[email protected] wrote:
> Guys,
>
> Question is a 34/50 compact crank to small to work well on flats using
> a nine speed 12/26 cog?
>
> We have healthy hills in the Ozarks, but certainly not "Alpine"
> inclines.
>
> Randolf
Do the math. Gear inches * RPM / 336.3 = MPH.
50/12*26.5 = 110.4 gear inches. * 90 RPM (a nice all day long day
after day spin) = 9,937.5 / 336.3 (constant from working through the
formulas of how far one wheel revolution takes you) = 29.55 MPH.
Unless you are wind and gravity helped, I doubt any besides
professional racers can maintain that pace for more than a mile or two.
Go up to 100 RPM, easily maintained for a long time, and you get a top
speed of 32.83 MPH. Moving pretty fast there. Go up to 110 RPM,
easily held for many minutes by anyone who can actually turn big gears,
and you get 36.12 MPH. Take it up to 120 RPM, you can spin this for
several minutes, and you get a speed of 39.40 MPH. Unless you are
going down a mountain you won't be riding 39.40 MPH for very long.
On the low end you have a 34x26. 34.65 gear inches. Pedaling 70 RPM
up a long climb and you are moving at 7.21 MPH.
I presume you currently ride a bicycle. With a cyclocomputer. Look at
your speeds during your ride and what gear you are in. Then go home
and figure up what your RPM was. Figure up how often you ride in the
highest gears.