Road Bike Gear Ratios Explained

On a road bike you have two choices of chainset.

Road bike gear ratios explained. This is what is referred to as 21 speed. 3 is green 2 3 blue and below 2 red. This video simplifies all the terms and explains how your gears impact your riding. 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.

Up until the early 1990 s gear shift levers were normally located on the downtube of the bike and relied on friction and a fair amount of rider skill and feel to select the appropriate gear. Most road bike cassettes have an 11 12 or 13 tooth smallest sprocket then between 21 and 32 teeth on the largest sprocket. If our bike has three chainrings and seven sprockets we have 3 x 7 21 gear ratios. But to view these as 21 independent gears numbered 1 to 21 would be wrong.

Gear ratios can make or break your ride so choosing the right ones for you is vital to getting the most out of cycling menu expert road bike reviews and the latest road bike news features and. Cycling gearing can be confusing. Now shifters are incorporated into the brake hoods on road bikes and trigger style systems on mountain bikes and hybrids and use a ratchet mechanism that controls cable tension and means that one click. Our complete guide to bike gears takes the mystery out and will have you joining in with all the other bores banging on about ratios in no time at all.

With all of the options available to today s road cyclists it is possible to produce gear ratios that are as small as 1 0 and as large as 5 0 with increments of 0 15 0 40. Standard which is commonly 53x39 and compact commonly 50x34. The gear ratios you want to use for a hilly cycling holiday in mallorca are not the same as the gears you want for a time trial criterium club ride or city riding. Cassettes generally offer gears in the range of 11 25 or 11 28.