bike gears

Jen wrote:
> Bikes have so many gears on them these days, I'm totally confused about
> them. My daughter and I both need to get new bikes. Can anyone explain the
> gears to us, or know of a site that would explain them?

Well, rec.bicycles.misc and rec.bicycles.tech should be the best sites
for this kind of question. But IMHO, most of the participants of those
groups are so full of themselves that they might frown on such an
obviously "newbie" question such as this. I am sure there are plenty
of cycling enthusiasts in the misc.fitness groups that would be more
than happy to help you.

Your question suggests to me that you and your daughter are relatively
inexperienced cyclists. If I am wrong, I can suggest an excellent book
to read (if it is still in print); and there are many good web sites
that go into excruciating detail about the optimal use of gears and
gear ratios. My comments below are for the inexperienced cyclists.
Experienced cyclists will wretch and complain about the oversimplistic
comments.

The reason for the large number of gears is because of the wide variety
of cycling situations and expertise riders. Most of us do not need all
those gears.

If your bike has 3 "chain wheels" in front, I suggest that you put the
chain in the middle "chain wheel". This will simplify gear shifting
tremendously. For most riding, you will never need to use the front
gear shift. And there are other issues, which I will cover below.

As for the rear "gear rings", work them just like you would work the
gears of a car's manual transmission. Start in one of the lowest
gears, and shift to higher gears when the pedaling seems too easy.
Conversely, shift to the lower gears when the pedaling seems too hard.

With most modern gear shifters, you do not need to know which "gear
ring" in the back is "low" and which is "high". The gear shifter
usually labels the positions 1, 2, etc. "1" is usually the lowest
gear.

And for the very inexperienced (e.g. a young child), it might be
sufficient to choose just one middle gear for all of your biking, at
least initially.

It is as simple as that.

Of course, if your legs are strong, you might be able to start out in a
higher gear. And if you like to "spin" (pedal at fast rates like 120
RPM), you might prefer to stay in lower gears.

There are a lot of nitty-gritty details that one could write about
"gear ratios" and the sort. But I wonder if that is really all you
need and want to know for now.

A final word about the smallest and largest "chain wheels" in front.
If your legs are very very weak or you hit a steep uphill, you might
want to use the "lowest" front gear (again, usually labeled "1" on the
gear shifter). Conversely, if your legs are very very strong or you
want to pedal down a steep downhill, you might want to use the
"highest" front gear.

However, if you use the smallest and largest "chain wheels" in front,
you should avoid certain gears in order to prevent excess wear on the
chain. This gets complicated, even for medium experienced cyclist,
much less newbies. Basically, you should avoid combinations of front
and rear gear rings that are farthest apart, namely: the highest gear
(most resistance) when using the smallest "chain wheel" in front, and
the lowest gear (least resistance) when using the largest "chain wheel"
front. You really do not need those gears because there is usually
sufficient overlap among the set of gear ratios available with each
"chain wheel" in front.

Wow! If that does not convince you to stick with just the middle
"chain wheel" in front for now, I don't know what would . Well,
perhaps when I explain the optimal way to switch from one front "chain
wheel" to another. Let's not go there .

Hope this helps. Please feel free to post more questions here if this
is not what you needed.