Optimal gear for hills ? Lower or highest?
07-09-22, 06:13 PM
#26
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Trolling is always a possibility, but he just told me in the golf club thread that he thought trying to hold the golf club without starting a thread first "sounds dangerous". I'm no shrink, but that sounds like a phobia or some ocd thing.
07-09-22, 06:38 PM
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I've often wondered if I were a mod would I feel any responsibility to direct help toward these individuals. Unhinged, drunk and dementia, we've seen it all here. A little sleuthing should ID a family member or responsible adult who could be made aware. Providing a stage to parade their derangement seems unhelpful as well.
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07-09-22, 06:45 PM
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For a fixed power output, the cadence with the lowest heart rate was about 60.
But you may not be interested in the cadence that produces the lowest heart rate, but the cadence that leaves you the least exhausted at the top of the climb.
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07-09-22, 06:50 PM
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Actually 42-24. The nice symmetry. Lowest gear you can get with time honored classic 144 BCD crankset, 1/8" chain and proper fix gear cogs. (Of course, there are hills where your legs will scream for 42 gear inches. not chainring teeth. Don't listen to them. They're just legs and not very smart.)
07-09-22, 11:57 PM
#31
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But if you want proof, just watch TdF races on Giro d' Italia stages. You'll see some of them like spinning easier gears seated entirely, some like to stand for long period on harder gears, and still some like to do both - alternate periods of seated easy gears and harder gears standing.
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07-10-22, 08:27 AM
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I would think the ideal gear is the biggest gear you can push.
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07-10-22, 08:54 AM
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07-10-22, 08:58 AM
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What, me worry?
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07-10-22, 11:27 AM
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07-11-22, 05:00 AM
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07-11-22, 07:04 AM
#38
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The essence of my question!
Low gear is easy but requires many revs.
High gear is harder but requires fewer revs.
Which is optimal ?
Low gear is easy but requires many revs.
High gear is harder but requires fewer revs.
Which is optimal ?
07-11-22, 07:41 AM
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Except for people who've injured a knee pushing too hard on too big a gear. Funny how, if I catch it early (knee starts twinging on a ride) and shift to a lower gear, I don't have the "OMG I can't walk!" reaction I get if I ignore it and keep pushing.
07-11-22, 07:43 AM
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It's basically trainer lore with virtually no medical studies supporting it.
The only thing I could find that systematically studied it said that basically bicycling is at very low risk for causing repetitive injury to the knee, and that the rates of it between cyclists who used high gears was just slightly higher than low gear spinners. In other words, it's very rare for both groups.
I think there's a lot of confirmation bias involved here, people will now start doing the anecdote thing, and anecdotes prove nothing. We remember the ones that fit our scenario and forget or ignore the ones that don't.
07-11-22, 07:47 AM
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If your knee is already injured, obviously you may need to adjust, but there's no way of knowing whether the gear push actually caused the original injury.
We had a guy who had blown out his knee by some non-cycling activity, and he reported that he could push a high gear more comfortably than he could spin a low one. It's a really weird joint with a lot of variation in injury.
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07-11-22, 07:56 AM
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It's basically trainer lore with virtually no medical studies supporting it.
The only thing I could find that systematically studied it said that basically bicycling is at very low risk for causing repetitive injury to the knee, and that the rates of it between cyclists who used high gears was just slightly higher than low gear spinners. In other words, it's very rare for both groups.
I think there's a lot of confirmation bias involved here, people will now start doing the anecdote thing, and anecdotes prove nothing. We remember the ones that fit our scenario and forget or ignore the ones that don't.
The only thing I could find that systematically studied it said that basically bicycling is at very low risk for causing repetitive injury to the knee, and that the rates of it between cyclists who used high gears was just slightly higher than low gear spinners. In other words, it's very rare for both groups.
I think there's a lot of confirmation bias involved here, people will now start doing the anecdote thing, and anecdotes prove nothing. We remember the ones that fit our scenario and forget or ignore the ones that don't.
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07-11-22, 08:04 AM
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07-11-22, 08:09 AM
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I was simply laughing at the 5 minute ride comment. As for knees, yes it is anecdotal, but for me personally, mashing up the hills in Western PA, and in the Ozarks in Southern Missouri when I commuted there, gives me knee pain, whilst spinning does not. Using a gear slightly higher than gears a spinner uses does not qualify as mashing in my book. I would expect not great difference between the two in that case, as you state the study found.
No question, knees are not standard issue. If something is causing you pain, you definitely should do something different. I just don't believe the horror stories about the guy whose knee was just fine, he continued to mash comfortably for years, and then one day his knee exploded for no other reason.
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07-11-22, 11:19 AM
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I think this is the ideal gear for you...
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07-11-22, 11:35 AM
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07-11-22, 11:36 AM
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What part of "it depends on the rider" is eluding you?
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07-11-22, 02:21 PM
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07-11-22, 02:26 PM
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What are you doing with the gears in back?