What gear ratio do you have on your bike (and why)? (Page 2)

Wow.  I'm actually really surprised at these results.  I always thought that 11-23 was the "standard".  But it seems like the majority of the votes are 12-25 or 12-27....weird.

50/34 with a 12-27....... becuz the century ride 2 weeks ago had 11,000+ ft of climbing, a large portion of which was in the last 20 miles...... and I needed it to get where I was going..... .



Edited by tri42 2009-06-04 12:08 PM

53/39 with an 11/25

That's how my bike came and it seems to work for me.  I haven't done any crazy mountain rides or anything but the rollers I hit are easy enough.

50/34 crank with an 11/26 cassette, i need the big gear for the climbs and the little gear to make up time on the descents, being a clyde has advantages and disadvantages.




Edited by Rudedog55 2009-06-04 1:00 PM

12/27 and I love it...I am inundated with hills on all my rides..couldn't imagine life without it. My bike came with a 12/25 but i got a hand me down cassette....

My road bike came with 53/39 rings, a 12-25 cassette, and 175 cranks. That seemed OK but the biggest climbs around here are where a river valley cuts across the prairies. Last year, a few months before IM Canada, I chickened out and had the bike switched to a compact crank with 50/34, and a 12-27 cassette.

Changing both might have been more than I needed. I like having the extra teeth on the two biggest back cogs because I don't use them unless I'm climbing in the small ring and then they help. I don't like the bigger ratio difference between the front rings as it leaves me hunting up and down between them a lot more often. I suspect I would have been happier with a 50/36 combination up front. I'm getting stronger on the bike though so instead of another new small ring I'll probably try going back to the 53/39, but not until after this year's IM.

12-27 because it is hilly in Washington State !!

I switched to a compact crank with 50/34 and a 12-27 cassette after I started on a Beta Blocker, my VO2 max plummeted, and I couldn't climb hills anymore.  I much preferred the 11-23/ standard crank I had but ya gotta' go with what works for ya!