Bicycle Gear Enables You To Cope With The Ups And Downs

By Author: chrisburnett
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Most bicycles have bicycle gear unless yours is a single-speed bicycle. If you are not fully utilizing it, you should to make your bicycle ride more leisurely
Have you ever experienced yourself having to exert a lot of force while cycling uphill, or find your downhill ride too fast for comfort? For new riders who do not completely understand your bike yet, this may be due to the range of bicycle gear, or gear ratio, that you are using. Just like in a car, you ought to change your bicycle gear and adjust it accordingly to whether you are cycling uphill, on a flat road or downhill. Unless your bicycle is a single-speed bicycle, your bicycle will have gears which you can change for optimal speed and force efficiency.
Bicycle gears determine the amount of revolutions you paddle on the bicycle which of course translate to the revolutions of the wheel of the bicycle to propel you forward. For simplicity sake, imagine yourself cycling on a flat and long road. At a medium gear ratio, each paddle of your leg may proper your bicycle four cycles of the wheel. Of course, this is affected by the size of your tires too. For ...
... a straight road, this may be your optimum efficiency. However, if you were to travel uphill, the amount of force you exert may be insufficient. You will then have to lower your gear, or shift down the bicycle gear.
By shifting down the bicycle gear, each paddle may only proper your bicycle two cycles of the wheel. However, the amount of force needed will be much lesser. Of course, this means that for a same distance uphill and on the flat road, you will have to paddle more, but not necessarily harder. By moving up slower but still at your optimal range, you will not be exerting too much force and feel breathless at the end of the uphill climb. Likewise, the same is the case when you are travelling downhill. Shift up your gear for optimal efficiency.
Most bicycles these days have bicycle gears, usually about 18 gears as a standard. This will change depending on your usage and type of cyclist you are. For mountain bikes or road bikes, your bicycle will have these gears to cope with the uphill and downhill nature of the sport. Single-speed bicycles are usually the low-end bikes or retro bikes when such technology wasn’t invented yet. If you are just cycling around the neighborhood to run some errands, a single-speed bicycle may suffice. But if your usage goes beyond that, you should really look for a bicycle with bicycle gears and suspension for a more comfortable and leisurely ride.