birdmove

Just turned 68 on Monday. I'm a prostate cancer survivor with one bad knee. Still riding my single speed cheapo flat bar road bike with C700x38 wheels. Bought the bike before my health problems and just got back to riding it about 4 months ago. It has 48 tooth front and an 18 tooth rear sprockets. Gear ratio (I'm an old motorcyclist after all) is 2.66. Not a bad gear ratio, but would be better for a healthier rider. I ride a 2.5 mile ride every day, and the home stretch is a series of 6-7 uphills. Hills are tough, as the knee is awkward to use standing up and pedalling. I'm riding for fun, excercise, and hoping to improve my knee and to build up strength and stamina again which 2 years of cancer treatments took away from me. I am also losing weight. I like the simplicity of a single speed, but my desire to work up to best by able to go on up to 30 mile round trips (and maybe carrying groceries on the return) has me thinking of getting a bike with 7 or more gears. Did an 11 mile run on Wednesday to our weekly chess player group, to see if I could do it. Getting there was a bit tough. Had to do a couple short walks of shame, and stop for water a few times, but most of the hills were on the way to the site, much of it riding against the wind. But, riding home was a blast! Lots of downhill and the wind at my back. There are three towns within a 30 mile round trip. Hilo, Pahoa, and Keaau, and I'm going to work up to doing all three. Baring my age and health issues, the gearing on this bike, for a single speed, is pretty good. Pushing myself on my daily ride, I am able to average just shy of 14 mph. On the harder first leg of my chess run, with quite a few hills, I averaged just under 9 mph. I wonder how I could do with more gears?

livedarklions

I think you deserve treating yourself to that experiment. You're doing really well for 4 months of progress, but some gears wouldn't hurt, and might make things a lot better, especially for your knee.

ofajen

I’m only 58, but have done a fair amount of both SS and geared riding in recent years. My thoughts are:

1) Your current 73 gear inches is pretty high. Your knees might prefer more like 65. Mine sure do.

2) My average speed on my common routes is about the same comparing SS vs geared, though the speed profile would typically vary a bit during the ride.

3) Lower SS gearing also hasn’t changed my overall speed much either though again it changes the speed profile during the ride.

4) if you can stand the bother of shifting it will probably be easier on your muscles and make it easier to recover between rides.

Your mileage and speed may vary. 😊

Otto

Miele Man

My gearing choices depend on where I'm riding, how long I'm riding for, the terrain features and where in the riding season it is.

I have a rigid MTB t hat I ride on gently rolling hills a lot. It has 26" x 1.5" slick tires on it and has 28-38-48 teeth chainrings whilst the 9-speed rear cassette is a corncob 11-19 teeth.

One of my road bikes has 30-42-52 chainrings and 13 - 28 teeth cassette.

Other bikes have 42-52 chainrings and 14-26 or 14-28 freewheels.

I use different gearing for different types of riding.

Cheers

wolfchild

After 14 years of using fixed gear and singlespeed bikes for commuting, recreational riding, gravel riding, mountain biking... I find it very amusing when some random stranger tells me what gearing would work best for me and what my cadence should be. ....what is even more amusing is when they post all kinds of numbers and charts and calculations and try to apply that to everybody

livedarklions

I must have missed the "What gears should Wolfchild use?" chart, but yeah I think people should be given credit for having figured it out for themselves.

Moisture

Sounds like some great progress!

What are your thoughts of moving to a drop bar bike?

In the meantime, i think i would lower the gear inches as suggested by ofajen.

Be careful with your knee, bikes just aren't the best solution for it.

Badger6

Dude, all of your moisture-splaining is really tiring. You read one thing, then extrapolate it to everyone and everything. That is not expertise, or even synthesis. Your theoretical knowledge is limited, and practical knowledge even more limited. Ask more questions, listen more, ride more, then ask more questions, and listen more. You clearly have the desire to develop expertise, but your method for it is not working.

livedarklions

Depends on the knee injury. Cycling is often THE aerobic exercise of choice for people with damaged knees.

