Disregarding my Schwinn Typhoon, I started keeping score with my 1976 Peugeot PX 10 LE. It came with a Stronglight 52 x 45 and a 14 x 21 five speed freewheel. I always thought this Peugeot was set up for the pavé of northern France with those gears and wire-wrapped and soldered 3x tubular wheels. Yet according to Peugeot’s advertising, this is what the boys rode in the Tour de France. Chapeau! Since this was my first real bike, the coolness of this Rule #5 rig was lost on me. The uncoolness of Mafac brakes and Simplex derailleurs was not lost on me and over time I swapped out many of the French components for Campagnolo ones but the Stronglight crankset was worthy and it stayed the longest. I found a drilled-out 42 inner ring. Surely Bernard Thévenet would approve of that. It was not such a taskmaster as the 45 and scored very high on the cool scale.
Eventually the 52s went to 53s and the 42s to 39s and there they stayed.
Post-Peugeot I lived on the sandy moraine called Cape Cod. It is rolling, easy-to-ride country; there were no steep, long climbs and the default 39 inner ring was too small for the Cape. Some switched back to 42s but our LBS had a handful of Campagnolo 44 tooth inner rings and a few of us installed them. It didn’t occur to me at the time but I was reverting to a more modern version of my original Peugeot gears. This was not a chainring for the early season but once summer arrived, it made perfect sense. The shifts between the front two chainrings were subtle and smooth. It was all good until we ventured over to a proper climb on the nearby island of Martha’s Vineyard. That climb, known to us as the hill-o-death, started off steep and never eased (this was pre-Garmin world, an estimated 15% grade). It actually was the kind of climb where if you were going to have a heart attack, it would be here. The 44 worked, it just meant most of it was done out of the saddle and the pain cave entrance was lower down. But, it may have been a faster way to get the job done. There was no in-the-saddle spinning going on; it was just more heaving of bike and body trying to turn over the shortest gear the 44 would give up.
I came to Maui armed with the 53 x 39. Earlier on Kauai, I once felt shame and horror as an older dude with stick legs passed me on the Waimea Canyon climb. Those sorry sticks were whizzing over a vile compact crankset. It gave me pause. But on Maui the 53 x 39 got the job done, until I did Maui’s version of the hill-o-death, The Wall. I got up it, but it wasn’t pretty or easy. Something was going to break doing that: knees, heart, chain, pedal, more likely part of me, rather than the bike. I was on Maui for the long haul and the Wall was not going anywhere so I opted for a compact crank.
My above prologue leads me to this, my theory of relativity. The terrain dictates the chainrings. You want a 52 x45 on your bike, stay away from the Pyrenees. If you have a compact crankset on there, there had better be some big ass climbs out your front door. But here at Velominati we like to quantify our suffering. My math is as weak as my VAM but I’m working on a calculation with correction factors which would determine what kind of crank one should have on their bike.
((GL2 x %Gr) 1/age) Bf x BPf x Df
Where:
GL = length of toughest grade encountered on Sunday ride.
Gr = Steepest sustained section of GL.
Bf = Belgian Factor, also known as Museeuw. The need to always ride in the large ring, always.
BPf = Big Pussy Factor, inverse of Bf. The inclination when a climb begins to sit when one might stand, to shift down rather than up.
Df = The Dutch factor, this is a terrain correction for sea level riding, as the Dutch do along the North Sea.
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At 64 years of age (but who is counting) and living in the Peoples Republic of Boulder (Colorado) I've been riding our mountains for 35+ years. My knees still remember the days of 17 mile climbs to Nederland in a 42/21 as do I, somewhat tearfully and with some reverence. But time being what it is I just tried a compact on my mountain bike (no not a "mountain bike" - but a bike built for riding in the mountains) and I have to say, it is a pleasure. 36/25 and a positive outlook makes anything look possible... given enough time. Still have a 52/39 at #1 son's in Portland. With a 27t Germantown and Newbury are still in the cards. I say anything goes.... as long as it's not a triple.
Nowadays you can kind of sneak by the velonazis with a wide cassette to accompany the insecure ego of large chainrings. Plus no annoying upshifts on the compact.
@Chris
It might also be that your glutes are stronger than your quads. Some quad exercises for a few months may help increase your standing pedalling power.
Another option is that you quads get tired much faster than your glutes, so you run out of standing power quickly. This could be a position problem, or a physiology problem.
I'm only chipping in because I was the other way round for years (standing = faster, sitting = much slower), until I got my glutes firing. My massage therapist mate @Josh figured out how to help my glutes work through the duration of a ride, rather than seizing up at the first sight of a hill.
It may be contrary to Velominati instincts, but I spend much more money on body maintenance than I do on bike parts these days.
@bugleboy21
Cowface? Cow face? I'm intrigued and confused, my usual state. Please explain.
@Weldertron ah good, another in the broad shouldered 80-odd kilo club. I've found 34x25 is my best chance of keeping up with my more grimpeurishly built mates (see comparison below).
@Nate
Yes, but that's my point. We don't have a big power band. Nor do racing motorbikes. They gear them to keep the revs spinning in the power at the top. Close ratio boxes are de rigeur on racing motorbikes. On a nig grunt machine like a fat twin, it does ont matter what gear you are in, but on a low torque high revving race engine, gering is crucial. A compact not only buys you a more Achebe gear, but closes the ratios on your cassette as well. That is elementary.
I ride a 50/34 compact with an 11 speed cassette for that exact reason, keeps the ratios close, let's me spin like one who moves back and forth on a mother, and avoids big steps between gears. I currently have an 11-25 on the rear, but would consider something like a 12-27 or more. Being PRO is all about getting to the top in speed and style, not puking by the roadside while looking forlornly at your wrong gearing.
I learned years ago while windsurfing to rig the gear that the conditions demanded, rather than the gear I wanted to run. Can't tlell you how much good sailing I had on a 5.5 while any number of guys sat on the beach with their 4.5 rigged waiting for the wind to come in.
If there were to be a specific rule about gearing, it should dictate that appropriate gearing shuld trump ego. Ming and grunting and hurling the bike around, let alone riding across the road to deal with teh gradient is not pro.
@scotjonscot
hehehee, you might suck. The semi-compact has much to recommend itself too. The 50, (I'm banned from calling it the 'big ring'), is good for keeping the momentum off a descent and immediately climbing out of saddle in the 50 where the 53 might bog down, if you suck. Like me.
@Ken Ho I maybe should have kept my mouth shut because I know fuck-all about motos, but you more or less enunciated my philosophy, which is to minimize gaps on the rear cluster and avoid cogs the size of dinner plates at all costs.
Just checked out the grades for this weekend's Il Lombardia (click right tab "Climb Details"). Sick. Methinks there may be some compacts in the mix, no?
@Gianni
Truth be told, I was limited by the capacity of my rear mech. I couldn't run the 11-28 with a 39/53. It is a nice combo, but on a good descent I spin out at about 45-48mph.(125-135ish rpm?) But around these parts, your'e pretty much at the bottom of the hill by the time you reach those speeds.(small hills) But the 39 part of the equation worked fine for me. A lot of folks thought I was nuts, but they clearly don't understand the Rules. I will rectify this on my next build. I'll probably still suck though.