Gears To Ya'

It's another chilly day in Morgantown, but the streets are mostly clear at least. That's Jefferson Street straight below in the photo and it's sure in better shape than yesterday.

I got myself signed up for the BROL forum inspired by this thread on gearing, but haven't posted yet. The emphasis of the thread is on low gears, and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people willing to give up some high end for a real stump-pulling low. It seems like all I usually here about is bigger and bigger gears.

I've got lots of chainrings and cranks laying around and have been anxious to experiment with a bit lower gears, but it has been just too darned cold to work in my unheated garage. So, in the spirit of experimentation, I went the other way and tried some of my usual hills in the middle ring on my Canto. That gives a low of about 33.5 gear inches as opposed to about 24" in the small ring.

Well, that was fun for a few minutes. Hills that I could hit with a bit of steam were fast and easy-if they weren't too long, but I bailed out before I got as far up Jefferson Street as you see in the picture here-where it tops 16 percent (I did make it as far as the slippery picture at the end of yesterday's post). At that point a tiny bit of common sense trickled in and I tried one cog up in the back with the granny ring in front (about 27.5" gear). That was just doable, and I finished the ride without needing (well, without using) the lowest gear. I didn't go up Theresa Drive which hits 20 percent, and I would not bother trying; I like my knees to much.

What did I learn? Maybe not a whole lot, but it took my mind off of the cold :-)

Lower gears are bound to be more fun.