Which bike gear for uphill

The gear ratio is a number that indicates the relation between the number of teeth on one gear to the number of teeth on another gear. In cycling, this is done by dividing the number of teeth on the chainring by the number of teeth on the cassette.

For example, a tooth chainring coupled with an tooth cassette will give you a gear ratio of 2. In other words, for every full turn of the crank arms, the rear tire will make two revolutions. A gear ratio of 5 means that the rear wheel will spin 5 times for every one rotation of the pedals.

This can be achieved with a 55 tooth chainring and 11 tooth cassette. On the other hand, a tooth chainring coupled with a tooth cassette will give you a ratio of 0. Lastly, we can also have a gear ratio of 1. This means that both the front cog and the rear cog have the same number of teeth.

A tooth chainring and a tooth cassette will give you a gear ratio of 1. As you can see, this can be achieved by different gear combinations like, for example, a 24 chainring and 24 cassette, which will also give you a gear ratio of 1.

When you think in terms of gear ratios, you can see that you can achieve similar ratios with different gear combinations. In fact, there can be a lot of overlap sometimes. Because of this overlap, people often tend to use mostly the middle chainring and only switch to the lower chainring when they need the really low gear ratios and to the bigger chainring when they need the really high ratios.

Using the wrong gear when going uphill can make riding your bicycle extremely taxing, frustrating, and you can literally grind to a halt. When going uphill on a bicycle , make sure you are using a lower gear ratio. A lower gear ratio can be achieved by using a lower number gear or a smaller chainring and a bigger cog on the cassette. Lower gearing is easier and less fatiguing. It requires less leg strength to keep your cadence up—it is more a question of endurance than sheer strength and muscle power.

These gear rates are considered a good middle ground that can be used in flat and hilly areas. However, they are not suitable for climbing very steep or long hills. Lastly, practice makes perfect. Play around with shifting, and see how it feels to ride in different gears. Typically, the left-hand shifter changes the front bike gears, and the one on the right controls gears in back. Different brands of shifters all function slightly differently, but all shifters are pretty intuitive.

Consult your bike shop at the time of purchase on how yours work or simply jump on your bike, make sure to pedal, and push your shifters to get a sense of how they function. Most geared bikes have one, two, or three chainrings in the front the rings attached to the pedal crank arm and anywhere from seven to 12 gears—or cogs—in the back or the cassette attached to the rear wheel. Moving the chain from the smallest rear cog to the largest eases your pedaling effort incrementally.

Moving it between the chainrings in the front results in a more noticeable change— pedaling feels easier in a smaller chainring and harder in a bigger one. The best way to get a hang of what your bike gears feel like is to take your bike to a safe place away from traffic, like an empty parking lot, and shift through all the gears in the front and rear to understand how they feel while riding.

Cyclists spend most of their time shifting the rear gears to find their cadence sweet spot. Use a harder gear on flats or if the wind is blowing from behind a tailwind. As you approach the hill, use your left shifter to move into gear 1. Move your right shifter into gear 1, with your left shifter also in gear 1, if the hill is very steep. This is the very lowest gear combination. If you're pedaling faster than one revolution per second to gain traction, move up to gear 2 or 3 on your right shifter.

Shift into 2 or 3 on your right shifter as you approach the crest of the hill. Move into gear 2 on the left shifter as you crest and your surface becomes level. Lindsey Robinson Sanchez, from Bessemer, Ala. She has a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Florida. She writes style, beauty, fitness, travel and culture.

Proceed with caution! Always keep your brakes covered when on a descent. That means resting one or two fingers on the lever. This reduces your reaction time, since you can start to brake sooner. It also puts your hands in the right position to 'feather' the brakes. Feathering the brakes means lightly squeezing them on for a few moments, releasing them, then squeezing them on again, and so on. This moderates your speed so that you shouldn't have to jam the brakes on suddenly — a situation that's best avoided, as it may cause you to skid and fall.

On a long descent, feathering the brakes is better than dragging them on the whole way down. Your hands are less likely to cramp, as they get a chance to relax. You're also less likely to make the brakes or braking surfaces overheat, which can cause the brakes to fade. Do the bulk of your braking before you attempt any manoeuvres rather than during.

You're less likely to skid or become unbalanced if you brake while travelling in a straight line. So brake harder before that sharp corner and only lightly — or not at all — as you go around the corner. If you prefer to use off-carriageway cycle tracks, you will need to seriously limit your speed while descending. That way you will be able to react in time to Give Way markings where the cycle track meets a side road, or where the cycle track dives back onto the road alongside without warning.

If it's a shared-use track, you'll need to keep your speed down in any case, so that you can mix comfortably with pedestrians. When cycling downhill on a road, your speed while descending will more closely match that of cars. This makes it easier to take the lane when you need to — and it also makes it more important to do so. Taking the lane is a reminder that you're not just traffic but fast-moving traffic, and it gives you room for manoeuvre around car doors, potholes, and more.

Bikes can occasionally become unstable while descending. Known by motorcyclists as a 'tank slapper', a shimmy or speed wobble is an unnerving oscillation in which the frame and fork twist from side to side and the front wheel jerks the steering left and right.

If it happens, your instinct is to grab the bars firmly and brake hard. Both of these things can make the speed wobble worse! The bikes that most often suffer from speed wobble tend to be road bikes, audax bikes, and small-wheeled bikes such as folders — especially if they're lightweight, torsionally flexible, and ridden by heavier cyclists. Solidly-built bikes with stable steering and fatter tyres don't tend to shimmy. You may never suffer from a shimmying bike. But if you do, the following advice could prevent a crash:.

Stand up on the pedals and, if the frame has a top tube, grip it between your thighs. This damps down the vibration. You can then brake gradually to a stop. For people living and working in very hilly areas, e-bikes can be the ultimate commuting tool. In the case of hills, however, e-bikes do away with the sinking feeling non-assisted cyclists sense as their speed drops when the road rises.

The motor takes up the slack and keeps you travelling at or closer to the speed you were achieving on the flat. The beauty of this is manifold. Your commuting time management can be precise, as you know exactly what kind of speed you can keep up on the way to work. No matter how tired you feel or how much weight you are carrying, you never have to worry about making it home at the end of the day.

Simply reduce the amount of help your e-bike provides and use more of your own power. Ready to begin? I'm an employee Employee I'm an employer Employer. Let's get started Enter your employer's name or code If you know your employer hasn't registered with Cyclescheme you can invite your employer. Searching for your employer.