how many gears?

Sounds pretty normal. Most folks rarely use their smallest or largest
gears unless they are on very tough climbs or racing.
Of course, it's impossible to critique your gear use accurately without
observing it or with a more detailed description. But in genreal I
would worry little about what gear you are using and focus on being in
a gear that works for you at the time.

In article <[email protected]>,
Ken Marcet <[email protected]> wrote:
>This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the time.
>I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
>many gears?

You don't use a lot of gears on flat ground and some wind. On my commute
I use the big ring and a cog somewhere between 15 and 19. With 8-10 cogs and a
smallish big cog this means 15-16-17-18-19. On my old "12 speed" the choices
arround that range 14-16-18-21.

Hills are a very different story.

And it seems as though I am always shifting gears should I just
>toughen up and use less gears and shift less, or do others do this too?

Shifting more is easier on your knees and will let you have a longer aerobic
workout.
--
<a href="http://www.poohsticks.org/drew/">Home Page</a>
In 1913 the inflation adjusted (in 2003 dollars) exemption for single people
was $54,567, married couples' exemption $72,756, the next $363,783 was taxed
at 1%, and earnings over $9,094,578 were taxed at the top rate of 7%.

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 15:33:59 -0500, "Ken Marcet"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the time.
>I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
>many gears? And it seems as though I am always shifting gears should I just
>toughen up and use less gears and shift less, or do others do this too? I
>think I am using the gears properly.

Use what you please. You are not the other guys. I would not presume
to say that anyone else should choose gears the way that I do. As far
as I am concerned, there is no One True Method for the recreational or
other non-racing cyclist.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Personal choice, and then there are those fashionable folks who ride
only single speed bikes with only one gear, and brag about it
constantly. Hmm! As i remember, as a kid (that was in the 50's) that
is ALL we had to ride, so you might say I was a pioneer in the "single
speed" revolution.

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 15:33:59 -0500, Ken Marcet wrote:

> This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the time.
> I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
> many gears? And it seems as though I am always shifting gears should I just
> toughen up and use less gears and shift less, or do others do this too?

When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to keep a
nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too hard
nor spinning too fast. Wind can make a huge difference, depending on how
strong the wind is. I always enjoy the times when the wind is at my back,
but it seems that a headwind hurts more than a tailwind helps...

If you have the gears you need, use them.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Enron's slogan: Respect, Communication, Integrity, and
_`\(,_ | Excellence.
(_)/ (_) |

On 29 Mar 2005 16:09:47 -0800, "Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Personal choice, and then there are those fashionable folks who ride
>only single speed bikes with only one gear, and brag about it
>constantly. Hmm! As i remember, as a kid (that was in the 50's) that
>is ALL we had to ride, so you might say I was a pioneer in the "single
>speed" revolution.

Hah! You actually *had* a gear, we had to make do with worn-out lines
and tackle from a square-rigger, and we were glad to get 'em!
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

David L. Johnson wrote:

> When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to
keep a
> nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too
hard
> nor spinning too fast.

That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?i

>When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to keep a
>nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too hard
>nor spinning too fast.

OTOH, if you do that, you'll never train your body to produce power at other
than your optimum cadence.


Chris Neary
[email protected]

"Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could
you ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I
loved" - Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh

"41" <[email protected]> wrote:

>David L. Johnson wrote:
>
>> When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to
>keep a
>> nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too
>hard
>> nor spinning too fast.
>
>That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
>annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
>optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
>Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?i

David, AFAIK, also rides a fixie. Sometimes a geared bike is the
proper tool for the task.

When I ride my fixie, I'll sometimes catch myself reaching for a shift
lever, both uphill and down. Sometimes when I'm on a geared bike, I'll
forget to shift or decide to not shift and just bust it out.

Since riding the fixie, I shift less often and spend more time on the
big ring.
--
zk

Chris Neary wrote:
>>When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to keep a
>>nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too hard
>>nor spinning too fast.
>
>
> OTOH, if you do that, you'll never train your body to produce power at other
> than your optimum cadence.
>
>
> Chris Neary
> [email protected]
>
> "Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could
> you ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I
> loved" - Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh

In my non-race, non-training, style of riding I shift all the time just
to see what feels good at the moment. I may want to spin at 100 RPM or
just goof off at 40 or so RPM and work the quads for strength. Not all
of us are 'training' and I would never get on a stationary bike for lack
of outdoor stimuli. Sometimes I will take a hill in an absurdly small
gear and just spin lazily up, and other times I will attack the same
hill in top gear, nearly ripping my handlebars up and off the bike.
Different moods, different gears.
I am as healthy as I want to be, riding how I want to ride.
Is that a problem???
Bill Baka

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:37:07 -0800, Zoot Katz <[email protected]>
wrote:

> "41" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>David L. Johnson wrote:
>>
>>> When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to
>>keep a
>>> nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too
>>hard
>>> nor spinning too fast.
>>
>>That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
>>annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
>>optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
>>Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?i
>
>David, AFAIK, also rides a fixie. Sometimes a geared bike is the
>proper tool for the task.
>
>When I ride my fixie, I'll sometimes catch myself reaching for a shift
>lever, both uphill and down. Sometimes when I'm on a geared bike, I'll
>forget to shift or decide to not shift and just bust it out.
>
>Since riding the fixie, I shift less often and spend more time on the
>big ring.

