simple question.

[dolcerider]

Ok. Simple question. When is it best to use the large ring? Upside of use and downside? Thank you!

[KnottedYet]

Here's a great site that talks about shifting and gears.

(pretty much everthing Sheldon Brown writes is great, so be sure to browse around after you read this article!)

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

[RolliePollie]

Do you have a double or a triple? I have a triple, and I know it's time to go up to the big ring when I'm getting chain rub on my middle ring. If I want to keep pedaling and go faster, I need a gear that's harder to pedal and I can't get one in the middle ring because it's rubbing. So my choice is to coast and not pedal, or switch to the big ring so I can keep pedaling. Does that make sense? So if I was on a flat and wanted to go faster, I might choose the big ring. Or if I was on a downhill and wanted to pedal instead of coasting, I would really have to go up to the big ring.

[dolcerider]

Thank you for the web site and to answer your question Sara, I have a triple but I'm not quite sure by what you mean by chain rub? If going to the large ring can increase speed on the flat then I can see the advantage, but you are pedaling harder- wear and tear on the joints, not to mention it must be exhausting to keep up for long periods of time. So for most of us non racers best used for short bursts only- like when the men are dropping you on a club ride?

[RolliePollie]

Thank you for the web site and to answer your question Sara, I have a triple but I'm not quite sure by what you mean by chain rub? If going to the large ring can increase speed on the flat then I can see the advantage, but you are pedaling harder- wear and tear on the joints, not to mention it must be exhausting to keep up for long periods of time. So for most of us non racers best used for short bursts only- like when the men are dropping you on a club ride?

I have chain rub pretty good in my small and middle rings with certain gear combinations. Basically it's when you're cross-chaining and the chain is at an angle where is starts rubbing. You can definitely hear it...you'll know it if it happens. This is not a desireable thing, so you want to find different gear combinations to avoid it. I can only use about 4-5 gears on my small ring and 6-7 on my middle before this starts happening. I like to just stay in my middle ring if I can, but I use my small ring a lot too! I really don't use my big ring very much at all. I've just experimented with different gear combinations and found that ocassionally, it's kind of fun to use the big ring if I'm feeling a need for speed.

Here's an example from my ride today...I was on a low-traffic road with a 45 mph speed limit and I knew I'd be going gently downhill for approximately 3 miles. I was wanting to go kind of fast and coasting was only bringing me up to about 16-17 mph. I wanted to pedal, but I "ran out of gears" so to speak with my middle ring. My chain was rubbing and my cadence was so high I was bouncing in the seat. So I switched to my big ring and I could pedal up to about 23-25 mph. It wasn't difficult to pedal because I was going fast. Not exhausting at all. Now, if I had been going a lot slower, then it would've been like you said...really hard to pedal, slow cadence, wear and tear on joints, etc. Even on flats, I generally do not use my big ring. I am more comfortable with a higher cadence and I don't really "mash" unless I'm in my granniest of granny gears and a hill is so steep that I have no other choice.

Isn't this whole gearing thing crazy? After 1,000 miles, I finally really feel like I'm comfortable with the gearing on my bike. I sort of intuitively "know" what gear I'm in. When I'm climbing a big hill, I know how many gears I've got left before I hit that super duper granny gear. And of course, when my chain starts rubbing, that's a great hint that I need to change rings!

[makbike]

For me the decision to use the big ring is based on gear inches. I made a small chart which I taped to my bike and I refer to as I ride. I can quickly glance down and see what is available for each chain ring. Base on terrain and my legs I will decide where I want to be front & back to give me a gear which will fit my particular needs.

[dolcerider]

Boy do I agree with you! I never in a million years thought I would be so involved and still learning after taking up cycling a year ago. Thank you Sara for your insight and now I can't to get out and try something new!

