The perfect number of gears for your urban bike is three. Here's why.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2020
- 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.
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This is my secret gear combo-it's pretty complicated so you might want to take notes.. For flats and downhills, I use a big cog in front and a small one in the back. And for uphills, I use the walk of shame.
As a new rider this hits me fuckin' hard lmao
I do the walk of shame as well
Lmaoooo comedy gold! Thanks for the laugh!
I Walk of shame it up this insanely long and steep hill every single morning lol
Fine, if you want 3 each to their own, for me I'll stick to my 24 Speed Mountain Bike.
I have 3 gears on my single speed:
Pedal
Push
Swear
Coast when you can, pedal when you must.
if your city is entirely flat even fixed gears work great.
if your city is in the mountains you'll need at least 7 gears.
it all depends on what type of "urban" area you live in.
Nahh, my city is mostly flat. I have 11 gears, I don't go back. Your body has an ideal pedaling frequency, the closer you can get to that ideal frequency the more comfortable the ride. Yea I could live with 3 gears but then biking would be less enjoyable and I would avoid doing trips with my bike.
Exactly, and it's not that much work cleaning your gears once or twice a year
@@HiltownJoe I'm in an somewhat flat city with a few climbs (Paris) and though 11 gears would be more efficient, fixed gear means way less potential failure points (and tinkering) for a bike that sits outside near my work. Also it's fun.
But yeah more gear is more efficient, just not worth it for my commuter. I'm clearly happy of my 105 on my gravel bike but even though it does way more km, it doesn't sit outside and so on.
@@LeDore38 I see it this way; The accumulated time and energy I save having gears, especialy at traffic lights and other stops, is far more than I put into higher maintenance. I guess if you are particualrly fit the impact of the missing gears is not felt that much, but for me choosing the bike over other modes of transportation is a pragmatic one. Biking on a well geared Bike compared to other options gives me the best cost benefit balance.
@@HiltownJoe yeah that's perfectly rational. I'm quite fit for a non-competitive cyclist so I don't really lose time on my commute (a minute over 20 to 25 for a 10km ride at most). Also riding fixed in the city kinda acts as light strength training that I wouldn't do otherwise and has made me better at short punchy climbs and fast accelerations so it's a plus.
But fixed is in no way practical, though single speed in a very flat city can make sense.
For years I rode a three speed (closed hub) bike in Miami, which is almost totally flat. Loved it. Then moved to a location with steep hills, and found myself dismounting and pushing the bike up too many slopes. I'm now riding a seven speed. The number of gears surely must depend on your terrain.
I live in a hilly place. So long as I have around a 300% ratio overall I am happy. Afline 7 or 8 is best for me.
I agree 3 is nice but 7-8 is perfect for all occasion
Absolutely agree that gear range is the crucial number. The number of gears is how many you need to cover that range without jumps that are larger than you like. I'm fortunate to have some very fun and challenging roads that aren't avoidable for a commute unless I wanted to make a half century out of it each way.
I have a range of 454% and regularly utilize 418% of that with the unused ratio being a bail out gear. 3 speeds would be absurd, for me, 7-8 would be workable. I run a 1x11, on a road bike with a massive cassette (11-50) cassette and I'm loving it. Jumps are the same as a 16 speed double with extra low end and missing one gear on the top end. Going to 1x I swapped in a bail out gear, just in case, in exchange for spinning out just a bit earlier on the same hills headed the other direction.
People make too big a deal out of things sometimes only to get lost looking only from their own experience, the goal is to have the ratios you need for you. If you're racing you need to be able maintain a pace out largely of your control as efficiently as possible, the modern top of the line groupsets are engineered for that.
I agree! The city I live in Brazil is full of hills and I think 7 is a great number of gears for commuting here.
Well thats 1980's way of thinking.
People are 2 levels beyond that way of thinking.
Basicly the next level is you end up searching for numbers and you spend your time trying to adjust stuff by 1 millimetre more or less. You get more out of a minute. You finetune going everywhere. Your life becomes all about numbers.
The next level, you decide chasing numbers is a soleless way to live.
You want to chase YOUR ability not meaningless measurements.
You finetune yourself.
You adjust how much you pull on the brake. Etc.
This is endurance riding.
You want all those 20 or 22 or 24 gears.
Those extra gears are for climbing.
Those 2 higher evolutionary knowledge levels ARE valid and perfectly legitimate.
The 1980's 10 speed racer bike is still a legitimate race bike.
2020 metropolitan bikes don't make them obsolete.
Their gearings are different.
No 2 bikes are the same.
@@mex55 wrong.
You're 2 levels behind.
You must update your knowledge.
You have 2 sets of gearing because corners bend differently.
Some corners get progressively tighter and others don't.
You need the tighter gearing so you don't fly off the road during acceleration.
The next knowledge level is endurance riding.
You focus on your braking performance instead of some measurement of numbers.
You meter out how much you pull on the brake lever to get around the corner.
Its not about numbers.
Its WHAT you're doing that matters.
Its not your calculations that matter.
Racing is all about numbers.
Endurance racing is all about you adjusting your ability.
You can endurance race for 10 minutes.
So 20 or 22 or 24 gears are perfect for other theories of riding.
Those other theories are higher evolutionary knowledge levels.
My first bike 70 years ago was a 3 speed Schwinn. Internal gear hub with a little chain that came out of the shaft, transitioned to a wire. snaked over some pulleys and through a Boden wire to the selector lever on the handlebar. It wasn't a fat tire bike by modern standards, but it was a lot fatter than the foreign bikes with derailleurs and racing tires. Today, the latest thing is belt drive with internal gear hub. An updated idea from 70 years ago. Bikes seem to be like my wife's wardrobe. If she keeps her clothes long enough they will come back in style. Fashion is cyclic. (pun intended)
There's certainly some fashion to cycling equipment, but 70 years ago there was no such thing as a 14 speed Rohloff. I feel like that one has kind of legitimized the idea of internal gearing again.
