One? Three? Eight? Twenty-seven? Have you ever wondered what the perfect number of gears is for your urban or commuter bike? Well, I’m here to convince you that three is the perfect number.
#bikes #bikecommuting #cycling
Mondays by Joakim Karud @joakimkarud
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[Music] hey everybody tom here again today for shifter a channel all about urban cycling and bike commuting and you see this thing you probably have something like this on your bike it’s the gears and if you’re into this sort of thing you can probably spend all day talking about the width of these gears and the distance between them and the ratio between the big ones and the small ones but something happened to me a few years ago that made me forget all about that stuff around gears i was riding a mountain bike on a mountain bike trail and the front derailleur broke and rather than spend time to fix it on a whim i just took it off and threw it in the garbage you know what happened nothing the next time i went for a mountain bike ride i barely noticed i realized that for all of these years i had been carrying around this front derailleur maybe i didn’t even need it essentially i reduced the number of gears on my bike and it made almost no difference to my ride which got me thinking do we really need all of those gears which got me thinking even more what’s the perfect number of gears on your bike how many gears do you really need anyway for years there was this attitude that the more gears the better there were 24 27 sometimes even more but if you’ve ever had this many gears on your bike you know there’s a trade-off you’re carrying extra weight all those gears come with maintenance which means your derailleur has to be in tune and if it’s off a little bit it can be totally frustrating a lot of the gear combinations between the front and the back were the same or at least very similar so even though there was 27 a lot of those were not that much different from each other there was a time when you bragged about how many gears you have but i think over time we kind of realized that was a waste of time even in the mountain bike world where you think a lot of gears would be useful because you’re ascending mountains there’s been a move to reduce the number of gears what’s pretty popular these days is to not have a front derailleur on your mountain bike at all instead you’ve got maybe 11 on the back a 1 by 11 is something a lot of people really like it makes things more simple you don’t have to worry about that front derailleur you don’t have to worry about changing gears and the gear combinations between the front the back derailleur and you don’t have to maintain another finicky part one of the best things about losing my front derailleur was i didn’t have to think about it anymore but if you’re commuting i would argue that even 11 gears might be too many if all you’re doing is trying to get to your destination if you’re not climbing hills if you’re not in it for athletics if it’s really just a transportation question what’s the perfect number of gears well here’s one opinion from my favorite book about cycling just ride by grant peterson he’s got an opinion he says eight gears is the perfect number why eight so here’s how grant breaks down his ideal of eight gears you need an extra high gear for going downhill you need a normal high gear for going on flat roads or with a tailwind [Music] you need a medium gear for riding at a moderate pace you need a medium low gear for when you are carrying light loads or going up a slight incline you need a low gear for steeper climbs or longer climbs [Music] you need a really low gear for steeper or longer climbs than that you need a really really low gear for steeper climbs when you’re carrying loads or you’re a bit tired and you need a ultra low gear a bailout gear for when you have super steep climbs or you’re climbing with a load or you’re just super tired and don’t feel like climbing [Music] there you go eight gears grant usually offers good advice so you could take his advice and live a happy bike life i’m sure but i’m not sure i agree with his assessment of eight gears we’ll get to that in a minute there are also the purists who say you only need one gear that one gear will force you to get stronger and become a better rider and you won’t need gears at all maybe the most famous of these purists was the founder of the tour de france who famously hated derailers he resisted them for years here’s a quote here’s what he said about them i still feel that the variable gears are only for people over 45. isn’t it better to try him off by the strengths of your muscles and by the artifice of the dryer we are getting soft so yeah sure there’s something to love about the purity of a single speed or one gear there’s no extra stuff cluttering up your bike it’s just a nice clean ride you just pedal but also i don’t want to ride like that every day sometimes i just want to get somewhere it doesn’t seem all that practical to ride that way every day when it’s just for transportation so for me the correct answer to the question of how many gears is three three is the right number of gears for your urban bike one for getting started one for riding on flats and one for climbing health that’s it three gears it’s simple you won’t spend your sundays up to your elbows and grease tweaking things to make sure they all run properly you don’t have to fiddle with multiple derailleurs you don’t have to do that internal math when you’re riding to figure out what the optimal gear is and you still have to rely on your thighs quite a bit but not for everything you’ve still got that climbing gear so that’s why for me three gears is the right number for my urban ride it just feels right that being said if you go for eight go for it if you like 27 go for that too the most important part of any bike is that you ride it so whatever works for you make it fit your life you may have a long commute or big hills or lots of wind let’s not judge each other for the number of gears we’ve got other than to know that three gears is the correct number okay hope that helped everyone thanks for watching see you next time you
37 Comments
What I now use is 4 gears. The lowest 4 gears from a 6 gear set. I found this out when I could no longer even GET the top two gears. And going downhill i always coast anyway.
