Compact v semi compact

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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

gearing is personal. It depends where you live and what you can cope with. I use a single ring on my race bike and two different cassettes 11-21T and 12-27T depending on what I am doing (TT's get the narrow range cassette).

I quite like 53/44T but that because I dont live where there are big hills.

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Lelandjt
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by Lelandjt

Question for the spinners: Do you pedal at high rpm (above 60 or 70*) when you're not putting out much power? Say going 22mph on a flat road or going 28-30mph on a slight downhill? That's where I like big gears. Just like driving my sports car I use high rpm when I need to make power but have the motor (my legs) barely turning over when I'm not putting out much effort. This feels much more efficient than spinning all the time. I have plenty of long, mellow downhills where I use my 53x11 and 53x12 to keep my speed above 30mph with very little effort as opposed to coasting in a tuck I'd slow down or spinning the 53x13 just seems overkill, like driving in 4th gear on the interstate. I realize everyone's different and my build (long legs, 170lbs) is more conducive to a Jan Ullrich power delivery but it's hard to imagine us being THAT different.

*I've never used a power meter or cadence sensor so I don't know actual numbers.

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fa63
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by fa63

My cadence usually falls between 70-80 when climbing, and between 80 and 100 elsewhere. Average cadence usually ends up being 85-90 rpm.

By the time I spin out my 50x11, I am going pretty damn fast, then I just stop pedaling.

Hexsense
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by Hexsense

Lelandjt wrote:Question for the spinners: Do you pedal at high rpm (above 60 or 70*) when you're not putting out much power? Say going 22mph on a flat road or going 28-30mph on a slight downhill? That's where I like big gears. Just like driving my sports car I use high rpm when I need to make power but have the motor (my legs) barely turning over when I'm not putting out much effort. This feels much more efficient than spinning all the time. I have plenty of long, mellow downhills where I use my 53x11 and 53x12 to keep my speed above 30mph with very little effort as opposed to coasting in a tuck I'd slow down or spinning the 53x13 just seems overkill, like driving in 4th gear on the interstate. I realize everyone's different and my build (long legs, 170lbs) is more conducive to a Jan Ullrich power delivery but it's hard to imagine us being THAT different.

*I've never used a power meter or cadence sensor so I don't know actual numbers.

That's a good point.
It's not always the same cadence. But there is a sweet spot and there is a minimum that feel natural.
For me, go very easy under 18mph it's 80-85RPM. 20mph is around 90. then 21-26mph are all 90-105 on Flat. Then go a lot faster from here as my leg doesn't have much more torque to push harder.
My pedal stroke doesn't feel natural under 65RPM but i still can do it if i want to. Trying to spin slower is easy. Trying to push more torque than my legs like is not. So i tend to keep the torque minimal well under my legs limit at low speed.

The different between people are there. I'm 5'6.5" (14x lbs) riding frame size 49 (110mm stem), crank length 165mm. Even my handlebar are surely smaller than you as bar is only 36cm on top and 40cm in drop.

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Lelandjt
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by Lelandjt

Yeah, good point on crank length. I use 175mm on a 61cm frame. Femur length and crank length should have a big impact on everything we're discussing. I still use the narrowest bars Easton makes (labelled 40cm) cuz #aeroiseverything ;)

I've got 165 cranks on my DH bike and my minimum rpm to still make power is quite a bit higher on that than my XC bike with 175 cranks. When the DH bike bogs down after a bad turn it REALLY bogs down.

shimmeD
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by shimmeD

I'll be keeping an eye on your posts from now on, Hexsense. We have same setup 49 with 110 stem, 36 bars, and 165 cranks and we're similar build. :beerchug:
Less is more.

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