@@animatorgeek When I was a kid I had a 3 Speed with a banana seat. In high school I had a twelve speed that looked like a road bike, not that I knew about bikes then - or now really. Forty plus years later I'm looking into getting a bike to putter around in and something comfortable to ride. I'm thinking seven speeds or so ought to be about right. I don't have plans to race anybody, or ride miles on end. Just get some air and exercise. My biggest problem is finding out if or why suspensions are good or bad for road bikes. I get the impression they're not recommended, which seems counterintuitive. But what do I know? I've not ridden a bike longer than a lot of people have been alive, unless an exercycle counts?
D'accord pour 3 vitesses en ville : 1) montées, 2) faux-plats, 3) plats. L'homme, qui a inventé la roue libre, par dignité, ne pédale JAMAIS en descente !
@@animatorgeek For high end components the Rohloff is great yeah, but internal hub gears have been popular for ages here in the Netherlands, for practical bicycles.
@@zanshikaijin2709shock forks are usually heavier, and rob pedal input. If they have enough spring or air pressure, to not bounce a lot, they can be all right on roads. I put 700c road racing wheels on a full suspension mountain bike once. It cornered like a roller coaster, but lost a lot of pedaling energy, and required heavy countersteering to turn versus a light touch on a road race bike.
Whatever on the back, always 1x upfront!
Yaasss!
@@geoffmerritt i changed my road bike to 1x
I'd agree with 8 speed. There are plenty of internally-geared hubs that go to 8.
If you live somewhere where it's flat, with a single speed you can manage perfectly. Otherwise, I agree that 3 is better.
If you can have 20% hills on your commute, you can really use more than 3.
I spent the past few months on Toronto (hilly city) on city bikes w/3 gears which made me convinced I needed a 7 gear when I finally bought. Now that I’m using it, I’m thinking maybe the issue was more how insanely heavy the bikes are, not the gears.
Toronto is not a hilly city at all, imo. Unless you aim for ravine climbs specifically, hardly any steep gradients. Ie. One slope at Davenport, one slope at Eglinton (or eqv).
Bruh , Toronto is almost flat
The altitude difference of my city from its north to its south is 800m , nearly a kilometer , and you at least need a 7 gear to go up to north in some areas
7 high and 7 low ... I use 2 x 7
Tom lives in Calgary, now that’s a hilly city.
you dont need seven gears, you just need the right 3 or 4 gears.
As I am living in Stuttgart, Germany and there's basically no flat road around, only three gears would be hell...
Especially as I have knee problems and need to paddle at a certain frequency to not destroy them. And for this I regularly use 16 of my 27 gears...
With this same bike I go on longer tours as well, where I also need the upper part of the gears, therefore using all the 27 gears.
Needing and using obviously are something different.
Another interesting factor: if your three gears are as close to each other as three of mine then good luck. If the highest and lowest are as far apart as on mine that sounds good!
So it's not the amount of in between steps but the range that is covered.
yes, I have 27 and could do with 8 (given the range stays the same)
Haha me too, we don't have the luxury of of low gear count over here :)
Well here in Düsseldorf 🇩🇪 I love my 7 gears ⚙️. More then enough for everyday use.
Thank you again! Shortly after getting my first bike (ever at 16 yo) “adult BMX bikes” appeared in stores. My bike was a single speed tourism bike. So, when I saw gears in these new mountain Bikes, I decided I wanted gears in mine. My bike shop install the back cog with 5 gears. For years I kept feeling and telling most people we didn’t need that many gears. Most people only use 3-4 gears in most situations. Your video validated all of that for me more than 40 years later.
3:34 My city of Lausanne in Switzerland has particularly steep climbs everywhere. Good luck to anyone who wants to daily commute with a fixie. You'll end up with weedy little arms and thighs like the hulk while your work suit will be soaked in sweat when you eventually make it to the office. Just hope you have a shower at the workplace. Yes, I agree with the 3 speed gear hub.
My experience has been that the arms are getting quite a workout too, but maybe I'm just that much of a weenie and have to constantly pull on handlebars to push against pedals when going uphill or accelerating heavily
Yes, 3-speed internally geared hubs are the best for urban biking. Internally geared hubs provide one massive advantage that derailleurs can't provide: the ability to change gears while completely stopped.
In Metro Manila where I used to commute every day you don't normally get the luxury of a bike lane (and where there were bike lanes there were still A-hole motorcyclists that you have to deal with). Being able to weave through traffic and quickly hit the brakes then rapidly accellerate even from a track stand is a major benefit.
Yeah I rode a mamachari with a 3-speed and a fully loaded backpack 30-40km a day but I'd leave road and mountain bikers in the dust on the daily, and it's all because of the 3-speed. In the hostile riding environment of this city it's not about top speed or maintaining an ideal cadence, it's about maximizing accelleration in stop and go situations.
Yeah, those mountainbike bikers dont know how to use it then.
Modern 11-12spd 1 or 2x system will leave any internal gearing in the dust if used correctly.
If you stop at a light and forgot to shift down you shift, lift the back wheel and turn the crank half a turn real quick and ready to go no problem.