I'm actually eying cruiser bikes with 3 speed igh. The cruise would be for pure recreation on fairly flat ground. No freezing weather, no wind, no steep hills. So 3 speeds is all i need. 1 speed is fine too, but taking off is slower than i like, and speed is a bit limited. If i were in a hillier or windy place, or wanted higher speeds, a 7-speed deralleur would work.
Hahahah, love the french voice 😀
Either a (1 by 6) or a (2 by 8 or 9)
3 gears is fine for generally flat ground but I like the versatility of 6 gears
So like, what kind of gears are we actually talking about here in terms of development (i.e. distance propelled per crank of the pedals)? I routinely drop down to a bit above 2m for the longer, steeper hills in my city; my cruising gear on the flat is around 4m; and with a tailwind or if I'm wanting to go fast on a moderate downhill I go up to around 6 or 7m sometimes. Those feel pretty far apart to me, though. They're spread across six or seven available gears on my current bike and I still often find that I upshift because I was spinning but then immediately feel like I'm grinding on the next gear up. Maybe my pins are just too old and weak for this game…
I'm still rocking a friction shift 10-speed varsity. It was cheap and it gets me around!
3:55 "muscueles" killed me xD
I think you are absolutely right. 27 gears on bike is nonsense just like a nine speed automatic on a car that has a ton of torque.
I agree , 3 is fine 👍
I think that 3 gears is fine, if you have the right 3 gears. I have 7 gears on my bike and I for the most part only use 4 of them.
My bike is a 21 speed. 99% of the time i leave it in 4 on the rear and 3 front. If i get wore out i do 3/3. On hills i do 2 on the front
I currently have a 7-speed bike, and I only use 4 gears. Gear 4 for starting, gear 5 for shifting to gear 6, gear 6 for cruising, and gear 7 for going downhill. Practically speaking, I really only use 3 gears. I've also once used gear 3 to get up a high hill while I was rather tired, so there's that.
Never have to worry about your front derailleur? I never worried about my front derailleur. Never gave me any issues. I don't even remember the last time it needed a slight adjustment (couple clicks). I like my 3x because I can be in the right gear without ever experiencing severe cross chaining like 1x. And I have higher gears for going faster on tarmac without spinning out easily.
3, is the magic number…
For me, lately after talking with so many in this field. 1 is for cruising around with no real thang going on, 3 is for commuting/ cruising around with some thought. Beyond that is generally from what ive seen the most. Specific for what the person is looking for. The most common being, more gears means they go faster lol. I've always knew that it comes down to gear ratio more than anything. When I used to ride a 2×11 back in the early 2ks. I always used the smaller gear for normal biking and the larger one for over drive. I think that always helped me with gearing from a stop and into a stop.
3 gears… That gives me the idea of taking a single speed bike and slapping a triple chainring on the front. I mean, 3 is better than 1 surely.
3 speed is all you need
It’s a completely silly discussion if you’re not going to talk about range. How can 1, 3, 8, or 27 be an answer if you don’t know the ratios and gear inches involved? Also, I think most of us realise by the age of ten that with multiple chainwheels, gears will overlap. As for the maintenance issue, my ratio for adjusting front derailleur, rear derailleur, brakes is about 1:50:100.
That said, I do look forward to buying a big beautiful Rohloff setup one day, but I’ve been saying that for 25 years.