When I pull the old Bridgestone out for a ride, its inconvenient
shifters and small choice of gears tends to cause me to just mash
along. It also makes me much less willing to use the brakes; I tend
to get very look-ahead oriented, picking my path to minimize the need
for deceleration. When I'm on the newer bikes, with the convenient
shifters and more gears, I find myslef braking and downshifting much
more. On the three-speed...who needs to go fast, anyway?

Everybody has their own approach. If what you're doing works for you,
the opinions of the experts can generally be ignored.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:54:49 -0800, bbaka <[email protected]> wrote:

>...Sometimes I will take a hill in an absurdly small
>gear and just spin lazily up, and other times I will attack the same
>hill in top gear, nearly ripping my handlebars up and off the bike.
>Different moods, different gears.
>I am as healthy as I want to be, riding how I want to ride.
>Is that a problem???

Not as far as *I'm* concerned.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Chris Neary wrote:
>
> OTOH, if you do that, you'll never train your body to produce power at
> other than your optimum cadence.

Hmmm. Why would you think this? And, given that you think this, how would
you go about training your body to produce power at different cadences?

"Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Personal choice, and then there are those fashionable folks who ride
> only single speed bikes with only one gear, and brag about it
> constantly. Hmm! As i remember, as a kid (that was in the 50's) that
> is ALL we had to ride, so you might say I was a pioneer in the "single
> speed" revolution.
>
There is quite an upsurge in fixed gear riders at present. This is distinct
from single speed which has a freewheel hub.
Many folk even use them for long distance touring or randonneuring
.. Check out:-
http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/

Which has pictures and details of over 1700 fixed gear bikes to peruse.

Cheers,

Roy

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 20:39:09 -0800, 41 wrote:

>
> David L. Johnson wrote:
>
>> When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to
> keep a
>> nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too
> hard
>> nor spinning too fast.
>
> That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
> annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
> optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
> Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?

I did not say, nor mean, constant cadence, but comfortable. When I have
the gears available, I shift to what is comfortable for a given situation.
Sometimes that means bashing up a hill, at others it means twiddling
along.

This winter, my mountain bike commuter developed shifting problems. So,
since it wasn't working right, I switched to my fixed gear....

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Accept risk. Accept responsibility. Put a lawyer out of
_`\(,_ | business.
(_)/ (_) |

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 20:39:09 -0800, 41 wrote:

>
> David L. Johnson wrote:
>
>> When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to
> keep a
>> nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, not bashing too
> hard
>> nor spinning too fast.
>
> That's one idea. There are others: some would find it boring and
> annoying, both the constant shifting and the constant cadence, and not
> optimal training either, to always keep the same cadence and effort.
> Why not have variety in your legs and lungs?

I did not say, nor mean, constant cadence, but comfortable. When I have
the gears available, I shift to what is comfortable for a given situation.
Sometimes that means bashing up a hill, at others it means twiddling
along.

This winter, my mountain bike commuter developed shifting problems. So,
since it wasn't working right, I switched to my fixed gear....

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Accept risk. Accept responsibility. Put a lawyer out of
_`\(,_ | business.
(_)/ (_) |

Quoting Ken Marcet <[email protected]>:
>This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the time.
>I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
>many gears?

I'm not sure there's a "too many" here - if it suits you, why not?

It's hard to comment without knowing your gear range, but I can tell you
what I do on flat sections (in practice I ride in rolling country, so use
a wider range).

Normally I cruise in the 52x17. With a strong tailwind I might use the
52x15, and with a strong headwind, the 52x20. I drop down a gear at stops,
which might put me in the 52x24 with a strong headwind. That's a total
range of four gears, with the low gear 5/8 of the high one.

However, on any given day (in this, for me, fictional flat ground) I would
use only two gears (unless the effective wind direction changed,
obviously); shifting down once when stopping and up once after pulling
away. From that point of view it sounds to me as if you shift quite a lot.
--
David Damerell <[email protected]> Kill the tomato!
Today is First Mania, April.

Quoting Ken Marcet <[email protected]>:
>This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the time.
>I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
>many gears?

I'm not sure there's a "too many" here - if it suits you, why not?

It's hard to comment without knowing your gear range, but I can tell you
what I do on flat sections (in practice I ride in rolling country, so use
a wider range).

Normally I cruise in the 52x17. With a strong tailwind I might use the
52x15, and with a strong headwind, the 52x20. I drop down a gear at stops,
which might put me in the 52x24 with a strong headwind. That's a total
range of four gears, with the low gear 5/8 of the high one.

However, on any given day (in this, for me, fictional flat ground) I would
use only two gears (unless the effective wind direction changed,
obviously); shifting down once when stopping and up once after pulling
away. From that point of view it sounds to me as if you shift quite a lot.
--
David Damerell <[email protected]> Kill the tomato!
Today is First Mania, April.

David L. Johnson wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 20:39:09 -0800, 41 wrote:
>
> >
> > David L. Johnson wrote:
> >
> >> When I ride my geared bike, I shift all the time. The idea is to
> > keep a
> >> nearly-optimal cadence, so that you are comfortable, n ot bashing
too
> > hard
> >> nor spinning too fast.


> I did not say, nor mean, constant cadence, but comfortable. When I
have
> the gears available, I shift to what is comfortable for a given
situation.
> Sometimes that means bashing up a hill, at others it means twiddling
> along.


Hmmmmm. This too, a shift? z