@@rasmusdaugaardhansen8302fascinating way to shift down while stopped!
why limit yourself to 3 speed though? you cant go fast with 3 speed if needed and youre not gonna have a good cadence with only 3 speeds. 3 speed is just gimping yourself unless you only ride your bike like a few times a month at the park or something
@@rasmusdaugaardhansen8302with a low normal RD, you can do it even more easily. Just dump the rear gears and move forward a few feet or pick up the top tube and kick the pedal
These are all 1930's design cues. Raleigh made a bazillion of them after WW2 for people to commute to work. The sealed 3 speed gearset is underrated. The chain never falls off, it needs lubrication maybe once a year, and it's well nigh weatherproof.
YESSS, I remember the old 3 speed bikes before the 10 speed became common. We had one fellow in our neighbourhood who had a 3 speed and we all thought it was so exotic and advanced! Great memories :-)
Living in (extremely) hilly Colorado Springs, I'm very thankful to have a bike with a lot of gears, especially on the low end.
Yes, having a lot of hills certainly changes the equation. So does things like wind, distance and climate.
I also have a lot of hills, necessitating more gears, but I also have to travel on busy roads where riding slowly is dangerous. Oh, how I wish that I lived in the Netherlands where riding and traffic are both slower.
Alright, three gears will be great. What are the gears recommended?
22T (front)/32T(back) is not low enough for a section of the hill near my house. So, give me one -must have gear- lower than 22/32 and the other two ideal gears.
I have a lovely 70s old-timer with a 3-speed hub, and have climbed hills on it, no problem. It's not the most efficient bike but wonderful to ride. It's what I use to commute around my hometown and absolutely love it. It attracts lots of eyeballs as well.
I also have a high end road bike with 2×11 setup that I use for long fast rides. But for casual commuting, nothing beats a hub gear city bike.
Totally agree.
All my bikes for the city (Toronto) have been 3 gear, enclosed hub models, with fenders, rear rack,, handlebars for upright riding etc. That was the norm for city riding when I was growing up in the 60's. "Racing bikes" had 10 gears and were a bit of a status symbol although many people, like me, stayed away from them because they had too much maintenance involved. To be honest, 90 percent of the time I just stay in second gear. Later it seemed that people started equating more gears with "better" and the bike manufacturers got into a competition rather like the megapixel wars in the camera world. Of course if I lived in a really hilly area like San Francisco or something I would probably want a different kind of bike i.e. how many gears are ideal depends on the terrain in which you live and whether you commute at casual pace (like in Holland) or bomb along as if in a race (like many of the lycra wearing crowd here do even on city streets). I don't think there is a "one size fits all" answer. .
10 speed bikes start using thinner chains, whereas 8 speed have thicker ones and ofc 8 speeds are better than 3, 8 speed are the in the middle ground. internal hubs are only good if youre rich and dont want to maintain your own derailluer and drivetrain. ofc not being able to tinker with your gearing is a downside on an internal hub since youre going to have to take it to a bike shop to have it fixed which is expensive and time consuming
@@terrycruise-zd5tw 8 speed sounds like a good compromise if a 3 or 5 speed internal hub is inadequate due to terrain. As far as maintenance goes though I have never had to have an internal hub repaired even though my bikes range from over 40 years old to over 25 (my newest - a Brompton. ). My Raleigh takes a drop of oil a year. When gears feel like they are slipping it just takes a turn or 2 on a nob on the gear chain. 2 minutes. Other than that, I just keep the exterior of the hubs clean because they look nicer that way. I admit that I am an easy rider and don't really hurry or attempt super steep hills so I am easy on the bikes. Enjoy your biking !
I totally agree but with less extreme, so I’d say 5 - a low, mid low, mid, mid high & high. Makes sense to me at least
I have a 1970s hybrid bicycle and it has 5. Honestly, I think 4 would do good enough for me, but 3 might be a little too few.
Corners get progressively tighter or looser as you go around them.
The tighter corner exits require a unique set of acceleration gears.
The loose corner exits require a different set of gears for acceleration.
2 different sets of 10 gears is what's required. That's 20 gears.
Maybe you're driving around the same corner over and over.
22 and 24 gear sets have improved hill climbing ability gears.
My bike has 7 internal gears, and I mostly use 5 of them. I would agree 5 is a good number of gears for commuting. I wouldn't want to make do with just 3, that would make for some struggles up hills, especially if I'm a bit tired or carrying stuff.
@@Sakkura1 if you can change gears while holding shopping, you’re very talented. 🛍
@@dreyn7780 Carrying stuff as in having it in a backpack or on the bike. Not in my hands.
I just took the first ride on my new 3-speed Brilliant Cooper. I live in Sarasota and it works great here. This bike has the additional benefit of a carbon belt drive. Very quiet, and it couldn’t be easier! No fuss … no muss.
I spend about 95% of the time on my bike in one of two gears (and I never touch my front derailleur either - and have thought about ditching it too) - but I think 5 would be the perfect range for me - because I'd like to have a little extra padding for big hills, long rides or the (seemingly) omnipresent 20mph headwind whenever I ride.
Came out of a grocery store one day and noticed that my front derailleur was missing. No idea where it went then I realized I hadn't used it in about 5 years.
I am 78 and commute on my old 3 speed Phillips (1957) or Raleigh (1970). I live in a flat area of MI and agree a 3 speed is best, easpecially an SA. Being old, I usually start in 1 and then switch to 2. I only use 3rd occasionally. I even ride my bikes in the snow, it makes me feel young and keeps the youngsters wondering. I have 12 other bikes with lots of gears, hardly ever use them. Ride your bike often or always.
Yes. I just started riding again at 62. Three gears gets me around town nicely.
