Explain Cassette Gearing

[Jiffer]

Hmmmmm; I'm pretty sure the post you quoted is correct.

I don't think my brain will ever make sense of all this!!! I'm apparently a cassette and chainring moron!! Thanks for the correction.

But yes, I was referring to going downhill "faster", which having a bigger downhill gear makes it "easier" to do ... because I do pedal as much as I can on descents. I have friends who can't keep up with me sometimes and, therefore, the group on the Saturday club ride when we do a big descent together after regrouping at the top of a climb. One of my friends sometimes loses the group and, therefore, can't finish the rest of the ride with them once it's flat again. A bigger gear would make it "easier" for her to keep up. She did actually change her cassette and does have a harder gear than her Ruby came with, but she still has to work hard at keeping up and if she's not strategically at the front of the pack when we descend, she may lose us.

Funny this post came up. Shortly after reading it, my dh told me he's thinking about switching something else on my bike to give me easier gears. (Not even going to pretend I remember which "thing" on which part of the bike he said he was going to change!) But yay for me if it helps my pathetic climbing!!!

[Cataboo]

Erm. A bigger chain ring in the front will make it "easier" to go downhill without having to spin too fast. Or a smaller cassette ring in the back.

A smaller chain ring in the front will make it easier to go up hill or a bigger cassette ring in the back.


the downhill thing I think depends much more on weight, wind resistence, etc... As a solid heavy little person, I tend to go down hills very fast whether or not I'm pedaling. tires & hubs'll affect it as well.

[Zen]

As the reigning Queen of Liberal Brake Application I can't imagine pedaling downhill

[Cataboo]

As the reigning Queen of Liberal Brake Application I can't imagine pedaling downhill

Erm.

It maybe good for you to keep those shoddy brakes on the aurora for now.

If we ever go mountain biking together, I'll use my brakes all the way down with you then.

The bf likes to "adjust" my brakes so they don't work very well before mountain biking to try to make me get over that.

It usually gets fixed after the first downhill.

[Jiffer]

the downhill thing I think depends much more on weight, wind resistence, etc... As a solid heavy little person, I tend to go down hills very fast whether or not I'm pedaling. tires & hubs'll affect it as well.

Weight does greatly affect downhill riding, but no matter how much you weigh, if you are just spinning and not engaging a gear, you can no longer pedal to improve downhill speed. If your bike has another harder gear, you can keep pedaling. Sometimes I pass people who weigh more than me because they can't pedal anymore and I can ... and I choose to use it. Which is another point. I pass people who could physically go faster, but choose not to. I make up for my slow climbing by excelling on the downhill. I'm a stat freak. Love trying to improve my average pace on each ride.

[ttaylor508]

I ride mostly with guys who out weigh me by quite a bit and on descents I can pedal my heart out in my biggest ring (52 on front, 11 on back) and they can still beat me down the hill without pedaling, so I believe weight does factor in quite a bit. On our last ride we were going down a pretty steep section and DH and our other buddy were doing 53+ MPH and I was at 47MPH.

[Cataboo]

I ride mostly with guys who out weigh me by quite a bit and on descents I can pedal my heart out in my biggest ring (52 on front, 11 on back) and they can still beat me down the hill without pedaling, so I believe weight does factor in quite a bit. On our last ride we were going down a pretty steep section and DH and our other buddy were doing 53+ MPH and I was at 47MPH.

I can bike with a friend who's taller than me but equal weight - I always beat them downhills even without pedaling. On a couple different bikes for either of us. I'm just a more compact weight, while I think being just broader in the chest & taller, they have more wind resistence.