Gearing Up - or rather how to use them... 24 of them

inkj

Ok, just me being stupid.

I have a simple 11 gear Bizango. All on the right hand side... simple up and down...

My partner just got a new [2nd hand] bike... I will meet her later and need to know how the gears work to explain them to her. She's even less experienced then me. Yes the blind leading the blind here... on bikes that's got to be dangerous.

I believe she has a 2014 Ridgeback Comet Hybrid Bike

First up the wheels are 700c - any clue what bar to pump them up to? I guess 3.5 on my pump. Though that's for my 29er wheels... and that's because I like them hard and running fast... but for her bike is that good advice??? I am so thick on bikes sorry...

Right back from that segue

She has 24 gears.

I have watched a few videos on YouTube but they haven't been very clear on how to select things. They suggest that you have a choice of 3, and then a choice of [I guess] 8 [in this case]. They didn't really explain how you choose them.

Would be right in thinking this:

Her left hand controls the 3. That is which wheel/cog/cassette ring she is in.

Her right hand choose the 8. That is which of the 8 gears in that particular wheel/cog/cassette

I think logically that feels correct. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything.

24 gears is confusing when I've come from all of them [11] on one side.

Once again thanks for any help

Best wishes to all

p.s. feel free to flame my stupidity... I probably deserve it

xx

reaperactual

Re: Gears.

Yes you've got the basics. The left shifter controls the front derailleur which shifts between the 3 chainrings on the cranks.

Small front inner chainring (or granny ring) is for low geared climbing. The middle is for general mid range and the outer chainring (big ring) is for higher speeds.

The right shifter moves the rear derailleur which shifts between the rear cogs (cassette) the same as yours except for the amount of gears.

Obviously a combination of front and rear gears will be selected which your partner will get the hang of naturally pretty quickly.

Try to avoid extreme combinations (in particular large front and large rear cog, granny ring and smallest rear cog) in order to keep the chain from being at an extreme angle (cross chaining) which will be noisier and will slightly accelerate drivetrain wear.

singleton

To begin with, she can probably just put the chain onto the middle chainring at the front - using the left hand shifter - and leave it there.

Then she can just ride the bike like you ride yours - use the right hand shifter to change gears as needed, but she will have only 8 gears instead of your 11.

Once she's got the hang of that, then she can add in the left shifter if she needs to.

inkj

Thank you both ever so much

That is awesome - as I understand it now - so should 'easily' be able to explain it

I think also you are right she will just 'feel' / get the hang of it... it was just a bit daunting

Thanks again

Mad_Malx

Recommended tyre pressure is probably embossed on the tyre. Go somewhere in the middle if it gives a range, not up to the maximum. Depends mostly on tyre width, as well as terrain and rider weight.
On say 32mm wide tyres I would go a bit higher than you suggest for road use - maybe 5 bar (assuming your scale is in bar). Fatter tyres use lower pressures.

Edit: just looked at the comet spec and I think it is sold with 42mm tyres. If that is still the case your 3.5bar is plenty.

Mad_Malx

700c and 29ers are the same diameter, but rims of latter tend to be wider so narrow road tyres probably won’t seat (and vice versa).

29er is just mtb marketing terminology.

Edit - I think the wheels on this bike will happily take widish tyres.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Check the chainring and cassette sprocket sizes and look at the gear inches range for the bike using https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html

larkim

The basic point is that at the extremes you need two gears - the biggest at the back to get you up the steepest hill in your area riding into a headwind, and the smallest at the back to allow you to pelt down an incline with the wind on your back as fast as you can / want to go.

In between, you need a range of gears to deal with "other stuff", and in the main those two extreme gears will be relatively less used.

Until relatively recently (ish!) the engineers of cassettes and chains and rear derailleurs couldn't / hadn't managed to make stuff to allow both of those extremes to be available on one cassette at the back and one chainring at the front. That's now changed (for 95% of circumstances) so 11spd or 12spd rear cassettes should give you more or less everything you need from easiest to hardest.

On a bike with multiple chain rings at the front, the two extremes are dealt with by being in the biggest (back) and smallest (front) (=easiest) or vice versa.

If you were to rank the "real" gearing from easiest to hardest on a 24 speed bike, there would be a significant amount of duplication (or near as dammit duplication) so, perhaps, the middle cog at the front and the big cog at the back would be exactly the same as being in the small cog at the front and the 6th largest at the back.

So in reality a 24spd bike doesn't have 24 useful gears, it has far fewer than that.

So assuming the extremes of the steepest climb / fastest cycling aren't used very much, the chances are that just being in the middle at the front will deal with most scenarios.

It's all just maths. Count the number of teeth on the front cog and divide it by the number of teeth on the back cog that the chain is on. That is what the "real" gear is. So for example 30 at the front and 20 at the back is exactly the same as 42 at the front and 28 at the back.

There is general guidance for looking after your bike in that avoid a diagonal line between the chain on the front cog and the chain on the back cog is "bad" but in relatively light use then in the real world that doesn't cause earth shattering consequences. Not saying that isn't good advice, but you won't summon the hounds of hell if you spend some time in big / big or small / small from time to time.