All about gears

Herzlos

Grumpy_chap said:

Isn't the truth that major High Street Retailers sell bikes and make much of 18 gears (or whatever, where the bigger number = better) but, for the vast majority of purchasers, a basic 6 gears will do just fine?  How many people with three cogs only ever use the centre cog?

It might actually be the other way round. With the rear cassette set around the middle, you can just jump between the front 3 cogs for an easy/medium/hard with big gaps. My wife more or less does this.

But yeah, the number of speeds is largely a marketting thing like horsepower. Naturally someone will assume that 24 speeds is better than 18, but the ratios are much more important.

Cheaper bikes tend to have small ranged cassettes at the back (maybe 14-28 with 6 or 7 steps) and 2 or 3 cogs at the front to give a wide-ish range. More expensive bikes tend to have more gears at the back, often with a wider range (up to something like 10-51) which is good for off-road cycling or very small gaps (which is good for road cycling). They tend to have less gears at the front - either 1 or 2, because it's a bit simpler and you don't need to compensate for the small cassette at the back.

However they all work much the same way, so it's only really a concern when you're looking at buying one, you can otherwise just use what you've got.