Every once in a while you have to adjust the tension on the shifting cable to prevent gear skips. There are a number of good videos on You Tube that tell you how to do it. In addition, a bicycle mechanic once told me to put the shifter in third gear when you finish riding, which prevents the shifter cable from streching. I should note that I only have experience with the old Sturmey Archer 3 speeds. I am not sure my comment applies to other 3 speed makes.@@user-zr3gh4cx1m
I'd say the amount of gears you need depends on how many bikes you want to have.
i'd love to lose my front derailleur for everyday urban biking. But i use my hybrid bike for everything, including exercising and roadtrips.
@@dreyn7780 you seem awfully upset over biking preferences. Surely you’re joking.
Love the thought provoking video. On my YYC rides have settled on a unique 3 speed as well. Dingle speed with a get off and walk. Keep enjoying ride and making great videos!
Oh my god, that voice was fucking amazing lmao
Big nope from me! I can't stand having to cycle out of my normal range of cadence, and since the wind constantly changes, combine that with any number of gradients and that means you need a fair few gears to account for all the different speeds you might cycle at.
And if you're dealing with a hub-gears, the vast majority of normal urban cyclists aren't going to bother to take that apart & maintain that themselves anyway, regardless of how many gears there are inside. So apart from weight (which in the context of a bike, rider & luggage, isn't significant) why not have 8-11 gears in a hub if you just let the bike shop do the service on the hub every few years. The regular maintenance requirements are basically identical.
Fully agree. Cadence is everything.
@@meibing4912 as if to illustrate that, my rear gear cable broke yesterday so I only had 2 gears to choose from. It was so annoying, kept wanting to change up or down gears but could only change between 2 gears.
i cant imagine spending that much time finding the perfect gear, if im moving forward and not killing myself, im in the right gear.
@@scottmcshannon6821 It's second nature. And especially now I've switched to electric servo-actuated gears, all I do is press & hold the button till the load through the pedals and cadence feels right.
Honestly, if someone could make an automatic CVT that was efficient enough, that would be ideal.
@@sergarlantyrell7847 enviolo has a hub transmission that is supposedly a totally automatic CVT.
I commuted in Boston 25 years, after experimenting with other setups, I always came back to the Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed hub. They are extremely reliable even in the winter weather, and give you plenty of gear range for a fairly flat area. Every time my bike got stolen, I'd find another old road bike and convert it to an SA 3 speed setup. Now I live in a place with major hills and I ride with an 8x3 derailleur setup (no real winters here to destroy it either).
I just converted my single speed Kona Padywagon to a three speed SA hub. Went from 42 x 16 to 42 x 18 +/- 33%, shifting gears when stopped is awesome.
Just took a 12 mile ride on a 3 speed Sturmey Archer equipped bike and yes it was perfect. Easy carefree riding.
I totally agree, Tom. Three is best.
Brighton & Hove city, where I live in the UK is very hilly so alas three gears is not really enough. I used to ride a bike with the four speed Shimano hub and that was the absolute minimum that I could use. I think I agree with eight being optimal actually. Just before the summer I bought a new and extremely lovely Moulton SST with an eleven speed Alfine hub. I really like the eleven speed hub, but I think I would have been okay with an eight speed Alfine.
A good test of any gears is Bear 🐻 road 😄
I live in the Brighton too. Only in Boston and it’s also very hilly.
Is sounds like you’re near me, and I’ve been doing it on a single speed
Many riders do not know or consider that they can switch the single rear cog to another with more or fewer teeth to finely customize the riding experience. The cogs are relatively easy to change.
The ideal number of gears just depends on what you want to do. I've ridden 1-speed 3-speed 10-speed and 21-speed. They all have their place.
I like to go up in the hills so the granny gear is welcome. In town, 3 speeds are fine and I could easily get by with one.
I agree with Grant on 8 speeds being a reasonable number for most of us most of the time.
And like I always say: The best bike is the one you own. Just ride!
8 speed are great, theyre the perfect middle ground, plus theyre perfect to upgrade into an ebike since you wont need a front derailleur anyway
I only use the 2 smallest gear in the back, never touch the front. All I needed was a 2 speed. lol
While commuting in city, i used to have a bike with two speed, internal gears that switch in between depends on wheel speed. Sweet.
I have the 3 speed internal Brompton and honestly, it mostly stays in the 2nd gear.
@@RenM908 I have the 6 speed only because it was the last bike left, and it 99% stays in 4th gear
@@Matt-uw9rb I have the 6 speed Brompton and I think it's perfect for a hilly country like Spain. I mostly use the 3 and 4 gears 80% of the time and the rest I'm using the 2 and 5. I rarely use 1 and 6, but I'm glad they're there. That said I feel like I could live with a 3 gears bike perfectly, but the question is not the number but the ratio or feeling of each one.
@@elsaltodelgallo286 definitely, you can't choose gears by teeth count alone. It would be the feeling whilst on the bike, and gaps between gears are important too
I've got a seven speed internal shimano. Love it. I usually don't go below fifth, but when my legs are all done in I'm really glad this bottom four are there.
Da hell?? You live on a pancake?? LOL I use all 7 every ride. It's 38 to 93 GIs now.
Even with my Rohloff on the highway, I'll use all 14.
