The past few months have seen me get acquainted with geared road bikes all over again. Sometimes it feels strange trying to find the right gear to match the mood I\u2019m in when riding these geared machines. Frustration has been my worst enemy as I\u2019ve been slowly getting used to the \u2018thunk-thunk\u2019 sound of yet another dropped chain or the gnarly crunches of the chain when the derailleur works its way through – all the while doing its best to annoy me even further down the lanes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why ride geared anyway? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, for me it\u2019s a coupla reasons (1) where we live here in Bolsover, Derbyshire, the hills can be really annoying and very painful <\/strong>at 12%. Worse still, these Shires are butt cold n’ face numbin’ during winter at minus 3 degrees celsius. Also, a cold lick usually kicks in when I\u2019ve only got 30 minutes left for school pickup, while lost on the ass-end-of-nowheres-hill (2) the second reason is simply the need for more speed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The most I\u2019ve managed to push on my fixed and single speed set-up of 80 GI is 52 miles per hour, and even then I thought I could have gone faster. However, the gearing choices that I have to go faster than 50 mph around these hills would mean mashing like a mad man on my current 80 GI set up. Either that, or simply raising the notch to cog above 85 GI so I could at least fly around 55 – 60 mph tops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n