[Torrilin]

One of my goals is to get to the point where I could do most of my riding on the big chainring. I'm in Wisconsin, so it's *flat*. Not pancake flat, but most of the hills are so gentle I just don't notice them when walking. So if I can use most of the big chainring, I have plenty of gearing for handling the little rises I get on my daily rides. And the more I ride on the big chainring, the better I do on my nemesis hill (with a whopping 5% grade it feels so *flat* and it's still kicking my ***).

If you are not in such a flat place, the big chainring won't be a most of the time thing the way it is for me. And if you experiment carefully on a flat bit, you should find at least one lowish gear on your big chainring that feels similar to a gear on your middle chainring, and to a different gear on your little chainring. For me, 3/3, 2/5 and 1/8 are all very similar in feel. So on a *very* flat ride, I may only work on the big chainring and use 3/2 for stops. On a bumpier ride, I may stay mostly on the middle chainring, with 2/3 for most stops and climbs, and 2/6 or 2/7 if I want to go ZOOM.

[Thorn]

Hey, Torrilin, take a weekend to the Dodgeville/Bluemound area....Wisconsin ain't flat all over

But, this is dolcerider's thread....everyone seems to have covered the basics, I'd iterate the usual "oh, but be careful of mashing". I'm a spinner on the flats so I find I rarely go into my large chain ring. I can ride almost the full cassette in the back without chain rub, so my large chain ring gets lonely from dis-use.

Mashing, pushing bigger gears with a low cadence, will place more stress on your knees, and, as I've discovered, your achilles tendon. Like Torrilin, I will often ride a bigger gear than I should on small inclines to give the illusion of a steeper hill, but whenever I do, I am constantly paying attention to form and ready to drop gears if the stress gets too much.

[Grog]

I have a triple, my big ring is a 52, and I use it:

down hills

when there's a tailwind

when I'm drafting off someone or in a pack and the speed is above 30kph

Also when in a pack I find that I feel more stable and in control when pedalling at a lower cadence (70 to 80), which still feels easy (no need to put weight on the pedals) so this often means going in the big ring because of the speeds we're going at.

When I'm riding on my own, I nearly never use the big ring, unless as I said I'm going down a hill or there's a serious tailwind.

If I need to accelerate (catch up with a pack or something) I'll most of the time actually downshift to an easier gear and increase my cadence a lot. Pushing big gears slow me down.

[dolcerider]

Well tried it today.... some success. Able to accelerate on the flat for short distance only. I think I need to spend a day just learning the gear ratios. When I think I have it down there is more to learn..... if only I could give up my day job.

[galaxygirl]

Oh man, the gear shifting is going to kill me. I forget to look up, I'm so locked into what gear I'm in! Today, I flipped the gear shift as I crested a hill and the chain fell off. Oh well. I put it back on and kept going.

[KnottedYet]

My shortcut: I sort of think of myself as having 3 gears; corresponding to the 3 chainrings up front. Uphill, flatish, downhill/fast. Then I use the cogs in the rear to fine-tune my "three" speeds.

It's not perfect, and not entirely accurate, but it gets the job done!

[Kalidurga]

My shortcut: I sort of think of myself as having 3 gears; corresponding to the 3 chainrings up front. Uphill, flatish, downhill/fast. Then I use the cogs in the rear to fine-tune my "three" speeds.

It's not perfect, and not entirely accurate, but it gets the job done!

I think that's actually a good way to conceptualize the chainrings, Knot. Beyond your classifications, I've come to think of the two rings on my compact as the small ring being my "easy" range of gears, and the big ring as "The gears that will make me stronger" (someday ).

[Kano]

Oh man, the gear shifting is going to kill me. I forget to look up, I'm so locked into what gear I'm in! Today, I flipped the gear shift as I crested a hill and the chain fell off. Oh well. I put it back on and kept going.

Mine doesn't show me which gear I'm in -- I've thought about getting one of those flight deck things from Shimano, because my stuff is compatible and it would be nice to know, but then I thought, yeah, right, something more to keep me looking at the computer!

Now if I could just master the fine tuning of my big rings! (the back guys are easy)

Karen in Boise