@@GordoGambler you got skinny chicken legs or something? The trick to climbing hills, and not dropping down through all of your gears, is to not have skinny chicken legs😉
@@ksherwoodb it is not just the legs, it's the cardio
I have a Montague Paratrooper that I converted to an E-MTB. I mainly pedal on bike path's/canal pathways (we have like 140 miles of canal's in NJ, doubt I will travel all of it this summer but want to see what I can) My bike came with 24 gears, removing the pedal assembly for my Mid drive dropped me down to 8 Gears. 3 or 4 would work for me...one for crazy steep hills, one for regular hills, one for mixed terrain, and the last for straightrun's. I had a severe spinal cord injury so I have limitations but I love going out looking for wild life to smile at, and generally I am in pedal assist 1 or 2, 3 if it's really steep hills or the mud is kind of deep. I do this for exercise as well as pleasure. Had a double bypass at 53 in december, had no idea I had a heart problem and when I woke up the surgeon asked me if I was an athlete because he noticed how muscular my calves are and my heart was pretty muscular and a good size for my age. So I told him last 4 months was riding my e-mtb 5 or 6 miles a day and as many days a week as I could do it. After 2 month recovery he released me back to regular duty so I can take my bike out on nice days (sorry I am a baby, when it's under 40' and not sunny the fun factor isn't there...although I am thinking of getting a dog that would be interested in jogging alongside me at 12-15mph...I think my neighbor's siberian husky would love to come with me lol. I know a lot of biker's hate ebikes, I think they are good options for people with health issues or maybe too overweight to start riding a regular bike.
I see the logic behind 3 and 8, and I like it. That said, all my bikes are single speed.
Single speed bikes are awesome. Clean, elegant, and low maintenance
I have a 3×7 set but actually never use the small crank, rarely use the three biggest gears on the cassette and only use the big crank when riding long downhills. I guess I should definitely trim that down to 2×8 or even 1×8.
Thanks! That French accent impersonation was hilarious! :)
In the early '70s I rode a 3-speed hub everywhere. I loved riding. On one 100 mile ride I tried someone's 10 speed road bike and felt I was effortlessly flying. That's the feeling I want out of cycling, so I got a road bike.
I have commuted by bike for many decades now, using a '90s hybrid with lots of gears, as well as fenders and carrying capacity. Most of the maintenance needed has been from winter riding in salted snow. The derailleurs have worked fine with a slight adjustment every now and then. All the mechanism is simple and visible.
For me, this has been the perfect city bike, as the gears I'm not using don't get in the way, and are available for when they might be helpful.
I still like to fly on a lighter bike, but my 50 year old road bike is good for that, depending on terrain.
I have four bikes, including a velomobile, and my favorite bike to ride in the city is my all carbon fiber humming bird folding bike with carbon wheels and ONE gear. I think I am also able to go the fastest, accelerate the fastest and navigate all of the traffic lights, etc. There is no question that it is faster than all of my other bikes, and probably more enjoyable to ride. To get the bike started, I stand while pedaling (the weight of my body and small 20" light weight wheels makes acceleration easy), then sit and pedal once I'm moving. For a hill, I can also just stand and pedal. Again, because the whole bike is only 6.8kg, that is what makes all of this work so well. There is no shifting to mess with, and nothing goes wrong with the bike. No irritating grinding, ever. The only irritating thing is the loud noise its 'high quality' wheel makes when not pedaling. It seems a lot of high quality wheels make a loud noise when not pedaling, and it is super annoying especially for anyone within 10 feet of me.
Friction shifters reduce the hassle of tuning the shifters. The classic 3x9 or 3x8 still makes a versatile bike. 2x8 or 2x9 works as well. Not everyone have strong legs.
Not everyone has strong legs because they choose more than one gear ;)
@@adnartmadmartm8718 one gear are for hippies. 11 casette for practicality and sport. Dont have to be shimano or sram, there low end groupset sensah and microshift
Completely agree, 3 is enough. My front shift is broken for years and never missed them. On my rear shift, I only use two out of five settings. Lesser options means less weight and if it isn't there, it cannot brake down.
Ahh.sigh of relief for me.
Thanks for a briliant video.
Learnt a lot .👍👍👍
Minimal gears, 3. Completely agree.. 👍
3 works, but I find 5 to be the best. At 3 I often find myself at 2nd and then needing to shift up, but 3 is too much. So I have the choice of just going a little slower than I want, or shift to 3 and have to put more work into it than I prefer. I do keep my 3 speed wheel as a backup for when I need to bring my 5 speed in for work. These IGHs are bomb proof and once you integrate a drum brake are the perfect commuter wheel. I used to commute with a derailleur and simply got tired of the maintenance and weekly adjusting they required.
I like simplicity. I used to ride fixed gear almost exclusively. I’ve recently changed to a single speed. But I am getting old. I’d like a simple 3 speed. I agree with you
Just matched onto your channel and subscribed! I'm in a much different situation. I'm 67, and am a prostate cancer survivor (so far) also Sith a bad knee. The two years of treatment for the cancer took away much of my strength and stamina, and the knee isn't helping much. I can still ride, but hills are tough on me. My bikd , which I bought maybe three years before my health problems is a cheapo single speed flat bar road bike with a flip flop hub to make it a fixed. I leave it as a single speed so the pedals can freewheel.
I am riding a 2.5 mile course each day and timing it. Also talk a walk (with my cane), and right after the walk I do some weights and square. Trying to help my knee and build up some strength and stamina. I will keep my single speed bike. It is so light and basic and easy to work on. But, I am wanting to do some longer rides like I used to on that bike. Thinking of getting a second bike with some gears. Don't really want the added complexity of a front derailer. The direct selection of bikes like this seem to have 7 gears. I like your suggestion of bikes with 3 gears, if that would work for me. At this point, I can't seem o stand up and pedal, so I am sure there will be "walks of shame".
