Hi! My gravel bike is a 2×8 1-to-1 ratio (I don’t entirely understand what the ratio means).
I am having a hard time on inclines, I feel like I’m barely moving and I am getting a lot of resistance even on the “easiest” gear setup.
My bike shop suggested switching to a 1x and adding some easier gears. (Maybe 1×12)
Anyone have advice? I’m still new to all this and learning.
I’ll add: I don’t aspire to be speedy, I aspire to make it up an incline without feeling like sisyphus if that makes a difference
by quasi-easement
4 Comments
The gear ratio refers to the number of teeth on the selected gears, calculated as (gears on chainring)/(gears on cassette cog). 1:1 means that your lowest/easiest gear has the same number of teeth on the smallest chainring and the largest cassette cog. Combining a smaller chainring with a larger cassette will lead to an easier (< 1:1) gear ratio.
For example: a typical 2×8 setup might have a 34 tooth smallest chainring and 34 tooth largest cog on the cassette. 1 turn of the cranks gets you 1 turn of the rear wheel. A modern 1x mountain bike groupset (e.g. SRAM Eagle) might have the same 32 tooth front ring, but a 52 on the cassette, leading to a nice n low 0.61 gear ratio – meaning 1 turn of the crank only gets you 61% of a revolution on the rear wheel. This lets you keep spinning the pedals at a somewhat normal cadence while only moving a little bit with each pedal stroke, which is the key to going up hills without blowing up.
TLDR: make the chainrings smaller and/or the cassette bigger to make hills easier
Gearing can definitely make some difference. Have you ridden much before? Do you consider yourself in decent shape? How big/long/steep are the hills?
Just good questions to ask and think about. If your fitness level is pretty low, you may work on building that up a bit first- that may mean picking flatter routes to start, working on consistent cadence, then start incorporating more hills etc.
Different gearing can definitely help, but may not be the only thing.
Case in point, I’m a big dude 6’3″/280lbs, and I’m in decent cycling shape, but man, physics is a bitch when it comes to hills and almost doesn’t matter what gears I have, they just suck.
If you could provide some photos of your crankset (thing your pedals is attached to) and your cassette (thing in your back wheel) we could help you more.
Switching to 1x is an option yes, but it can be pricey. There will be ways to make your gearing easier with your current setup, by swapping either the cassette, chainrings or both. Either or both of those options will be cheaper than switching to 1x.
1x also has advantages and disadvantages compared to 2x, depending on your needs.
If you can send some photos I can make some suggestions.
even when you are on the small chainring up front you have too much resistance? I spend most of my time on the large ring of my 2×8 and the easiest gear there i can handle most any hill on pavement unless i’m riding 30+ miles or something…..then i will conserve my energy using the small ring up front on hills. But when im on the small ring i’m spinnin most of the time.