What's your top gear?

[Spaghetti Legs]

50-11 on my modern plastic bike and 53-12’s and 13’s on a few older bikes. I have long downhills and still like to go as fast as I can, 40+ whenever possible (only downhill now though!) even though I’m only racing the people in my head.

That being said, I’ve converted several bikes to compact gearing as 39 and 42 rings suck the juice out of my legs pretty quickly on the longer rides around here.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by RonW87

A 53/11 also means a usable 39/12. It's not always about the combo itself. It's also about using the small cog as a spacer sometimes.

The 39/12 is the least efficient of all the usable gear combination. It has about 40% more losses than a roughly equivalent 53/16 combination. The drivetrain efficiency test published in Velonews shows that at a 250 Watt output, a 39/12 has about 14 Watt loss (5.6%), vs, about 10 Watt loss (4%) for a 53/16 combination.

The 39/12 combination also results in more drivetrain wear as well.

[robertbb]

48/32 with a 12-29 (Campy) cassette.

Don't really ride in groups - maybe a few times a year with buddies - cycling is a solitary pursuit for me.

If I'm pedalling more than 95rpm in the 48-12 combo I'm doing more than 50k/h.

That either means I have a tailwind (I'll sit up and enjoy) or I'm going downhill (I'll tuck in and hang on!).

[fiamme red]

On the three bikes that I use most often:

48x14 (48-38-26 x 14-25)
50x14 (50-46-30 x 14-30)
50x14 (50-46-30 x 14-28)

I guess I'm just exceptionally weak.

[witcombusa]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

The 39/12 is the least efficient of all the usable gear combination. It has about 40% more losses than a roughly equivalent 53/16 combination. The drivetrain efficiency test published in Velonews shows that at a 250 Watt output, a 39/12 has about 14 Watt loss (5.6%), vs, about 10 Watt loss (4%) for a 53/16 combination.

The 39/12 combination also results in more drivetrain wear as well.

And tiny cogs are also bad from both perspectives too. Think 12 and 11t cogs.

[phishrabbi]

48/11 (48/32 x 11-32) on the road bike
38/10 (38 x 10-42) on the CX/Gravel/Whatever bike.

I'm thinking of going to a Miche 12-29 11 speed cassette on the road bike.

[Quadzilla_Jr]

52x11 on my CAAD12. It gets used every once in a while at TNW but that’s about it.

XC bike has 36x11 and that gets used almost every time I ride it.

[Nomadmax]

On the majority of my steel road bikes I have a 50x12 (700x25mm) but I can get by on 100 gear inches all day long. I can fake a high gear with rpm or a nice tight tuck. There is no way to fake a low gear sans tacking diagonally across the road.