i know there are a couple of avid bikers in here. i just got back from a bike ride. this was only the 3rd time i have ridden in the past 10 years. im trying to mix in my stairmaster, running, threadmill and biking for my cardio. i went on a 2 1/2 hour ride up and down hills on a riding/running paved trail. my question would be, which gears am i supposed to use and when? is there a science to them? it is on a specialized hard rock mountain bike. it has 3 sprockets at the pedals and i think 6 in back.

On your bike you have a rear cluster of gears on the wheel and the gears on the crank (pedals) are chain rings. The smaller the gear on the cluster the harder it is to pedal and the larger the gear is it will be easier to pedal. On the chain rings (crank) it's just the opposite. The larger the chain ring is the harder it is to pedal and the smaller it is the easier it is to pedal.

Now combine all of them and the easiest to pedal is small on the crank and large on the wheel and the hardest is the large on the front and small at the wheel. Everything else falls between those two.

Find a gear you like for starting out, try the middle chain ring and 2 or 3 down from the top at the wheel. From there come at the wheel when you start going up a hill and when you pick up speed go down to a smaller. You can also move to the larger chain ring when you are picking up speed and drop down to the middle when going up a hill. The small chain ring is your real big hill gear and not often needed unless going up the brick section of Lombard St.

Try to avoid using the small and small or the big and the big as it puts excessive side load on the chain...

Hope that made sense... :beers:

dennis, thanks. it makes sense. so, which would be first gear? im assuming since it would calculate as a 18 speed correct? two gears the same. ie, the large chain ring and the large cluster ring and the small chain ring and the small cluster. would they be considered about the same gearing?

What I tell people is just remember "left is low"

When the chain moves to the left it is a lower gear on both the front rings and on the back gear set.
You can look down while you ride to see where the chain is.
After awile you can see your chain is in the right gear for the terrain

The left ring on the front is the "granny gear" mostly used off road or very steep hills.

So you normally start on the middle ring in front and the left (largest) gear on the rear set.

The front big ring is used for high speed flats and downhill

The cadence (pedal speed) is like your tach RPM and you want to keep this around 60-80 RPM

The cadence is a balance between leg speed and pedal pressure, and takes awile to find where your legs like to run

Some riders use a computer to show MPH, cadence RPM, trim miles etc

Your cadence should be up in the 90-95 range most of the time. For MTB trail riding you might get to 80 but I wouldn't go any lower then that. As you get lower you start to use slow twitching muscles instead of your fast twitching muscles. Slow twitching muscles will fatigue, this is why you can't put it in a low gear and pedal forever, your muscles start to hurt, where as I can put it in a high gear and pedal 90 rpm for 4 hours straight easily. Cadence is VERY VERY important and the sooner you can train yourself to pedal at 90 constant the faster you will get and the easier the trails will get.
If your computer doesn't measure cadence yet see if there is a wireless cadence that it will support or worst case get a new computer that has cadence as well. For road riding do 90-95, for trail riding do 85-90. Most riders will want to start out at 60 rpm, obviously you need to make an effort to increase this level if you want to increase your endurance and speed. Don't expect yourself to feel comfortable at 90rpm right off the bat, it will take a few rides to get use to it.

http://www.bicycling.com/qa_details/0,6617,s-4-23-306-1,00.html

thanks for the info. there is a very steep long hill by my house that i cant seem to get up. the 2nd time i rode, i rode half way up and i guess my cadance might have been way too high. i walked the other half but i couldnt ride anymore so i rode back down and went back home. yesterday, i rode half way up with out getting as tired but still got got tired. i think the problem was that i was trying to get up the hill too fast and on the wrong gear. i will try to do it at a decent cadance next time. i cant measure my cadance as i have no computer to use and i dont ride too much.

i know there are a couple of avid bikers in here. i just got back from a bike ride. this was only the 3rd time i have ridden in the past 10 years. im trying to mix in my stairmaster, running, threadmill and biking for my cardio. i went on a 2 1/2 hour ride up and down hills on a riding/running paved trail. my question would be, which gears am i supposed to use and when? is there a science to them? it is on a specialized hard rock mountain bike. it has 3 sprockets at the pedals and i think 6 in back.
It sounds like you already have all the information you need here. I'll share this though.
I've also got a Specialized Hard Rock Pro. Black with Silver flames on the frame. It's treated me real well so far.:D

If I could post a picture on this site I would.:(

60rpm = Right pedal down every second, 1, 2, 3, 4,
90rpm = 1.5 times that obviously, but its like just counting the numbers without any pause and its with each pedal stroke (left/right/left/right), so you can count at a normal pace without pause 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 then you should have hit each # with your pedals (left with 1 3 5 7, right with 2 4 6 8)

dennis, thanks. it makes sense. so, which would be first gear? im assuming since it would calculate as a 18 speed correct? two gears the same. ie, the large chain ring and the large cluster ring and the small chain ring and the small cluster. would they be considered about the same gearing?

Don't look at it like a car or motorcycle with a 1st gear 2nd gear etc. You have 18 total gears, some are higher and some are lower. The reason you avoid the small and small or large and large is the gears don't line up very well. The chain rings, gears and chain will wear out prematurly from the cross pattern. Even your derailer may not like being stretched so far in the large large gear and may not provide enough tension in the small small gear. Without knowing the tooth count on each gear in the cluster and your chain ring sizes I can't answer about the 2 gears being the same. I can tell you that the more gears you have in the rear cluster the more duplicates gears you'll have. Back in the 10 speed days cyclists really worried about it, today it's not an issue with so many more gears to choose from.

A bit more on gearing on a bicycle, because you power the bike, the gears are backwards from something motorized. On a bike you start out in the gear that would be overdrive for a car. That way it's easy to pedal and get the bike rolling. As you pick up speed you shift to the gears the car would be using to start out in. This is because you can't turn the rpm an engine can.

