Up Or Down gears?
KonaKurt
Posts: 720
Just a little preference of mine, but I wanted to see if anyone agrees with me!
If you change gear with your rear mech, to a smaller sprocket, are you changin UP a gear or DOWN a gear? I think in terms of gear ratios and so would say 'up' towards top gear (smallest). But I have noticed alot of riders refering to this as 'down' a gear for more speed....
I keep reading about riders who climb hills by changing UP to their largest granny gear!
On the rear, largest is 'bottom' and smallest is 'top', am I right?
Aaaaaargh! :x
KK.
If you change gear with your rear mech, to a smaller sprocket, are you changin UP a gear or DOWN a gear? I think in terms of gear ratios and so would say 'up' towards top gear (smallest). But I have noticed alot of riders refering to this as 'down' a gear for more speed....
I keep reading about riders who climb hills by changing UP to their largest granny gear!
On the rear, largest is 'bottom' and smallest is 'top', am I right?
Aaaaaargh! :x
KK.
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Comments
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It all depends whether the bike is facing uphill or downhill at the time.0
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Down to a bigger rear cog, up to a smaller rear cog.0
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which is why I ask posters what they mean.
to the small cog. is down. big cog is up. look at the slope on the cassette."Do not follow where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path, and Leave a Trail."
Parktools :?:SheldonBrown0 -
Simple, if you're shifting into a lower gear, you must be shifting down- lower, down, higher, up.Uncompromising extremist0
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Thanks guys, I love you all
You all agree with me, amen to that!
But I keep coming across riders who say the opposite, thinking you 'change down to top (smallest) gear.
I think that are only looking at the slope of the actual cassette and getting it wrong!
Shimples.
KK.0 -
granny ring on front, largest sprocket on rear = lowest gear.
From there you change UP to eventually reach....
Largest chainring on front, smallest sprocket on rear = highest gear.0 -
Correct, but I was only talking about the rear cassette. Chainrings are foolproof. Up to largest ring or up in gear ratio is still going 'up'.
KK.0 -
Nicklouse seems to disagree.0
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He's right though, that's where the confusion's from, the chain moves down when you move onto a higher gear, so there's a common sense justification for people to get it the wrong way round. They're still wrong mind
Uncompromising extremist0 -
It all depends on the wording.
are you changing up or down the cassette? Or are you selecting a higher or lower gear?
above the meanings are reversed in each statement."Do not follow where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path, and Leave a Trail."
Parktools :?:SheldonBrown0 -
The chain and the sprockets on the cassette are just a mechanism. Exactly how they operate or where the chain move to is completely irrelevent when talking about using and changing gears. As users, we should only be concerned with what gear ratio we want at any one time. Changin up for speed or changing down for more power.
Think of a car and it's gearbox. It is a complex mechanism covered up from view. It's function, is to change gears, either up or down. (or reverse, but forget that!) Again, as users we should be refering to the output result, changing down or up, even though inside the gearbox, all kinds of components are moving up down sideways and backwards!
Sprockets are only different sizes to acheive the desired ratios, and where the chain moves to is irrelevant too, in terms of how we refer to them.
That's my train of thought anyway..
KK.0 -
I see why Nick asks it like that though, it's the same reason you started this thread.0
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nicklouse wrote:It all depends on the wording.
are you changing up or down the cassette? Or are you selecting a higher or lower gear?
above the meanings are reversed in each statement.
I have not been talking about cassettes or sprockets. I am talking about "changing gear" and how people refer to them.
KK.0 -
When talking about changing the position of the chain on the cassette...say change to a larger or smaller sprocket, not up or down.0
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I try not to think about it and let my thumbs do it for me, they seem to have got the hang of it now.-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Mongoose Teocali
Giant STP0
Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:0 -
Northwind wrote:Simple, if you're shifting into a lower gear, you must be shifting down- lower, down, higher, up.
this is how i think of it too -surely one must shift "up" to the "top" gear??
this isn't even a debate in a car - you shift up to a higher gear. this to me is the sensible way of referring to it. If your cassette was hidden from view somehow, then this question wouldn't even arise....it;s seeing the chain move down the slope of the cassette that causes confusion
also, on the crankset, you move "up the slope" to get to a higher gear, the opposite to moving down the slope of the cassette. so this causes confusion.
perhaps during maintenance/diagnostics, you might say the chain jumped down the cassette...0 -
gears, up = higher gear-inches
cassette, up = bigger sprocket0 -
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joshtp/mbukman wrote:
+1supersonic wrote:Down to a bigger rear cog, up to a smaller rear cog.
+2
I think of it in terms of car gears; lower = slower. 8)0 -
If i'm changing down it means i'm shifting down the rear cassette into a smaller sprocket so I can go faster downhill.
If i'm changing up it means i'm shifting up the rear cassette to an easier gear to use for hill climbing.
I class gears like a countdown so 1st is at the top while 9th is at the bottom, don't care if this is technically incorrect :P0
