53/39 and 52/39??

boggyass

Hi i just riding my bike but get cheesed off sometimes when people go on about gearing, when i obviously dont know what they are talking about. I ride 52/39 but my rider freiends ride 53/39. Does this diff make a diff to how or where u can ride? Does that extra tooth give an advanrage or disadvantage. Reading up about it on sheldon browns site hasnt helped. Maybe i shud ignore it all and just ride! But i do feel a little left out when people start to refer to calculators etc etc about gearing. I wanna get better a riding especially uphills and wud like to know if understanding gearing beyond the basics will help. And links to simple resources.

cheers.

gazrichards

1 tooth will make very little diffrence.
basically the gear you chose will be personal preferance and depend on your riding style.
if you can keep up with you mates and their "huge" gears then dont worry about it.

Pokerface

boggyass wrote:

Hi i just riding my bike but get cheesed off sometimes when people go on about gearing, when i obviously dont know what they are talking about. I ride 52/39 but my rider freiends ride 53/39. Does this diff make a diff to how or where u can ride? Does that extra tooth give an advanrage or disadvantage. Reading up about it on sheldon browns site hasnt helped. Maybe i shud ignore it all and just ride! But i do feel a little left out when people start to refer to calculators etc etc about gearing. I wanna get better a riding especially uphills and wud like to know if understanding gearing beyond the basics will help. And links to simple resources.

cheers.

The 52 ring won't hurt you at all. I have a 52 tooth ring on my TT bike.

If you want to get better riding uphills, it's the smaller gears that you will need anyway - so no need to worry about the 52 tooth thing. A gear table really won;t help you much either.

Best to just go out and ride - and do it by feel. If it's too easy, change up. Too hard, change down. And so on....

terongi

boggyass wrote:

Hi i just riding my bike but get cheesed off sometimes when people go on about gearing, when i obviously dont know what they are talking about. I ride 52/39 but my rider freiends ride 53/39. Does this diff make a diff to how or where u can ride? Does that extra tooth give an advanrage or disadvantage. Reading up about it on sheldon browns site hasnt helped. Maybe i shud ignore it all and just ride! But i do feel a little left out when people start to refer to calculators etc etc about gearing. I wanna get better a riding especially uphills and wud like to know if understanding gearing beyond the basics will help. And links to simple resources.

cheers.

+1 to the answers already given, but also...

...If the people you are riding with are your friends, then you should be able to ask them to explain what they are talking about, rather than getting "cheesed off" when they talk about things you don't understand. Asking people to explain things you don't understand is how you learn stuff in life.

If they will not explain things to you or laugh at you when you ask, then find some more friendly people to go riding with.

Mark Alexander

the rule of thumb is that 1 tooth on the rear is equal to 3 on the front. 52 rather than 53 isn't going to do much. 50x34 compact over a 53x39 would make a difference racing but in general club riding (not this section) it would make no difference at all.

oldwelshman

Mark Alexander wrote:

the rule of thumb is that 1 tooth on the rear is equal to 3 on the front. 52 rather than 53 isn't going to do much. 50x34 compact over a 53x39 would make a difference racing but in general club riding (not this section) it would make no difference at all.

It depends on the cassette you use and the gear ratios you get.
I race with a compact and have never had any issues.
Compact actually give you useful ratios with few overlaps, that was the problem with the old 42/52 rings, only ended up with a couple of gears to use racing.

John.T

The only problem I have had with a compact for racing is the LACK of overlap. I get down to the 21, don't want to go to the last (23), so have to head for the 15 or 16 which is a long way. I know I should have anticipated better but you get it wrong some times. I still use compact cranks on all my bikes but the race one now has 52/38 which I find easier to use. I still change to 50/34 and 12/27 for sportive type rides.

mididoctors

53 chainrings with odd numbers of teeth are faster

John.T

mididoctors wrote:

53 chainrings with odd numbers of teeth are faster

53 rings with even numbers of teeth are even faster.

giropaul

The answer is to have the right combination for whatever it is you are doing.

Whilst 39/52 or 53 may be fine for lots of things, a flat race in say Belgium will see lots of riders using 48/53 or even 48/54. At the other extreme many riders used compacts and 36 inners for some extreme climbs in stage races.

Overall though, if you are managing fine on what you have then it's right.

mididoctors

John.T wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

53 chainrings with odd numbers of teeth are faster

53 rings with even numbers of teeth are even faster.

indeed

you win