27speed - bonkers? discuss

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Comments

  • Amos
    Amos Posts: 438
    Which trails did you do in Afan?

    I don't know of any routes in Bath or the Southwest.
  • forcutty
    forcutty Posts: 1,055
    One county you want to ride through swallow on or off road you'll be in bottom on any bike. RUTLAND. Up and down all the time except around rutland water,even the name tells you its bad. It's like mini wales. :o
  • harry_jones1984
    harry_jones1984 Posts: 1,150
    I find the 'chav' ring is usful for cycling in long grass when doing 60k rides round salisbury plane however i don't like using it as it gives me the feeling of loosing the mental battle and it never shifts into properly when clogged
  • swallow
    swallow Posts: 25
    Amos wrote:
    Which trails did you do in Afan?

    I don't know of any routes in Bath or the Southwest.

    Wall, Whites and the long one, whose name I forget at the moment.Whites ladder especially good after dark!!!
  • harry_jones1984
    harry_jones1984 Posts: 1,150
    i need to do afan more, only does whites level twice


    when i originally went to afan there was no mtb center and it was a wooded trail somewhere down the road..

    As for cylcing in the Bath area you can hit box woods, or leigh woods or the tow path :\
  • gary_fisher3
    gary_fisher3 Posts: 3,466
    Ekkk, I feeling rather slow now. Off-road I'm rarely out of the inner ring, often wishing I had a lower gear than 22/32

    As for on the road, i'm afraid there's no way I can spin out the largest gear (44/12?). without a rather large hill. I tend to flick between the middle and outer ring.
  • vigur
    vigur Posts: 3
    Amos wrote:
    I found offroad I never really needed the big ring...

    I am also never use big ring riding offroad, so I replaced it with a rockring. I found rockring is much more useful for me. But I use a lot the inner ring, have no idea how to ride offroad without granny ring.
  • 320DMsport
    320DMsport Posts: 306
    Well i've just been into Kentmere the \lakes today, and up Sadgill there is no way you can climb that rock ascent without being in the inner ring upto the point where it's just about walkable!

    It's quite technical and if ever see anyone cycle up there on the middle ring or bigger i'll give em a fiver....yes just a fiver as i'm a cheapskate!
  • fumps
    fumps Posts: 227
    Gawd

    You guys would leave me for dead........but i have to start somewhere
    Arrrghhh it's worse than i thought!!!!!
  • shin0r
    shin0r Posts: 555
    If anything I'd say the bigger ring is a waste of time off road. I couldn't do without the granny ring. If I rode on the road more often I'm sure it would be a different story.
  • plain lazy
    plain lazy Posts: 137
    i ride on just 9 gears and have removed the shifter an derailier. but i have kept the three rings on the crank. the granny ring i occasionally use for practicing tricks and the big ring i use as a bash guard. i still believe in the old rule, if its quicker to get off the bike and run up the hill, then do it.
  • Dan.hkr
    Dan.hkr Posts: 68
    hmm but if i put my feet on the floor up a hill no matter how slow i start going i personally feel like a looser! i love the feeling after a thigh burning hill climb the sense of victory! its brilliant :D anybody else with me on that one?
    Enjoy the simple things in life
  • djdime
    djdime Posts: 48
    i use it all the time on really steep hills - be lost without it. as for standing - i try not too
  • milkywhite
    milkywhite Posts: 534
    i love the feeling after a thigh burning hill climb the sense of victory! its brilliant Very Happy anybody else with me on that one?

    Yep. Right with you there. It hurts, but it's good! It makes you feel like you deserve the descent.

    Shame I live in Norfolk :(
    2006 Trek Fuel 80
  • jacktheoc
    jacktheoc Posts: 1,556
    milkywhite wrote:
    i love the feeling after a thigh burning hill climb the sense of victory! its brilliant Very Happy anybody else with me on that one?

    Yep. Right with you there. It hurts, but it's good! It makes you feel like you deserve the descent.

    Shame I live in Norfolk :(

    know what you mean about the thighs :evil: ...
  • steve100
    steve100 Posts: 57
    I think 27 gears is excessive, I have 21 gears and use about 6 or 7 out of them. I do use the granny gear alot though simply because of the climbs I have been doing. I quite often take the dog for a walk along the same routes and the climbs are hard work to walk up to, we are talking seriously steep, ok I am not quite in shape and only been mountain biking a couple of years so some people will probably piss them but 1 in 10 is extremely gentle in comparison and the climbs I have been doing are 4 to 5 miles in length.

    I hate having to get off and walk though, it makes me feel that the hill has beaten me, the climbs are a challenge and there to be beaten.
  • El Capitano
    El Capitano Posts: 6,401
    I've got 27 gears, and utilse all of them. I'll spin out a 44/11 on the flat/downhill fireroads and spin a 22/32 climbing up the mountains of South Wales.

    Before I moved to Wales (and pretty much before the invention of the MTB), I was pushing 56/44 chainrings with a 12-17 6spd cassette quite easily on my road bike. This was in the West Midlands. After moving to Wales, I went down to a 54/42 with 13-21 at the rear.

    Each to their own though.
    1 2 3 4 (Dead)5 6
  • peanut
    peanut Posts: 1,373
    supersonic wrote:
    standing, while exerting more power, is actually less efficient. The best way is to sit and chose a gear you can spin at around 90rpm of the cranks. It may feel like your legs are going too fast, but it IS more efficient.

    don't mean to start an argument lol but my experience is that it very much depends upon the weight and fitness of the rider and the length and rise of the gradient.
    I am a very heavy rider with a preponderance of fast twitch muscle I find it more tiring to twiddle due to large muscle mass plus when out of the saddle I can actually use my weight to my advantage .
    I'm c**p at climbing but You should see how fast I go down hills :D

    I currently use 53-38 with 11-26t good enough for cheddar gorge and Porlock hill when I was fit
  • Noclue
    Noclue Posts: 503
    Lets not forget that on a 27 speed bike you shouldn't really be using all 27 gears, in the big ring i only use the 5 highest gears on the cassette, the middle ring the seven middle gearsand on the inner ring the lowest 5, to avoid stressing the chain so you've only really got 17 gears, and i use all of mine especially on the south downs.
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  • ddoogie
    ddoogie Posts: 4,159
    swallow wrote:

    Leckhampton/Cleeve Hill in Cheltenham and around my new stomping ground of Bath there are no climbs that would exceed a couple of miles in distance, there is the odd steep bit, but nothing that you wouldn't just stomp up, and recover on the easier gradients. Afan has some climbs that I would consider good, but does anyone have any recommendations for a good long climb that would make me want to find that granny ring from the depths of the shed? preferably near Bath or at least south-west??

    I'm suprised you can make it up some of the Lecky/Cleeve hills without using a granny ring. I find it much more pleasent to winch myself up Gambles Lane to Cleeve Hill in a granny ring than to stomp it up. Surely you can't make the sharp climb the golf course without it?! It took me yonks to be able to clear that one without dabbing.
    S-works Stumpjumper FSR

    I'll see you at the end.

    You'll see me on the floor.

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