Mountain Bike Gear Usage

Forcing your derailleurs to shift under load when you re cranking hard is tough on the components and muscles alike.

Mountain bike gear usage. To change in the high gear you need to shift rear cassette in the middle gear and click the right shift to switch from front gear to large chaining. Since the amount of oxygen is reduced riders find that an easier gear combination accommodates the ability to produce power for longer periods of time without tiring as quickly. Mountain bike chainsets tend to use even smaller chainrings to deal with steep and off road terrain. Instead learn to anticipate how hard or easy a gear you ll need for the terrain and the trail surface.

The top gear is for riding on flat and coming down from the hillside. 10 and 15 speeds are obsolete and you don t see them on new bikes anymore lower numbers are the low gears and higher numbers are the high gears. Both are important considerations since riding hard pack up a slight rise can be easier than pedaling sand across the flat. First let s get our terms straight so we re on the same page.

It s also now the norm to see most mountain bikes and many gravel bikes equipped with a single. Many cyclists want lower granny gears for long climbs particularly when training and racing at altitude. A bike with 30 or more gears is not an indication of a machine designed to break the land speed record any more than a bike with only a single gear assuming similar ratios. It will help you on those moments halfway up a climb when you realise you re in too hard a gear and need to shift quickly.

By comparison these smaller jumps are really helpful in road riding where they help a rider find the perfect cadence. Bikes generally have 1 3 18 21 24 or 27 speeds. Broadly speaking mountain bikes have lots of low gears so you can climb steep hills more easily while road bikes have more higher gears to boost top end speed. Ride up a down a fairly quiet road or path and practice shifting up and down the gears both front and back until you can change change gear almost instinctively.

You can think of gears as the same thing as speeds a bike with 18 gears is an 18 speed bike. More gears means more choices but also more complexity for riders and shop techs. Shifting gear makes a change in the resistance. Benefit of 2x10 gearing on long climbs.

If you re concerned with optimizing performance and don t want to give up gears on the climbs or descents then 2x10 is likely the better choice for you.