Wow back early 80s we all wanted a 10s. Cheers Graham
Here in Florida 3 gears is perfect. In mountainous area you may need a couple more. Bicycles have gotten gear crazy. I have also converted to a belt drive lover. My chain days are over. I’ve ridden chain drive bikes for almost 63 years. I will never purchase a new bicycle with chain drive again.
I bought a Saracen Hy-Trail for me wife quite a few years ago. It has a Shimano Nexus 3-speed hub gear and a back pedal hub brake. She complained bitterly about the fact she couldn't back pedal but eventually got used to it. I lowered the gears by fitting a 22T sprocket instead of the 16T that it came with. That has made it easier to ride. She is in her early 80s and still riding her bike.
Dang, I just bought a 7 gear priority L-Train. Not 3 and not 8, now I'm screwed!
Start at the bottom not the top. You need a gear that gets you up the steepest part of YOUR route. 3 is probably enough if you are willing to have a top gear that doesn’t give you max top speed.
I spend 90% of the time in gear 3 of 5 and the other 10% in gears 2 & 4.
If you are fat go 8 gear…very fat 11.
My lowest gear is walking fast then my middle gear for loads or mountainbiking and my fast street gear. That 3 gears I guess
So happy I ditched the front derailleur on my mountain bike.
This is so lame. So lame. Thumbs down and I want my time back.
Im planning on adding a Shimano 3 speed to my antique Monark bicycle to make it more pleasant to ride. I chose it because it still has the coaster brake which is the only brake on the bike, so I don't have to make any other changes.
For me, 1×7 is really good if it has a very tall rear gear for steep uphills. I don't understand calculation being a concern with having gears, I'd argue that having less gears makes calculation more of a factor because you'll have to pedal faster to make the jump in speed, otherwise pedaling will be hard for a few seconds. A reasonable set of gears feels so natural to me as i shift when my cadence begins to reach inefficiently high speeds. Shifting up immediately puts me in a comfortable cadence. It only becomes a problem for me when I have to make sudden stops that don't give me enough time to go from gear 7 to 1.
1×6 might be better tbh, i just need a good climb gear.
the six-speed…. perfect for cars, perfect for bikes!
A common piece of advice is to avoid any bicycle with a 7-speed freewheel. That's still a bit too common for comfort, but I suspect they say so because there's no scope to upgrade. But from a commuting point of view, does that really matter? And do gear ratios matter? These bikes with 14-28T freewheels have lower top gear ratios than those with 12-28/11-32 cassettes.
cool video
8spd 11-45 with 38 chainring does everything for me, commuting, touring, group rides, climbing hills, riding back down at 50km/h. Though for really mountaineous regions I'd go 2x with an additional ~26t ring
Give me enough gears so (a) I can ride at my desired cadence and (b) I can get up hills. It's not going to be 21 gears. But it's not going to be 3. For me, I don't need a downhill gear. I am happy to coast. In my neighborhood, there's a lot of hills. Which helps. I bought three bikes this summer, having just gotten back into it. An ebike, that has 7 gears. I had the shop put on a smaller gear up front, big help. It maxes me out at 20 MPH on the flat. Good enough. I bought a used mountain bike on a whim. It's shifting sucks, it needs work, so I won't count it. I bought a "manual" bike. A 1×9. The low gear is not low enough. And there's a sizeable gap between 2 and 1. I think 9 sounds good, but to handle hills where I live, I need to take it back to the shop, and put in a smaller front gear. COMFORT! That's what I want. I want to ride, I want to ride in COMFORT. Gladly will I trade downhill gears for easier uphill cycling. But I still need a range of gears for all the hills near me and comfortable riding in the city under various conditions. I am 60, I just want some exercise, and a bike I can use to avoid short car trips. A 1x 7 to 9 gear setup, with lowered gearing sounds right to me. But not three, heck no!
The best number of gears for me is 8. Because that is the number of gears that came on the bike that had the other features I wanted.
I'm thinking of going from 2×8 to 3×8
That would change having 12 ratios to 16, but with higher highs and lower lows. More range is better.
If I were to go 3-speed, I would delete the rear deraileur and keep the front.