Does a different bike make that much difference in riding?

[Bike Writer]

My LHT has a mixed drivetrain: 11-34 rear cassette, and a Shimano road crank. My Gunnar has the same rear cassette but it also has a SRAM mountain crank that provides a different gear ratio. Really the only thing that is similar between the two drivetrains is the rear cassette. Everything else is different from the shifters on back.

I am a sold SRAM woman now

Crank, do you mean the thing that holds the pedals to the bike? I measured the two bikes cranks. Old bike is 7.5 inches and new bike is 8 inches. Plus the pedals themselves are enormous on the new bike compared to the old bike. Both of those things probably give greater leverage.

Zoom, Since the bike is overall significantly lighter , I imagine the wheels to be lighter also. The wheel size is much different in width and diameter. My old bike has narrow tires (for me) 1.25 inch and they are 700cc. The new bike has 2.25 inch tires and they are 26 inch. Also the frame is quite different even though they are both low entry design frames. The new bike has the tube that holds the seat going up at a lesser angle and the tube running up to the handle bars is much higher and steeper. For example when I come off the seat at a stop and straddle the bike the handle bars on my new bike are up higher around the top of my rib cage right under my boobs. On my old bike the handle bars came up mid to lower rib cage. Overall the bike appears smaller but it is higher in the front.

I am really enjoying all the comments from those who know more that I do about geometry of bikes because it is causing me too look at the differences between the two and pay more attention to the smaller details and gain a better understanding of the impact of differences.

So thank you because your comments are enlightening.

[Catrin]

I am, too. It's louder, a bit less smooth, and requires a little more oomph on the shifters, but it has thus far been so much more reliable. And it just makes sense in my brain.

I find SRAM to be quieter and smoother than the components on my LHT. I do not have road shifters though, but X0 twist shifters. I find the shift itself to be more solid and I love that I can shift as many gears in the back that I need to The derailleur seems much quieter.

You are correct that it is the thing your pedals attach to. It is the combination of the size of your big gears up front (on the crank) with your small gears in the back that provides your gear inches (how many inches your bike moves with each turn of the crank)

I hope that I am not over-simplifying when I say the same rear cassette with a road crank gives you higher speeds at the top end while a mountain crank allows deeper gearing but you lose speed at the high end.

This is my first attempt to explain this so I hope someone will correct menif I am wrong or oversimplifying.

[Bike Writer]

Catrin,

Your explanation turned on a light bulb for me! Thank you. Whether or not this is oversimplification or not I get it now. I equate this to low end torque in a ski boat which is something I am very familiar with. Before I had my knee replaced and got RA I was an avid waterskiier and had a Master Craft. Ski boats have direct drive propulsion with the engine located in the middle of the boat versus at the stern like an inboard/outboard or an outboard does. This "drivetrain" set up means that you have great low end speed and sacrafice a bit at the top end = the skier pops right out of the water like a cork versus being dragged through the water until enough momentum is reached to get the skis to plane out. You mash the throttle down and the boat rockets forward instantly. And that is how this bike feels to me.

Boy is sure is nice when all this makes sense in your head.