"This is a really nice gear" - WTF Is Wrong With Me??

-Chris-

I hit a new low in cycling dufus-dom today.


I've been riding an early 80's racer as my day-to-day hacker. As part of the "specs" it has non-indexed, downtube-mounted gear levers (Suntour, in case you're interested).
Gearing is 42/52 and 13-14-15-16-17-19-21.

For the last while I've realised that I'm nearly always in 42-19, maybe knocking it into 52-19 if I was spinning out the 42. I didn't change gear much because non-index, downtube-mounted gears are a bit of a pain.

Then I thought I'd do a bit of an experiment and see what the whole single speed trend is about so I pulled off my mechs and levers and put it permanently in 42-19. The pros were that it's eerily quiet and it whips up hills, but the con is that it's really easy to spin out on the flat.

Yesterday I decided to bump it down to 42-17 just to see what it was like. I had an appointment this afternoon in Bray so I cycled over.
The 42-17 had a little more "feedback" when pushing up an incline and was a little harder to spin out (i.e. easier to keep up with the flow of traffic).


Sooooo, on my way home from Bray today I found myself contemplating 42-17 and thinking to myself "you know what, this is a really nice gear!".

Have I finally lost my mind?

Raam

-Chris- wrote: »

Have I finally lost my mind?

Do you mean are you a nutter?

thebouldwhacker

In a few days you'll get over it and dump it for a slimer 42-16, but that romance wont last long either till you drooling over 15 (see how this is going) soon you'll want to look like this

or this

and before too long will spend over €400 to buy a bike which is the coolest thing you have EVER seen.... one like this bosco nightmare

poochiem

it's like watching the descent of man.

*Pulls up chair, opens popcorn*

mtbireland

I had something of a similar experience...but instead of going home and changing everything manually I pushed a little lever on the bars and it did it for me... it's amazing... it's like I've a different gear for every gradient I hit either up or down...

-Chris-

Raam wrote: »

Do you mean are you a nutter?

I don't know, do insane people ever know they're insane?

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

In a few days you'll get over it and dump it for a slimer 42-16, but that romance wont last long either till you drooling over 15 (see how this is going) soon you'll want to look like this


and before too long will spend over €400 to buy a bike which is the coolest thing you have EVER seen.... one like this bosco nightmare

I have thought about that - waiting until I get used to spinning out the 42-17 and then dropping a cog. If I repeatedly do that I'll slowly and subtly increase my commuting speed and general strength.

I've found as well, because I was restricting myself to one gear, that my max cadence and the duration I can hold a high cadence have both increased, and that can only be a good thing.

As for being a hipster, I'll never, ever, ever stoop that low!

mtbireland wrote: »

I had something of a similar experience...but instead of going home and changing everything manually I pushed a little lever on the bars and it did it for me... it's amazing... it's like I've a different gear for every gradient I hit either up or down...

My mountain bike has those levers and I'd use them fairly often, but I wouldn't take the hacker up (or down) the inclines that the MTB would see.

Morgan

Finding a suitable gear on your bike is perfectly normal. Posting about it on the internet on the other hand...

thebouldwhacker

-Chris- wrote: »

As for being a hipster, I'll never, ever, ever stoop that low!

Wont be long now:rolleyes:

On a serious note though, keep it up and you'll be laughing come spring

-Chris-

Morgan wrote: »

Finding a suitable gear on your bike is perfectly normal. Posting about it on the internet on the other hand...

I come online with my nonsensical ramblings because if my wife had to listen to them I reckon I'd find myself lonely fairly rapidly :D

thebouldwhacker

Pass the bottle.....

fishfoodie

-Chris- wrote: »

I don't know, do insane people ever know they're insane?

Only if the voices in their head tell them they are !