But, there doesn't seem to be very many 3 speed bikes, and those that are have the transmission inside the rear hub, and seem to cost quite a bit more too. My daily 2.5 mile course, in the last 3/4 of a mile, have a series of hills, with one that is the hardest, that I can just make it over. My times are starting to improve, so maybe it's helping. Being an old retired geezer, I don't have a lot to spend. Do you have any 3 speed bikes you might suggest? I will be looking through your videos. Thank you!
great advice!! so what current affordable 3 speed bikes are out there for sale in Canada? any good internal 3 speeds you's recommend? cheers Ontario...
a 2 X 9 is perfect for me, my city has frequent climbs and having more "in between" gears makes it easier to transition from one gear to the next. Gears are not meant to be approached as a "speed/force" relationship, but as a means to sustain your preferred cadence, more gears allow you to keep that cadence in different terrains, making your ride more comfortable as a consequence.
Wrong, you cannot maintain the same cadence for long, your muscle strength will wane out if you continually search for comfort, it is inevitable for cyclists to become slowly stronger each month, either you will lose strength overtime because you prefer comfort, or you will increase in strength overtime because you slightly adjust to a bit heavier gear at a time, strength in cycling is not constant, either you choose to be stronger or weaker overtime
@@johnnyboy3357 I may be "just" a long time commuter biker, but why is it wrong to try to hold a similar cadence throughout a ride? Scaling hills is much easier when you slowly ease out from higher to lower gear while you keep pedaling at the same tempo...
Totally agree! I mainly ride a single speed mountain bike now and realized that you really don’t need more than 1 speed. However, to be able to shift down 1, for up hills and up 1, for flats & down hills would be awesome! Going to put a 3 speed internal geared hub on my SS mtb and see if it holds up 🤙
Hope it worked out
I like this video and the one on Dutch bikes. I just don't “like" them because I don't need them to show up in my "videos I like". It's more like someone (an experienced urban cyclist) presents/confirms all the things I (another experienced urban cycler) have found out.
(Now I'm interested in this channel's take on touring rurally.)
I really enjoyed this, I'm just getting back, after over a decade off, I built a very fine, much better than best bike when young, 20 speed, sort of accidentally. All those parts were cheap, plentiful, and never knew they existed, and ran across a really great deal on an extraordinary frame and fork set. That said, my heart perfectly satisfied with a beautiful white plain bike, I've got this great, forty year old Sturmey Archer hub, in perfect shape, am looking at 26 or 650B rims, Rene Herse tires, and a generator front hub, to commute to the town, four miles away for minor shopping and such, exercise while doing errands, or not riding my other. I'd just concluded three was the perfect number myself, a few months ago, and ran across this video, after seeing a couple others regarding changes in the last decades. Thanks for a very fine video, very well done and rational.
What's the bike with the rack behind the presenter
I've been thinking about this, and I came to the conclusion there isn't any such thing as "right" number of gears. It depends on where you live. City I live in was built in the medieval times, on the side of a hill. Not with bicycles in mind, but siege defenses and stuff. I end up riding up and down hill a lot, so I do make use of my 21 gears. I was thinking a lot about ditching my front derailleur, but really... I don't want to work for those climbs. MTB rider might want to, but I just wanna get places and not get sweaty. And also there's a bike shop always around a corner, I don't really worry that much about maintenance. Of course if I lived in North America, in a city built for cars on a flat terrain, and maybe finding a bike mechanic was something I needed to worry about, I'd probably opted for a simpler gearing. It all comes down to the city.
Back in the 80's I used to ride a five gear racer.The type with the gear change lever on the frame.
More than enough gears for your average commute.
I singlespeeded my 10 speed DMR Bolt. Its a singlespeed full suspension bike which most people dont get but I love it.
I personally find that the front derailleur is good for dealing with traffic lights. If I need to come to a stop and want to set off quickly, it's much easier to shift down two gears than it is to shift down six.
Do you have thumb-shifters? I have twist-grip shifters and they're quite good for multi-step shifts.
@@SabrinaCWB168 yeah I have thumb shifters, although my bike is old and slightly broken so the gears don't shift down very easily. But that is a good point.
On my bike I have 3 gears, but I almost only use 3rd gear. Especially since I'm Dutch and the worst enemy of my biking is wind rather than mountains
1st is for extreme headwind, 2nd is for steep inclines and 3rd is for everything else.
Damn, I've probably used the wrong gearing for my bike then. I remember 1st like a pretty heavy start. To get into 2nd I've to make a lot of RPM. 3rd was a sort of overdrive. I rather have 7 or 8 gears, even in a flat country like the Netherlands. Traffic lights with only 3 gears are no fun and I'm always having the feeling of missing a gear with light headwind.
for commuting 3 is absolutely fine, especially if live in relatively flat area and don't have to deal with snow or other hazards. I use my bike to climb and go down hills and to truck through several inches of snow if the plowdriver is late in the winter and for that reason I love my gears. Good quality stuff doesn't need that much looking after, even if it isn't as idiot-proof as a nice hubwheel.
For many years Raleigh made a commuter bike, it had three speed Sturmy Archer hub gears with a hub dynamo, full chain case , mudguards and an upright riding position. Almost idiot proof, it was seen in its thousands in city streets in the UK, and around the world. It was designed for use not show.
Keep it simple. Love it.
I've got recumbent trikes with a new world of gearing... 81 speeds! Triple up front,9 speed out back and 3 internal in the Sram Dual drive hub. Hub is over,direct, and under drive... So I have the choice of 60 rpm at 1mph or about 45mph and everything in-between. Can't easily and very slowly climb a 25 percent grade or blast down an 8 percent grade while still pushing for more speed... The nice thing is that there is always a perfect gear available. Big reasoning is that the trikes are a bit heavier than a road bike of anything you didn't aquire at Walmart and the benefit is that you can't lose your balance from going to slow... So if you want or need to go really really slow,you can... I can also take a break while climbing without getting off. I can set my parking brake and have a drink,or a snack and then just continue on... No worries about falling while trying to get rolling uphill. I know recumbent riders hauling trailers loaded for self sustained criss country trips that have a 14 speed Rolhohf hub in the rear, amid drive and a triple up front... Imagine trying to pick the perfect gear with 130 or so available.
as you say, you can't fall over! So you can have gears that would be impracticably low for a two-wheeler.