You are the perfect example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

ShannonM

1. Terrain is coastal flats and inland ridges.
2. 1985 League Fuji... steel sport-touring bike, rack, fenders, set up for commuting.
3. There's hills around here, and the flats are right on the water and therefore always windy. My commute to work is a couple of miles on the flat, followed by a ~1/2 mile hill at 6-8%. Recreational rides are roughly the same, just longer and more of it.
4. Current gearing is half-step + granny, 45/42/30 x 14-16-18-20-23-26. My first half-step setup, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It just makes so much sense... 14-15% jumps in the back, with 7-8% fine-tuning shifts whenever I want them. (And on the windy flats along the shore, I want them a lot.) And a shift pattern that requires no effort to remember, albeit at the expense of the occasional double shift.
5. If I'd change anything, it'd be adding one higher gear. 45x14 is a little bit low for long descents where you want to pedal... I spin out earlier than I'm used to. Adding a 13t 7th cog, (or even better a 12, if such a thing exists for Suntour freewheels,) would be nice. I do have a few 13-26 7 speed Sachs ARIS freewheels I could try, but I worry that going from a 16-18-20 midrange to a 15-17-19 would be a bummer.

--Shannon

Moisture

personally I can see why the suntours use ,the

wolfchild

An inexperienced newbie comes on bikeforums to tell everybody that bicycles are bad for your knees...This is either trolling or complete lack of experience and understanding about cycling.

shelbyfv

ShannonM

I think your post got chopped, and I'd like to know what you were trying to say... can you repost?

--Shannon

rydabent

For me it remains the 3x8 or 9. Granny gear for hills, center chain ring for most riding, and the big ring for down hill or with the wind. Pick the terrain and simply shift accross the rear cluster as to what feels right.

Kovkov

Sturmey Archer AW 46x21.

Moisture

Sorry about that! Personally I can see why the old freewheels use 14 or 13t, as its more efficient than 11 or even 12t. Its better to just a bigger chainring up front to achieve the gear inches you need for the downhills. The half step ratio thing is a really great idea, in my opinion. When set up correctly front to rear, you can really get some good efficiency out of the bike.

Not quite a half step, but something with 8 teeth count differences between your three front rings would probably work really well.

PeteHski

The problem with that approach is when you also want low gears at the other end of the cassette. Then the bigger chainring compromises your climbing gears. Like for example I run a compact double 50/34T with an 11-34T cassette. But if my smallest rear sprocket was 14T, I would then need a 64T chainring to get the same top gear. But I also want a 1:1 climbing gear, so that means I'm going to end up with some ridiculous 64/34 chainset or more likely a massive rear cassette - something like a 64/48T front with 14-48T rear. Does that sound like a good idea?

Moisture

I dont see why anyone would need anything more than a 50 or 52t front ring even if your cassette is only 13 or even 14t . How much of a daredevil are you to carry that much speed on the downhills?

Maelochs

Typical response.

"What I like is all anyone should ever want. If I don't need it, no one else does either ... and people who want stuff I don't want are just wrong."

Shall we call you Rydabent Jr.?

mschwett 

for me, as much range as possible with at least 1:1 at the bottom. i like to ride fast on the flats and downhill and don't have the power/cardio to go up long 10% grades without a granny gear.

currently have 10-42 with a 42t up front. next bike will be 2x with 50-34 up front and 11-34 in the back. looking forward to the extra top end (4.2 -> 4.55)

mschwett 

because it's fun to ride fast? no daredevil here but i spin out my 42:10 all the time.

Moisture

spinning any real cadence at 52 x 13 is dangerous and totally not necessary. If I think its dangerous to be going this fast, I assure you it is dangerous for ANYONE.

livedarklions

Why would anyone care if you think it's dangerous? Who do you actually think you are? Your assurance is worthless.

Moisture