How many gears do you need on a bicycle?

[Val Gretchev]

I was sorry to read that the Raleigh bicycle plant in Canada is shutting its doors after 75 years of operation here.

https://www.thestar.com/business/2013/01/14/raleigh_to_stop_making_bikes_in_canada.html
**broken link removed**
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Bicycle_Company

I received from my parents a Raleigh bicycle in 1955 and it was a beauty. It had 3 gears (low, medium, and high). There was no derailleur (the gearbox was part of the rear wheel hub). Changing gears did not require the chain to jump from one sprocket to another. The chain never fell off. The gear ratios were spaced apart to cover any type of terrain and accommodate all speeds.

What happened? Manufacturers are now making bikes with 24 or more gears. They are marketing this as a desirable feature in their products (the more the better). Who wants to fiddle with multiple gear levers when navigating through traffic and dodging cars?

Any thoughts on this?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I have six speeds on my Pedego (it's also an electric hybrid). I would like one more high gear.

21 gears are common, 27 too. It's so you can maintain the same cadence regardless of road conditions.

 

[Val Gretchev]

Thanks for making me aware of the Pedego bicycle. I looked it up and I am interested in acquiring one. The electric motor is a bonus for someone my age.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Me too, bad knees but I can still pedal. We take it on bike meetups here in Toronto. With peddling I can easily get over 100km (I use it mostly on hills), my comfort speed is 22kph.
You can buy them from ezriders on the Danforth.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

In my day it was the "12 speed". If you didnt have that you didnt have the greatest

Then it went up to 15 speed. I didnt know they were up to 27 speeds these days, that's almost twice as much a waste of sprockets as before.

I may have needed more than 3 speeds in my past, but never needed more than 12 that's for sure. And even then i always used only about 3 of them or maybe 4 on a regular basis.

I dont think it is a matter of cadence however, i think it is a matter of constant leg power. If you apply a certain leg force for a level surface you probably want to keep that leg force even going uphill, and to do that you need a lower gear ratio or should i say sprocket ratio. By changing gears you can apply the same force while going uphill so your legs dont get tired out too fast because of the extra work required. If you also maintain the same cadence you go slower of course but usually you can pedal faster more easily then apply more force so you can pedal a bit faster to get a reasonable speed as well. Some hills however are so steep that it is better to get off and walk the bike up the hill because pedaling just doesnt make sense at that point.

The electric bike sounds pretty cool i am going to have to look at that one. How much do they cost?
Arent you afraid to leave it anywhere though, even locked up, in case someone wants to walk off with it?

But maybe you would be more happy with one of these:
https://hightechavenue.blogspot.com/2013/07/flying-bicycle_12.html

 

[blueroomelectronics]

They cost $2500

 

[tvtech]

My Folks purchased a second hand Raleigh Chopper for me around 1974. Best bike ever except at speed....

Prone to get a "front wheel speed wobble" and then you crash. Spectacularly. I had friends that lost teeth and all riding their Choppers. I never crashed though.

Three gears only....and the speed changing "box" was right in front of your ballbag.

Knobbly back tire. The front small one was the problem though. Always got punctures and dropped you.

Heck, this brings back memories from yonks BTW nice pic of you Val with your new Bicycle

Regards,
tvtech

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

What happened? Manufacturers are now making bikes with 24 or more gears. They are marketing this as a desirable feature in their products (the more the better). Who wants to fiddle with multiple gear levers when navigating through traffic and dodging cars?

Any thoughts on this?

Yes, the Sturmey Archer gears were crap, and three is no where enough for a bicycle.

Low gear is too high for steep hills, and high gear too low for any kind of speed - really pretty naff all together.

Mind you, I used to have a Rudge single gear bike in my teens, and I used to get round pretty well OK - including some VERY, VERY steep hills (I still have the scars from getting knocked off by a car on one VERY, VERY steep hill - but I did take the wing mirror off with my head - it was a Ford Granada).

 

[Val Gretchev]

Wow! I never realized how complicated the Sturmey-Archer hub mechanism is/was. Thanks for reminding me of that name. I completely forgot what it was called. No wonder the derailleur won out in the end.