I associate Calgary with the nearby mountains and always forget that the city is mainly flat! - signed Born in Montreal.
I got 9 gears, and it is amazing. I have all the control I want and it conserves my chain.
Dude, sooo right. been sayin this for years. The front derailer also acts as a keeper, but if you limit the rear derailer to say like "the middle" sprockets and get the chain tension right, the chain will stay on.
Really depends on where you live/ride. On my road bike when I ride around where I live in Long Beach, I probably only use 3 gears, but I do take that bike into the mountains and elsewhere with hills so the other gears are helpful. On my commuter bike I had a 1x8 and that was perfect, maybe even still too many for my town but it was always good to have those lower gears for hills and headwinds. If you're commuting I would definitely suggest a 1x just for simplicity sake and either 3 or 8 in the back depending where you ride.
I would have said 8 too, although with much less thought put into it. Having bikes of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 gears, I have just found 8 to have the best usability; not changing constantly, but a good selection of gears for the terrain.
I figured this out after noticing that I only used 3 gears on my 24 gear bike. I now have a dutch bike with a shimano nexus 3 internal hub for commuting. It's perfect
Hey yeah, you're right.
3 gears.
The rat fink by electra bikes has 3 gears.
My 1960's chopper also had 3 gears. It was a T-Bar shifter too.
They knew a lot back then.
But more gears is all about finer adjustment.
That's also what watches are about. Getting to adjust more in the same time.
You're not adding to the time.
You're getting more opportunity within the minute.
You get more opportunity to adjust going around a corner.
But with endurance bikes you're getting less opportunity to adjust going around corners BUT the bike bends your perception of time.
You're brain is focused on when you adjust stuff and that distracts you from noticing time has passed.
More gears allow for fine tuning within the same time.
Endurance allows you to STOP living the life of numbers and allows you to live YOUR life not always chasing measurements.
The measurements are YOUR actions not centimetres or inches.
You're measuring your actions. You're metering your performance.
Its not a race of centimetres\Inches.
Its a race of how and when you apply yourself.
I live in San Francisco and I can tell you that three gears in most neighborhoods is woefully inadequate, 8+ gears is the most ideal!😅
I almost never use my front derailer, I max it and forget it so my 21 speed is effectively a 7 speed. Of those 7 gears I spend 90% of my time in the top 2. 7 for downhill or if I'm really hauling ass, 6 for mild incline or I'm just takeing it easy. I drop it down to 1-2 for hill climbing or if I have to come to a stop just so its easier to get moveing agian. all the gears in between are just for geting me from one end of the casset to the other. It takes a real monster of a hill for me to want to shift down further and touch the front chainrings.
I could see a valid argument for 5 just so you have a couple middle of the road options between monster hill, coasting, and downhill but ya can get away with 3 for basic commuting on fairly flat routs.
At 76 years old I have found that it depends on my strength and durability how many gears I use.
Most of the time I only use 3 to 4 gears during a ride but on a different days I may choose lower gears or higher gears and sometimes skip some during speed gaining or windy conditions. I still love riding and encourage others to join the fun. You will feel better and be happier. Keep on biking on.
The answer is 1. Bikes without gear changers are way more reliable.
If you need gears though because you live in a place with lots of hills, I'd say 3 to 5 gears is plenty -- depending on how steep your local hills are. The only real reason to get more, is if you want to go mountain biking or racing.
Uphill, on the flat, downhill: Sturmey Archer 3 speeds are the best
I live in São Paulo and we have too many hills to climb. Here, gears are necessary
In Québec here, same. But what is the smallest number necessary? Ah ha!
I like the 3-5 gear idea. Especially with E-assist for those hills.
good info mate, thanks!
1:20 that's like my singlespeed coaster brake beater bike! Respect for running a front brake though.
If you're not racing, get hub-gears. They shift quicker, are much more reliable and don't require any maintenance, though they do add a little bit of friction. Also, I think it's nice to have a little bit more than 3 gears, so you can pedal at your preferred speed. 5 would be all the gears I want.
strongly agree 3 speed is what we need for commuting
You’re right, the best number of gears is 3! The best one being the 3-Speed Fixie hub that Sturmey Archer offers!
I agree as well, even though I ride in single speed. But also 3 speed set ups are morr expensive than 7-12 gear setups because they're internal, like sturmey archer and Shimano Nexus
Agree. Less speed is expensive.... except singles....
Depends on your perspective and how many miles you’re putting on the bike every year.
For simplicity I choose to have a 3 speed internal gear hub Brompton. There is a 6-speed version but it is a 2x3 and seems to need more maintenance work. Although need more effort on climbing, I found single hub still work fine.
I picked up my 6-speed Brompton today, I love that I can have a high and low of each 3 speeds.
@@Matt-uw9rb I might get 6 speed if they sell electric in Canada. I am thinking will be like using the hub for main shift, then tweak with the derailleur shifter.
@@phh0 that's exactly how I use it
@@Matt-uw9rb how is your 6-speed Brompton doing? I am shopping right now and I live in a city that is split by a river so downtown is quite level but it's shocking how steep these Hills going into some neighborhoods are or if you start crossing the river or doing anything down near it.
