Pure Mountain BikingGet the latest mountain biking tips, tricks, news and equipment.

by osaka.synaesthesia

The gears in mountain bicycles just keep getting more and more complex. The bikes of today have as many as twenty-seven gear proportions. An off-road bike will utilise a
Aggregate of three different sized sprockets in front and nine in the back to produce gear proportions.  

The concept behind all of these gears is to permit the rider to crank the pedals at a continuous pace no matter what sort of slope the bike is on. You can understand this better by picturing a bike with simply a single gear. Every time you rotate the pedals one turn, the rear wheel would rotate one turn as well ( eleven gear proportion ).

If the rear wheel is twenty-six inches in diameter, then with 11 gearing, one full twist on the pedals would lead to the wheel covering 81.6 inches of ground. If you’re pedaling at a speed of 50 R.p.m, this suggests that the bike can cover over 340 feet of ground per minute. This is only 3.8 Miles per hour, which is the equivalence of walking speed. This is excellent for climbing a steep hill, although bad for ground or going downhill.

To go quicker you will need a different proportion. To ride downhill at 25 Miles per hour with a fifty Revs per minute cadence at the pedals, you’ll require a 5.6:1 gear proportion. A bike with plenty of gears will give you a large number of increments between an eleven gear proportion and a 6.5:1 gear proportion so that you can always pedal at fifty R.p.m, no matter how fast you’re really going.

On an ordinary twenty-seven speed mountain bike, 6 of the gear proportions are so close to each other that you can not notice any difference between them.

With actual use, bike riders have a tendency to choose a front sprocket acceptable for the slope they’re riding on and keep it going, although the front sprocket can be difficult to shift under heavy load. It’s way easier to shit between the gears on the rear.

If you’re cranking up a hill, it’s best to choose the tiniest sprocket on the front then shift between the 9 gears available on the rear. The more speeds you have on the back sprocket, the larger advantage you will have.

All in all, gears are critical to mountain bikes as they dictate your total speed. Without gears you would not be well placed to build speed nor would you be in a position to pound pedals. The gears will move the pedals and help you build up speed.

There are all sorts of gears available in mountain bikes, all of which will help you build up a lot of momentum if you use them the right way.

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by osaka.synaesthesia

When you choose mountain bike, it is a good idea to learn more about the gearing systems. This article will explain more about how those systems work.

Mountain bike gears are continually becoming more and more complicated and intricate. Today’s bikes can come with up to 27 gear ratios. It is common for a mountain bike today to use nine gears in the back and three sprockets of different sizes in the front for gear ration production.

Why so many gears? The most common reason is that a large number of gears allow a rider to pedal at the same pace no matter what terrain that he/she is on. This can be understood better if you think about a bike that just has one gear. Every time you turn the pedals one full turn, then the rear wheel also turns one full turn, too (1:1 gear ratio).

For example, your back wheel is measured at 26 inches. If you pedal one full turn, then this would mean that your wheel moved 81.6 inches. If you are riding at 50 RPM, then you will be able to go 340 feet per minute. This means that you were going 3.8MPH, which is equivalent to walking speed. This speed is great for going up a hill that is steep, but it is not a good speed for flat ground or racing downhill.

If you want your bike to go quicker, then you will need a different ratio. If you want to reach a speed of 25 MPH downhill using a 50-RPM cadence, then you will need to have a 5.6:1 gear ration. If you have lots of gears on your bike, then you will be able to get that ratio so that you can continue your pedaling at a consistent pace, no matter what terrain you are on or what your speed is.

A typical mountain bike that has 27 gears will have six gears so incrementally close to the other that you will not be able to determine that there is any difference between the gears when you change them.

Most mountain bike riders decide to choose a gear system with a front socket that is suitable for the slope or terrain that they usually ride on and they stay with this choice, even though it may be more difficult under a heavy load to shift the gears. This is purely a personal decision, but it is simpler to shift between gears when the rear socket, rather than the front one.

When you are pedaling uphill, then you will find that it is much better to choose a sprocket that is smaller on the front and then shift gears with the nine gears that are available on the rear. If you are more speeds on the rear sprocket, then you will find that it is much more efficient to ride.

Mountain biking needs gears so that you can keep an overall speed going. If you didn’t have gears, then you would find it difficult to build up any speed and you would find it nearly impossible to pound your pedals for extra control. Gears help to move the pedals and enable you to gain that speed.