NUMPTY questions about gears

big gear= high gear = large chainring (front cog) and small sprocket (rear cog)
small gear = low gear= small chainring and large sprocket

In a big gear i.e 52 tooth chainring and 13 tooth sprocket your rear wheel with turn 4 times for each turn of the pedal (52/13 =4)
Small gear 34 chainring and 27 sprocket your rear wheel only goes arounf for 1 1/4 turn for each turn of the pedal.
As you don't get something for nothing 52/13 is a lot harder to turn than 34/27 at the same cadence (pedalling speed0. Conversely you need to pedal a lot quick in 34/27 to go the same speed at someone in 52/13

It's the same as in a car really:

A low gear (first gear) will allow you to get up a hill easily, but the engine will be screaming as it "pedals" really fast and you won't be able to go very quickly overall in first gear.

A big gear is great on the motorway, you can go quickly with the engine running quite slowly and efficiently - but you won't make it up a hill easily.

drlodge wrote:

A man who thinks like I do.

?? Is there another view on this? It can get a bit confusing when people talk about moving 'up' the gears on the cassette because many people may consider moving 'up' the cassette is moving to a bigger sprocket, which is actually moving to a lower gear, or 'down' a gear. But surely your 'thought' on top gear being away from the frame and bottom gear being close to the frame is 'fact', not an opinion? Are there people out there who believe its the other way around??

Schoie81 wrote:

It can get a bit confusing when people talk about moving 'up' the gears on the cassette because many people may consider moving 'up' the cassette is moving to a bigger sprocket, which is actually moving to a lower gear, or 'down' a gear.

Indeed. I would interpret that as simply changing gear, and not being sure which way higher or lower.

What I quoted is fact, in my opinion :roll: In a car, 1st gear = lowest number = lowest gear. If someone has a different opinion, they are wrong

Reminds me of the time I bought my first MTB in the late 1980's, 18sp. 48/38/28 - 13/30T FW. This was the period when indexed gearing was a recent development and I was having problems with the lower gears slipping when climbing so I took it back to the LBS.

I explained to the elderly lady co-owner, an experienced cyclist, that when in the 28T F 30T R bottom gear, pointing to the 30T sprocket, the chain slipped down to the next cog. "BOTTOM gear, that's not bottom gear, that's TOP gear, That's Bottom gear," pointing to the 13T sprocket.

This completely baffled me so I naively asked, don't bike transmissions work in a similar way to cars, e.g. bottom/first (large sprocket) is a low gear for climbing hills, and top/fourth or fifth gear (small sprocket) is for cruising at higher speeds. Or, are you referring to the physical location of the gears? I never got a satisfactory answer, just, "Everyone knows that, that is top gear (30T) and that is bottom gear 13T."

I did wonder whether this was how gearing on bikes was referred to in the past, it always puzzled me. As I left the shop I felt like a naughty schoolboy who had failed an exam! Anyway that spurred me on to learn how to maintain my own bikes instead of keep going back to a shop.

Would be interested to know if anyone else had heard that terminology used in reference to bicycle gearing.

DJ58 wrote:

Would be interested to know if anyone else had heard that terminology used in reference to bicycle gearing.

Only by numpties and old biddies.