i have a 2×9 gear bike. which ring on the cassette is the highest and which is the smallest? which gears should i use together and which should i not? also which gears for straight ground , downhill and uphill? sorry if these questions are dumb i just genuinely don’t understand gears even though ive been riding bikes since i was a kid
by theguywhorhymes_jc
2 Comments
In the back, the smallest gear is your highest: faster, but harder to pedal, better for flat/downhill. The largest cog is your lowest gear, which is the opposite: slower but easy to pedal, and better for uphill.
The front is the opposite, your large gear is high and small is low.
ETA: avoid cross chaining, meaning never have a low gear in the front and high in the back or vice versa. Keep low gear on both or high gear on both!
To start, not a dumb question, we all have to start somewhere! For what not to do, try to avoid what is known as cross chaining which is big/big and little/little. This puts the chain at its sharpest angles and can introduce accelerated wear to the drivetrain.
For straight ground, whatever is most comfortable. As a good rule for how the gearing works, the bigger the gear in the back, the better at climbing the bike will be, but lower your top speed. It is the reverse on the front. Big Front has lots of speed, but isnt that good at climbing.