All these gears.....

SimonAH

I did a lovely 37m ride today on a mix of mud gravel and tarmac and came to the conclusion that I only use (and therefore need) four of my twenty gears.

They would be;

Pootle
Brisk
Downhill
And granny

Do you honestly track through your cassette to keep the revs in the powerband?

CiB

Yup. All my gears wear fairly evenly.

Edit - not through some precious desire to stay in the powerband, just because hills are getting harder but I can still aim for mad speeds on the downhills, so it's smallest to biggest and all points in between.

nation

Yes.

I seem to have a fairly narrow range of comfortable cadence (though I think I'm getting spinnier), so I tend to change up and down the cassette as gradient and road surface dictate.

mattcroad

Same here, 100-110rpm at all times. Alll gears get used, however the granny ring less so commuting in London.

jejv

All of them.
I change gear in response to small changes in gradient more than anyone else I've seen. Round about 95-105rpm if I'm making a sustained effort [which is modest by SCR standards], but down to 70-80 pootling. Spin up to ~135 if I need acceleration.

On hills, I quickly go down to bottom gear (~20") at ~7% gradient, to stay spinny. Which would probably be a useless race technique, but I think is the way to go for touring.

EKE_38BPM

I always use all of my gears. All one of them.

veronese68

My knees are rubbish and I'm not very spinny. So I'm up and down like a whore's drawers.

Gizmo_

Yes, I change quite a lot. I have slightly iffy knees so I'm very consciously trying not to mash a bigger gear than necessary at any time, and to keep my cadence high.

gbsahne001

On the good bike yes, on the BSO only really use 2

rick_chasey

Pretty much - esp on the new bike.

Seems a bit pointless having Ultegra gears if you don't use them.

meanredspider

Yes - for sure

Seems a bit pointless having Ultegra Di2 gears if you don't use them 8)

jejv

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I always use all of my gears. All one of them.

One of my colleagues did Bryan Chapman on SS. He flipped the wheel in Anglesey.
So he used all two gears.

t4tomo

I use all 3 of Brompton's regularly, although 1st gets least use, mainly first couple of pedal srokes off the lights if I need to put some lycra clad roadie in his place

airbag

Around town, I'm pretty much singlespeed - but then I live in cambridge. Further afield, I'll use the gears a little more and stay fresher rather than grinding when I encounter any form of gradient/headwind.

Jay dubbleU

I have a 20 speed SRAM on the Duster and I thought it would be a problem when I first got it having had 27 gears on my previous MTB but to be honest I haven't missed them.

woodnut

My ideal would be something with about 15 equally spaced ratios, on one shifter, like an Alfine or Rohloff but as light as a "normal" setup...quite surprised it can't be done really

Big_Paul

The gears on my Nexus 8 hub are like a Land Rover 1-4 is the "low" box, 5-8 is the "high" one, to be honest I only really use 6 or 7, 5 if there's a headwind. Sometime you yearn for a half gear in between because some of the steps between gears are rather high.

jedster

My ideal would be something with about 15 equally spaced ratios, on one shifter, like an Alfine or Rohloff but as light as a "normal" setup...quite surprised it can't be done really

You should try an alfine 11 set up. My old bike had a 105 triple. My latest commuter has alfine 11 (versa - drop bar shifters) and it feels like I only miss one gear at the bottom and have very slightly wider spacing. Dont miss either.

It is a bit heavier of course but not significant. Set a new PB for my commute this morning

walkingbootweather

woodnut wrote:

My ideal would be something with about 15 equally spaced ratios, on one shifter, like an Alfine or Rohloff but as light as a "normal" setup...quite surprised it can't be done really

I use a Rohloff with 14 equally spaced gears. A discussion on the merits of this set-up can be found here.

Andy Blanc wrote:

the hub doesn’t weigh more than the items it replaces, but the frame needs some extra provision for the hub, the fact that all the weight is at the rear of the bike makes it feel heavier than it actually is

.

I really like the Rohloff for a MTB or Expedition bike, but I haven't yet seen a decent implimentation with drop handle bars and for that reason it is limited.

roger_merriman

on the commute/roadie only have one gear, But this being london ish not much is undoable.

woodnut

jedster wrote:

You should try an alfine 11 set up. My old bike had a 105 triple. My latest commuter has alfine 11 (versa - drop bar shifters) and it feels like I only miss one gear at the bottom and have very slightly wider spacing. Dont miss either.

It is a bit heavier of course but not significant. Set a new PB for my commute this morning

My MTB is Alfine 8, I love it on an MTB but it's undeniably heavy at the back wheel. I'm not sure I'd want the weight on the rear wheel of a road bike. That said, I understand the 11 is less weighty...is it a Pompetamine you have?

walkingbootweather wrote:

I really like the Rohloff for a MTB or Expedition bike, but I haven't yet seen a decent implimentation with drop handle bars and for that reason it is limited.

I do wonder what the next thing will be, could planetary hub gears be made lighter I wonder

davis

Nope. Don't need half the gears I've got, and would rather have longevity and reliability. Don't really seem to give a monkey's which gear I'm in as long as it's vaguely grindy. Can't be arsed with flipping up and down through the gears.

rubertoe

I use

53/11 for down bits*
53/12 for flat bits*
53/13 for bits*

What you need is a dose of MTFU!






*this may not be true

BelgianBeerGeek

jedster wrote:

My ideal would be something with about 15 equally spaced ratios, on one shifter, like an Alfine or Rohloff but as light as a "normal" setup...quite surprised it can't be done really

You should try an alfine 11 set up. My old bike had a 105 triple. My latest commuter has alfine 11 (versa - drop bar shifters) and it feels like I only miss one gear at the bottom and have very slightly wider spacing. Dont miss either.

It is a bit heavier of course but not significant. Set a new PB for my commute this morning

Jedster, I'm thinking of Alfine 11 next. I'm especially interested in the lower gears, but you say you're only really missing one at the bottom? I know the chainring and sprockets are important, but I thought you could go lower than that? Mind you I'm currently running a 46/36 double and my knees are killing me

Initialised

Trying to improve/increase my cadence and shake of my bad habit of stomping too much so yeah I try to keep it over 90 most of the time.

jejv

rubertoe wrote:

I use
53/11 for down bits*
53/12 for flat bits*
53/13 for bits*

Have you tried a 55 ?
I have seen a 100 ring. The owner of an LBS commuted to his shop on it for ~fifty years.