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leesa
Yahoo User
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 Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:49 am Post subject: In the world of cycling; what's considered "high gear"? |
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| I'm always confused by this. Are the low gears the ones that you have a faster pedal rate and the high gears are the ones where you're not pedalling as fast? Or, vice versa? The expression, "kicking it into high gear", implies to me that you want a low or slow pedal rate because you're screaming along at high speed, and you're not pedalling hard. When I read the numbers on the gear shifters, I only get more confused.Cyclists, please help me to learn the lingo. Ride on! |
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Fred M
Yahoo User
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| Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:52 am Post subject: |
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| big chain ring (front), small gear in the rear |
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GI
Yahoo User
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| Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:53 am Post subject: |
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| Low gears are the easy ones.High gears make you go fast. |
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jman4117
Yahoo User
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| Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:10 am Post subject: |
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| The two highest gears on both shifters. They'll combine to be the highest possible gear on your bike. |
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onlyme Mr G
Yahoo User
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| Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| You may have two or three cogs(chainrings) where your pedals are connected(crank) The largest of these is your highest gear.When you look at the axel on the real wheel you will usually have between six and ten cogs(sprockets) the largest one is your lower gear(the smallest is your higher).Therefore your highest gear will be the large Cog on the front and your smallest cog on the back!High gears for downhill, sprints or fast riding - Low gears for hills or taking it easy.So by playing around with different combinations of these you can find a gear to suit.Hope this explains things more.. |
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igamogam
Yahoo User
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:52 am Post subject: |
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| Bravo! You are totally correct in your first description.In fact high & low gear mean the same on bikes, motorcycles or cars [or any machine that uses gears].A high gear moves you a long way for each push and is difficult to get moving from standstill or go uphill.In low gears you pedal quickly with little effort and you don't travel very far for every pedal stroke but you can go uphill easily.Don't worry too much about the numbers, experienced riders tend use the combination of teeth on the front and back to say stuff like "I was on the 52-12" [front 52 teeth and rear sprocket 12 teeth] or "I used the 40-27" [a lowish gear]. They also say stuff like they are in top/highest/biggest or bottom/lowest/smallest gear.Most sprockets have the number of teeth stamped on them or you can count what is on each one. It looks daunting at first but you get used to it quickly and [depending on how many front chainwheels your bike has] you only have to remember 1, 2 or 3 numbers for the front chainwheel and between 8 &10 sprockets for the back [technically called the "block"] depending on your bike, usually in even steps e.g. 12-14-16-18-20-22-24-26-28 teeth for a 9-speed.In effect most bikes nowadays have two gear changing systems that work together, one at the front and one at the back so it is actually not easy to describe what gear you are in, even for experienced riders.In practice, as you improve you will choose the gear by feel and stop thinking about what you are doing. Unless you need to describe what gear you were using to someone else, the numbers become irrelevant. |
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Arby
Yahoo User
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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| High gear is when you shift the chain on bigger front sprocket and to the smallest rear sprocket. It's harder to pedal at the start when your in high gear. Normally, you shift to high gear when your running in flat or low gradient terrain. When climbing a slope, you always shift to low gear. Enjoy biking!! |
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