Gearing up – or down – for the smoothest possible ride

Bicycles have gears because people are lazy. To make the bicycle move, you have to push on the pedals. If you only had one gear, you could set the bicycle up so you had to push very hard, but each pedal stroke would make the bicycle go a long way. This is called a high gear. Alternatively, you could set it up so you didn’t have to push the pedals hard, but one pedal stroke wouldn’t take you far. You would have to do a lot of strokes to get anywhere. This is called a low gear.

Both extremes work in their own way, but your body is most efficient pedalling at a medium rate – pushing moderately hard and pedalling moderately fast – between 80 and 100 revolutions per minute. Gears were invented so that you can maintain a steady pedalling rate (’cadence’ – roughly speaking, how fast your legs are going round) while the bicycle travels at different speeds. Mountain bikes are designed to have a very wide range of gears so you can maintain an efficient cadence both when moving very slowly – for example, up a steep, rough hill at 2mph – as well as when moving very fast – for example, plummeting downhill at 40mph. Small steps between the gears allow you to make subtle changes from one gear to the next,…

You're reading a preview of

Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques (Digital) - 1 Issue, Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques 3rd Edition

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.