Hill climbing tip: Get into the gear you need before you need it. If you can keep your cadence (rpm) and not over rev too much on the hill it will be easier going, this means picking the right gear... If you just leave it in the gear you were in before the hill it will just get harder and harder and you'll stall at some point.

Don’t let us confuse you and over complicate it.
Keep it simple until you rack up more miles then it will get easier.

Bike riding and set up gets pretty complicated if you really get into it.
The pedals and shoes make a big difference .
Most people use the clip in pedals that give you 360 deg power stroke.
The bike set up makes a big differences also. Especially seat height.
There are whole books written on bike riding and set up.

Our bike club does bike riding/safety classes and I’ve taught some and can tell you most people have a lot of trouble using the gears correctly and stopping correctly.
And most people have the seat adjusted way too low because they don’t like the way it feels at the right height.
When you stop you should slide forward off the seat and stand on two feet. The seat should be set high to get your correct knee angle.
It takes a long time just for people to get the stopping down right.

On older bikes, I take a Sharpe pen and mark the bike with a Hi and Lo on both shifters so they know what direction to shift.
A lot of newer bikes are already marked.
Some kids just don’t get it at first, so I tell them just use the bike as a two speed - stay in the middle ring on the front then shift all the way up or all the way down on the back. This seems to at least get them started .
Then I get them to use more gears.

As I say keep it simple at first then get more into it later.

thanks guys. a couple of other things along the lines that joe said. i adjusted the seat the other day before the ride. i adjusted higher so my legs are more comfortable. i thought my knees were coming up way too high on the up stroke. now, i seem to be bending lower and my back was getting sore. i noticed alot of the bikers that were riding were bent all the way down. it didnt seem that i was bending down as low but if i did, i wold probably be more sore. should i just adjust my handle bars higher? who makes a comfortable seat?

Biggest rear sprocket and the smallest front sprocket is low gear so go from there!!

And try to keep your chain lined up straight so it doesn't wear sideway's going from the big front gear to the biggest rear gear sorta deal..

The guys are on this big time for you, imho!!

And I'm riding an old early '90's, Specialized Hardrock!! Put 20 miles on it yesterday in the 103 heat around town, dumb-as- that I am!! But one COLD 24 oz can a PBR went down GREAT in the heat!!

pdq67

thanks guys. a couple of other things along the lines that joe said. i adjusted the seat the other day before the ride. i adjusted higher so my legs are more comfortable. i thought my knees were coming up way too high on the up stroke. now, i seem to be bending lower and my back was getting sore. i noticed alot of the bikers that were riding were bent all the way down. it didnt seem that i was bending down as low but if i did, i wold probably be more sore. should i just adjust my handle bars higher? who makes a comfortable seat?

Don't ask a serious cyclist about a seat, especially not a road biker. :D The bigger the tush the wider the seat you'll want but a wide seat will interfear with your stroke... Look for something with a jel insert if you want some cushion and don't be afraid to ask about a ladys seat (bicycle seat!).

Seat height is important, you don't want to have to strech to stay with the pedal on the down stroke but want near full leg extension. You don't put your arch across the pedal, the ball of your foot goes there. Get some toe clips when you get a chance, and don't be afraid of them. You want to be able to push and pull and toe clips will allow that. Stay away from clip in pedals and bike shoes until you start putting in some real miles...

You are riding a mountain bike not a road bike so you don't want to feel like you are riding with drop bars. If you can't set your bars and raise stem up to be comfortible (stem should be marked for max height) then take ever so little out of the seat height. Better yet a trip to the bike shop might be in order, lots of bars available...

Best thing to do is rack up the miles on the bike before changing it.
You need a few hundred miles for your butt to get used to the seat.
Believe it or not - it will.

Bike shorts with the built in pad will help a lot.
You don't have to get the tight racing type shorts unless you like when your wife, kids, friends laugh at you . :)

You can get normal looking shorts with the built in pad for casual riding.

There are millions of acc parts available for bikes if you feel you want higher bars you can get a taller stem (some have shock absorbing features) or taller bars.

I have an old rat bike that I leave outside all year that is always ready to go for a short ride to get food, post office, car parts etc.
I put an old set of motocross (motorcycle) bars and levers on it and a big rack on the back.
The bars are about 6 in tall and really wide - no good for racing but pretty comfortable .

Here are a couple ideas...Since I do lots of road and mountain biking, one thing I do is to vary the seat height, seat angle, handle bar height and angle etc, anything to mix it up and give your muscles a different angle of movement (within limits of course). I've always had chronic back and neck pain so I just can't tolerate 4 hours in the same cycling position. I don't suppose that theory works for competitive cycling, but just for working out purposes I'm always trying to change things...yeah gel seat is a very nice change if you're used to hard seats. My brother has a mountain bike with a seat that I can't even sit on-- it's like an iron anvil.

Another thing that's helped me over the years is cross-training-- I'm on the stationary bike at the local ymca, again just to work the muscles differently (not to scope out the chicks, mind you). I also do the cardio stepper, treadmill walking and running (I run 10k runs but no marathons thank-you), rowing machine, swimming, all in the same week. It's a good trick to keep an aging body from tightening up too much.

I DON'T DO aerobics though, seems too frantic to me, to have a army-sargent-type woman dancing and screaming at me "come on, come on" while top 40 music plays at full volume...ugh.

Happy cycling!

PS I like Dennis' idea of trying out different handle bar designs/combinations, the great thing about bikes is the incredible variety of customizing you can do...I used to have numb wrists (back in the 1980s) from the ram-horn type handle bars, switching to mountain-bike handle bars, even on my touring bike, cured it.