Gear I up landlord
gtvlusso
Posts: 5,112
Hi All,
Right, been off the bike for a while with the integration of junior ver 3.0 into family life - however, I am back doing 4 days a week of cycling and running - taking 1 day for recovery!
I have just changed jobs too and will be cycling a bit further daily - about 6 miles more than usual on undulating terrain. I currently use an 85" gear on my fixie over my current distance, I am battered when I get home at night!
What gear should I drop to for the longer commute? I am thinking about 77"?! Thoughts?!
Alos - Can I transplant equipment of my hardtail mtb frame to a full suspension mtb frame?! I may do this as I am doing allot more mountain biking these days and may use it as a crap weather commuter.....any ideas of problems?
Right, been off the bike for a while with the integration of junior ver 3.0 into family life - however, I am back doing 4 days a week of cycling and running - taking 1 day for recovery!
I have just changed jobs too and will be cycling a bit further daily - about 6 miles more than usual on undulating terrain. I currently use an 85" gear on my fixie over my current distance, I am battered when I get home at night!
What gear should I drop to for the longer commute? I am thinking about 77"?! Thoughts?!
Alos - Can I transplant equipment of my hardtail mtb frame to a full suspension mtb frame?! I may do this as I am doing allot more mountain biking these days and may use it as a crap weather commuter.....any ideas of problems?
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well you could man up and get used to it... maybe increase the rear sprocket by 2 teeth and wear a skirt
Purveyor of sonic doom
Very Hairy Roadie - FCN 4
Fixed Pista- FCN 5
Beared Bromptonite - FCN 140 -
I believe the technology exists now to have more than one gear ratio installed on a bicycle.
Imagine that!
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Clever Pun wrote:well you could man up and get used to it... maybe increase the rear sprocket by 2 teeth and wear a skirt
I am not aversed to skirt wearing.....0 -
gtvlusso wrote:... will be cycling a bit further daily - about 6 miles more than usual on undulating terrain. I currently use an 85" gear on my fixie over my current distance, I am battered when I get home at night!
What gear should I drop to for the longer commute? I am thinking about 77"?! Thoughts?!
Sounds plausible, though that's quite a big drop. My advice would be to try and identify your comfortable cadence and match it to your average speed. So, if you were happy with the 85" gear when sprinting flat roads at 25mph and you now want to be averaging, say, 22mph over your longer/hillier route, then gear down by 85*22/25 (75"). Same logic would apply to an 18mph flat commute going to 16mph: 85*16/18 is about 76".
This assumes your 85" gear was "right" for your earlier trip. If it was a bit high, and you found yourself grinding along at low cadence except on the downhills, you can factor that in to get a more comfortable cruising cadence.
I'm assuming you don't have any major climbs/descents that force you to adjust your ratio from optimal cruising to suit that particular challenge!
Cheers,
W.0 -
Rather than increasing your sprocket, shrink your chainring, it'll save you money as long as it isnt too worn to mesh with the current chain. All you need to do is get a ring an even number of sizes smaller and remove the appropriate number of links.
For the swap, things to consider would be headsets, seatposts, seat clamps, front mechs (inc. cable routing) possibly rear wheel axle, maybe fork sizes. With a bit of luck though, most bits should move over.0 -
Why would this be cheaper? I'm missing something, here! At first glance a chainring is about £30 or so, whereas a track sprocket would be under £15... The rest of the equation is the same.... though arguably wear will be slightly lower with a Big/Big combo instead of Small/Small, since the chain tension will be lower and there are more teeth to do the work. Cheers, W.ride_whenever wrote:Rather than increasing your sprocket, shrink your chainring, it'll save you money as long as it isnt too worn to mesh with the current chain. All you need to do is get a ring an even number of sizes smaller and remove the appropriate number of links. ...
edit: bump0 -
WGWarburton wrote:
Why would this be cheaper? I'm missing something, here! At first glance a chainring is about £30 or so, whereas a track sprocket would be under £15... The rest of the equation is the same.... though arguably wear will be slightly lower with a Big/Big combo instead of Small/Small, since the chain tension will be lower and there are more teeth to do the work. Cheers, W. edit: bumpride_whenever wrote:Rather than increasing your sprocket, shrink your chainring, it'll save you money as long as it isnt too worn to mesh with the current chain. All you need to do is get a ring an even number of sizes smaller and remove the appropriate number of links. ...0 -
WGWarburton wrote:
Why would this be cheaper? I'm missing something, here! At first glance a chainring is about £30 or so, whereas a track sprocket would be under £15... The rest of the equation is the same.... though arguably wear will be slightly lower with a Big/Big combo instead of Small/Small, since the chain tension will be lower and there are more teeth to do the work. Cheers, W.ride_whenever wrote:Rather than increasing your sprocket, shrink your chainring, it'll save you money as long as it isnt too worn to mesh with the current chain. All you need to do is get a ring an even number of sizes smaller and remove the appropriate number of links. ...
edit: bump
Agreed - surely a sprocket is by far the cheaper option.
And GTV, the title of this thread.... what's going on there?0 -
lost_in_thought wrote:
And GTV, the title of this thread.... what's going on there?
He is playing on a Brizzle phrase, "Beer I up, Landlord", which I believe the rest of you would recognise as "Good Day, Barkeeper, could you please provide me with a beverage".
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Seems like a big drop - maybe go for something in between, 80ish perhaps? If you've been off the bike a while you're probably still getting back to full fitness, and if you can physically make it home with the current setup I wouldn't drop too far.0
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FeynmanC wrote:lost_in_thought wrote:
And GTV, the title of this thread.... what's going on there?
He is playing on a Brizzle phrase, "Beer I up, Landlord", which I believe the rest of you would recognise as "Good Day, Barkeeper, could you please provide me with a beverage".
Zackly, LiT! Learnz owa speak proper Brizz!
And a bigger sprocket will mean that you need a new chain (unless you have loads of slack), so you need to add that to the cost of a new sprocket, whereas, with a smaller ring, you can just take out a couple of links from the same chain if you are lucky.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
rjsterry wrote:... a bigger sprocket will mean that you need a new chain (unless you have loads of slack), so you need to add that to the cost of a new sprocket, whereas, with a smaller ring, you can just take out a couple of links from the same chain if you are lucky.
Ah! I see where you are coming from. I have lots of little offcuts of chain from previous shortenings (one day I'll have enough bits of SRAM PC-1 to make a whole one :-) ), so I would just add a couple of those in. I can see that might not be the case for everyone.
Mind you, a PC1 is under a tenner, so I still reckon you'd be better off if you got a sprocket and a new chain... especially since you could use the offcut from cutting it to length to extend the old one and end up with a spare... :-)
Cheers,
W.0
