32. TELL US WHAT’S BEHIND THE DOOR KEN....

500 words on Chainsets and ring sizes.....GO.

Right. This....

...is the drivechain on my current bike. If you look closely (or alternatively click on the picture so you can see it in all its slightly larger glory) you will see that it has 3 sprockets (or chainrings) up front and 7 count ‘em 7 on the back. This gives me a total of 21 gears with which I may either grind my way breathlessly up the mightiest incline or propel myself at breakneck speed in the direction opposite to that.

Sounds impressive yes? But wait. Most modern mountainbikes of even half decent quality have at least 9 rings on the back and up to 3 on the front for a total of 27 gears. Stick a 10 ring cassette on the back and it’s 30.

You should take a second to be suitably impressed by this...

The front chain ring I have just ordered is this one...

...a cursory examination of which will reveal it has 1 ring up front. Now it is my plan to have a 10 speed cassette on the back but this still leaves me with only 10 gears to play with.

While recognising that most of my usual readership are even NOW saying - 'Whatever. Please return to posting embarrassing photos of yourself as a child?’ - at this point, I feel I need firstly, to post an embarrassing picture of myself as a child

...and then to explain – I do have a rationale.

See 30 gears sounds like a lot, but in reality you only really end up using a few of them most of the time. As an experiment, I have been riding around for the last month using only the middle ring up front to simulate what it might be like to run a 1x10 drivetrain and haven’t found it that difficult. The only time I’ve felt the need to slip down into the very lowest gears (aka the Granny Gears) was on my most recent unsuccessful attempt to climb the first hill on the way up to Finchley Trig. I still didn’t make it and frankly don’t think the use of any gear that isn’t located in a car towing me up that particular hill would have made any difference.

Which still doesn’t explain why I wouldn’t just go for a triple or double ring setup anyway and have the gears just in case, especially since they don’t cost that much more than the single ring I’ve ordered once you include the price of a chain device (explanation COMING SOON to a blog near you) and the extra ring I ended up buying to give me a 34 teeth option that more closely matches what I currently use on the Mongoose (teeth - as in the number of teeth on the chain ring – less teeth up front = easier lowest gear).

So why? I will tell you. It means I can do away with a front derailleur (the thing that moves the chain up and down the front chainrings) plus it’s associated cabling and levers. Likewise the 2 extra chainrings. It should reduce weight (though admittedly I could achieve more efficient weight loss by not sinking quite so many beers and/or cheesy toasted sandwiches). It eliminates the need to be shifting up and down the front rings which is more efficient and less traumatising for the poor chain. And I’ll be a man about it – I reckon it’ll look cooler. 

If it means I have to work a bit harder getting up the hills then that’s kind of the point of doing all this exercise in the first place and I should just HARDEN UP and get on with it. Right? Right.

I suspect it works in my favour that my current bike is so old I’m kind of used to working with less gears than the total wussbags that are used to 25 gram bike weights and 87 gears anyway.

Next: Explaining more shiny bits....