@@NoZenith I'm using my Brompton so much more than my other bike now, and it's because it has the 6 gears. Definitely go for it because it allows you to ride in plenty of different scenarios
I use two (out of 3) gears in front for the flat land and 3 on the back (out off 9) for climbing a heel
Thanks for this video!! Im concidering if i should buy a 7 or 14 speed internal gearbox, and this helped me in the choice. Thanks!!
I've been thinking about doing a single speed on back and standard 3 up front. Much bigger jump up front than in back. I'm wondering if I could get away with a stronger single speed chain since front gears aren't crammed together and I don't shift very often in here in florida.
Wouldn't you still need something to reduce/increase the slack in your chain? That's the only weak link I see in your chain of thought. Sorry, I tried to stop!
@@MrSharpdrop yeah i just left rear derailer on.
My rear gear cable snapped two miles away from work about a month ago, so got there and worried all day about riding home with just two gears - the snap meant the chain jumped in to the hardest gear at the back and all I had left was the front shifter: either 48-11 or 32-11 ratios.
It was fine ... no issues at all once I treated the ride home as just transport and not a fitness session.
You can adjust the limit screws on the derailleur if you need an easier gear
Hey man, love the content, what’s the name brand of your cool blue Fixie?
I have a KHS Urban Soul 7 and love it. Seven works great for normal getting around.
Unbelievable. The amount of times I got weird looks for running a Sturmey Archer 3 speed.
Its a solitary past time. That creates antisocial behaviour.
99% of bikes are 1 seaters.
So don't look to cyclists as being wise or sympathetic.
The last time I heard the name Sturmey Archer was in the middle 1980's.
That's how terrible these brands are at self promotion.
And I live near a serious velodrome.
It all comes down to how versatile you want your bike to be... & the type of terrain you ride will dictate that.
I agree with 3. My Sachs internal Torpedo 3 speed has been great since 1984.
I pulled at least a dozen out of dumpsters, junkyards, and basements and you could get most of them on the road in under 2 hours. I miss dumpster diving for those old Brit bikes.
I use a single speed. Multiple gears just give me a headache rather than an easy ride. But I do have a 3 speed hub I might checkout.
I LOVE internal three-speed hubs but more for the engineering and craftsmanship. I find many are hard to shift under full load. The pinion gets stuck from the tension.
I live in city with steep cobbled streets. I really need low gears just to get to school.
@@ericlin158 you should never shift them under tension - practice that moment of slack
Having biked around Boston for years an an old 3 speed, I couldn't agree more. My only hassle was by the time I left, nobody was left that knew how to service them.
That's both inspiring and somehow sad!
Great tip. I have done 3-gears for eight years for every day urban ciommute and I just ordered a new bike today where I asked the shop to change the gears from 8 to 3. I save around 1.5kg (>3lbs) and some money and get a more clean looking bike and less gears to fiddle with. One gear for climbing, one for flat road and also when you have on-coming wind and one for downhill and flat roads with wind in your back.
I wish I don’t, but I truly need lots of gears for commuting. Honestly, the local mountain bike trails are flatter than some of the hills in both my college city and hometown.
Both are very hilly. My college town is a hilly city on a river in tornado alley. Lots of very steep hills and less steep but long hills that I regularly have to climb. Very frequently I have to go up hills with a 8-15mph headwind. You better believe I’m shifting way, way down. I also have to shift way down to start on the hills (sometimes your destination is built into a hill and it’s inevitable), lugging things up the hills, etc.
I have a 27 gear (3 and 9) and regularly use 18 of them. I could go as low as having 12 gears probably, but no fewer. Fewer would result in me walking my bike up far too many of the hills far too often.
The first mile of my usual commute is uphill with grades as high as 6-7.5% in parts of it. No bike lanes or sidewalk so I’m sharing the road with 55mph and 45mph traffic that often doesn’t see me, forcing me to pull over and stop, killing my momentum. The low gears are very necessary for those parts, especially on the high-traffic and windy days.
There’s another hill I can commute up instead and sometimes do and that one is 7.4% average with bits that are 18%. I don’t often take that one even though it actually has a bike lane since it’s just tiring with my school stuff.
I should have thought of just removing the front derailleur when it went out instead of replacing. Really don't need it.
If you have the 'correct' front cog, you really don't need a front derailleur. Replaced the 48/38/28 on my Verve 1 with a single 42t, works a charm, right in the sweet spot for overall gearing. I never used the 28t ring
@@miket.220 use an oval frt, you'll never go back to round!
But you do need it.
Corners have different shapes.
Tight corners require a different set of gears.
@@dreyn7780 gears have nothing to do with "corners"
@@crabtrap oh, but you're lost.
Delusional.
You adjust the seat for comfort.
Clearly I'm following bike engineering design.
You weren't wait for your opportunity to say something.
You've had a lot of time to say this belief you have.
Don't wait around for me to speak.
You go right on typing what you have to say.
You DON'T react to other people.
Tell us about your theory. Make a video.
I've thought about this a lot and ultimately went with a 3-speed internal hub (Classic Plus Gotham from Priority specifically). No/low maintenance is freeing.
Congrats! I totally agree about the freedom of an internal-gear hub.
I am contemplating purchasing the Classic plus 3 speed, is that still working out for you. I just re-entered riding with a single speed Buffy cranbrook. Your input would be greatly appreciated.
I agree, one of my bikes has a 3 speed sturmey archer, and it's nice!!!
can you do a setup like this:
Extremely high: for flats and high speed
Just right: for flats and slight inlcine
Extremely low: for those long ass climbs
thinking of building a single speed bike but I do like the idea of a "Functional" bike so to speak.