Gearing is almost as fun to calculate and talk about as to ride. The jump between an 11 and a 14 (46 t ring -- I assume few on this list are using 53s with any "normal" cassette) is 24". PDB. EDB would be the 28" between them using the 53.
I love gear fiddling. Even though I ride mostly fixed on road, and love it best, and even though, when I ride multiple gear coasters, I use mostly the 70" and the 65" on road, the 64" and the 61" on our flat but sandy bosque dirt (yes I can tell the 3.5" difference between my 17 and 18; the 61" is very nice for a slightly lower dirt road gear when the sand is slightly heavier) -- even given this, I know every single cog's gear inch equivalent on all of my bikes. Even for hub geared bikes. For almost 3 decades I've made my own gear charts, manually at first, though now Excel makes it easier -- in almost 30 years of fretting about gears I've rarely used a stock gearing combo. My own penchant is for close ratios between (road) 60" and 75"in rolling terrain ABQ and adjacent Rio Rancho, NM), with the rest just gravy -- my outer cogs frankly act as much as spacers, to get the cruising gears in the middle, as they do for higher ratios. When you ride fixed so much, even simple coasting is so much faster downhill. On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 4:08 PM, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > > On 12/12/2014 04:38 PM, Doug Williams wrote: > >> Steve, >> >> I suppose you could do that, but then 13 and 14 are awfully close >> together. I couldn't even tell the difference as I lack your finesse. :-) >> > > I have no difficulty at all telling the difference between 13-14-15, the > three 1-tooth gaps on my 9 speed cassettes. I don't think finesse has > anything to do with it, but running at a typical 90 rpm or so cadence might > do. Also, riding in rolling countryside with many short dips and rises but > virtually nothing even approaching a half-mile long descent does too. > > In any event, if you are going to replace a sprocket, the 12 is the only >> free one (not already attached to a group). So the 12 is the easy one to >> swap. >> > > It is possible to remove the rivets or bolts or whatever that attach > sprockets together, albeit with some difficulty. I haven't seen one of > those 12-36 cassettes, so I don't have any idea how it's made; the 12-27s > that form the basis for the custom 9s 13-30s I use have a couple of > attached groups but also several loose sprockets. > > > >> Yes, I admit that the 11 is only a downhill toy and otherwise useless. >> > > For me, worse than a toy: a spacer with teeth, and not useful for what > passes for "downhills" where I ride. By the time I've got a 48x13 (i.e., > 97-100 inches) spun up to around 120 rpm and I'm doing 34 or 35 mph, in the > terrain where I ride I'll have run out of descent and it's time to brace > for the bridge and the expansion joints and approach the climb out of the > stream gully and back to the level. 100 inches spun right up is very > useful for that: lots of rpm to work with as you work your way down through > the gears. Approach a descent like that in too big a gear and you'll have > nothing at all to spend before it's time to start downshifting, and at very > low rpms those downshifts are slower and more difficult than they need to > be. > > But toys are toys and since I haven't grown up by now, it is a sure bet >> that I'm not going to. >> > > So you are saying a 125" gear is "fun" somehow. This I do not get. Where > is the fun in a lumbering slow cadence? That doesn't feel "fast" to me. > > > Fortunately, I'm too weak to spin the 11 fast enough to reach a dangerous >> speed anyway. Only gravity can do that for me now. >> > > Ah, Gravity: the Goddess I worship every time I go riding. I have what is > known as a "Special Relationship" with Gravity, and there are few who > descend as quickly or get up to speed with the rapidity of a safe being > pushed off the top of the Chrysler Building as do I. > > As for reaching dangerous speeds, every few years Bike Virginia has taken > me into mountainous terrain in the Appalachians. I've learned that as soon > as I begin to descend, my mental juke box starts playing the opening bars > of The Wreck of Old 97... > > > The 11 fills a niche to boost me a little faster on a very mild hill >> before I stop spinning and start braking on a bigger hill. :-) >> > > I'm surprised you can tolerate the enormous gap between the 11 and the > 14. That's got to be around a 30 inch gap. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, and letters that get interviews. By-the-hour resume and LinkedIn coaching. Other professional writing services. http://www.resumespecialties.com/ www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmooreresumespec/ Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nouvelle Mexique, Vereinigte Staaten ************************************* *[I]n exploring the physical universe man has made no attempt to explore himself. Much of what goes by the name of pleasure is simply an effort to destroy consciousness. If one started by asking, what is man? what are his needs? how can he best express himself? one would discover that merely having the power to avoid work and live one’s life from birth to death in electric light and to the tune of tinned music is not a reason for doing so.”* * -- George Orwell, Pleasure Spots* *Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money suffereth long, and it is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . . . And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money. * * -- George Orwell, Keep The Apidistra Flying* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
