd probably get censured for writing it.

CannedPakes

I don't have a single bike with less than 3 rings...

I usually end up using middle most of the time, large sometimes, and small almost never,

jimmuller 

Three rings for the elven kings under the sky while riding the tandem.

and it stays on the middle most of the time. But don't I wish the steepest hills around here were only 8%!

uncle uncle

I prefer to ride using a chainring in 38-42 range, 170 mm arms, with a standard 13-28 five or six speed freewheel. So for most C&V bikes, that's going to be the smaller chainring. I live in a state that's as flat as a pancake (really, they measured it) along with the fact that if I were a dog my owners would have put me to sleep for my bad hips. So, I would rather spin a high cadence (I found that 100-120 is my comfort zone). I hardly ever "mash" the pedals in an attempt to accelerate quickly; I use a steady increase in rpm to catch up or pull away from other riders. A high rpm cadence also comes in handy when going into steady and high headwinds (30-40 mph stuff).

old's'cool

I voted "middle ring of a triple"
Except for the unmolested ones, all my vintage bikes are triples, half-step plus granny at that, with a 48- or 49-52 upper combo. So there is only a 6-8% delta between the two upper rings, which, for me is the whole point of a half-step setup.

Cougrrcj

That all depends...

Two of my road bikes have 'touring' triples, and two have the standard 52/42 doubles. All of the bikes have six speed freewheels of various ranges. Since it is relatively flat here, I use whatever gear gets me closest to my favorite cruising gears in the 80s gear-inches, higher or lower depending on the wind.

Years ago, I had ridden Hilly Hundred in Bloomington IN with a 52/39 double and 14-24 freewheel, and I about died...

Now I pick my bike (and therefore gearing ranges) depending on the terrain!