Bicycle Gear Ratios Explained

Here is a complete bicycle gear ratio chart of the most commonly used bicycle chainring and cog sizes.

Bicycle gear ratios explained. Today s road cyclists are equipped with more gear ratios than ever and thanks to the growing size of sprockets and shrinking chainrings those ratios have been getting smaller too. The highest hardest gear will result in us travelling four times the distance of the lowest easiest gear for each pedal revolution. Gears however don t change by themselves and if you re confident you have the right gears on your bike making the most of your ratios is vital to avoid stalling and losing momentum. Hover over the cells to highlight and see the gearing information.

Colors group similar values. The highest gear ratio is 28t with 12t. The lowest gear ratio on the bike might be a front chain wheel with 22 teeth and a rear gear having 30 teeth. Say the chainrings on the bike are 48 38 28 and the cassette is a 9 speed one.

Bicycle gearing is the aspect of a bicycle drivetrain that determines the relation between the cadence the rate at which the rider pedals and the rate at which the drive wheel turns. The gear ratios you want to use for a hilly cycling holiday in mallorca are not the same as the gears you want for a time trial criterium club ride or city riding. The idea behind multiple gears on a bicycle whether it s an older 10 speed bike or a modern mountain bike with 24 gears is to let you change the distance that the bike moves forward with each pedal stroke for example a normal bicycle has wheels that are 26 inches in diameter. 3 is green 2 3 blue and below 2 red.

Our complete guide to bike gears takes the mystery out and will have you joining in with all the other bores banging on about ratios in no time at all. The result is that for the sprocket sizes above we have a set of 21 gears ratios which cover a range between 1 1 and 4 1. A ratio of 2 33 1. On some bicycles there is only one gear and therefore the gear ratio is fixed but most modern bicycles have multiple gears and thus multiple gear ratios a shifting mechanism allows selection of the.