 

[tvtech]

Way out of my league..

Apparently, bicycles don't sit well with me I am starting to think what really doe's. Maybe I have become a cynical *******.

All the best guys,
tvtech

 

[JimB]

I have never seen one in pieces, but I believe that the Sturmey Archer gear was effectively an epicyclic gearbox similar to that used in an automatic transmission in a motor vehicle.

In my younger days, I had a bike with a five speed deraileur. At one point I was going to add a double chainwheel at the cranks to make it a 10 speed, but I had such a wide set of ratios at the wheel that the deraileur was already at its limit for the amount of chain it had to take up between bottom and top gears.
Then when I reached 17 years old and I could drive a car, there was no going back to the bike!

Coming back to Vals original point about how many gears do you need?
I would say more than three, but 27 sounds excessive, but then these days things are often done because they can be done relatively cheaply.

Consider a motor car, in the 1950s many cars only had a three speed gearbox, especially the cheaper models, or those with big engines which had lots of low down torque and did not need a very low first gear to get up big hills.
Nowadays, only the cheapest car would have a four speed gearbox, the five speed box is the norm and many quite everyday cars have a six speed gearbox, especially those with a diesel engine which have a relatively narrow rev-range.

And talking of diesel engines, trucks have big diesels with a narrow power band, and lots of speeds in the gearbox to allow them to operate at the most economical engine speed under varying road and load conditions.
Those gearboxes are often automatic or semi-automatic, something which would have been unheard of in the 1950s.

I guess that is progress.

JimB

 

[geko]

Actually they're up to 30 gears now, 10 speed cassette with a triple chain ring.

Also Shimano have an electronic shifting system with servo controlled derailleurs - costs a fortune mind you.

**broken link removed**

 

[shortbus=]

Thanks for making me aware of the Pedego bicycle. I looked it up and I am interested in acquiring one. The electric motor is a bonus for someone my age.

Don't let Audio Guru hear you guys talking about E-bikes. They are a sign of the coming Apocalypse, to him.

 

[atferrari]

Don't let Audio Guru hear you guys talking about E-bikes. They are a sign of the coming Apocalypse, to him.

Let's do it better: tell him the best are made in a country with a current population of 1,270,272,105, located between China and Pakistan.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Actually the Pedego is made in California and is a proper bicycle with a hub motor. Those heavy, awkward, unrideable, cheap e-scooters on the other-hand are the harbinger of the apocalypse.

 

[tcmtech]

Personally I prefer 5 gears a clutch and a throttle on my bikes.

I did that peddle thing to death in my early teens. Wow engines are so much better!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Personally I prefer 5 gears a clutch and a throttle on my bikes.

What have you got against six gears?, commonplace on motor bikes back as far as the 70's.

 

[tcmtech]

Nothing. My Kawasaki GPZ 750 does just fine with 5 thats all but yes one more higher gear on mine would be nice too.

Around here the vast majority of cycles, ATV's, and the like have 5 speed transmissions.

 

[Norator]

In a way the gearing is an impedance transformer with multiple taps between your legs and road. How much is an infinitely variable computer controlled bike transmission worth?

At some point more than three speeds sounds like vanity but I haven't been on a bike for years.

 

[voidptr]

I had many bikes since I was a kid )
My 3 speeds cyclo Raleigh ( too bad they go out ..) was my first real 27" big bike to go to my summer works... I replaced it few years later with my first bike I bought myself $400 in 1983, a Mikado Gaspé !!!! That was my trusty bike for many years, Mikado was cool company at that time they offer you bike adapted to you (frame size, handle bar size, sprocket size etc ) all at a correct price !

This is no more true, try for fun to customize your gears, without paying few thousands $ !
anyway my current 12speeds hybrid will end is live soon so I might try that internal 8 speeds )

my next bike, with Shimano Nexus 8-speed internally-geared rear hub ...
https://www.mec.ca/product/5027-243/mec-desire-bicycle-mens/?h=10+50002+50013&f=10+50002+50209