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Steven Hanley hackergotchi picture Steven
Hanley

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Sat, 03 Sep 2005

Doing the 53x12 thing - 16:34
A friend who has recently had some time off the bike and wants to get back into the sport gently said when we go for the first few rides they do back on the bike, to make it fair, I should use the hardest gear on my bike. On the road bike this is of course 53x12. I was just riding home from Kaleen a few minutes ago after dropping off some things I had borrowed from another friend, I thought I would try it out, at least to satisfy my curiosity on how hard it is to push that gear everywhere.

Well it is not easy, and it felt like I was grinding my knees to a paste the whole time, though the cadence I was doing was similar to my on road steep climbing cadence when using 39x26, hardest were the starts from being stopped at a road crossing or similar. However, and why I suspect this may not work as a making the ride fair measure, pushing such a big gear I continually was upping my speed to around 40 KMh or more on flat sections, simply to make the pedals easier to spin. That speed is just a bit high for someone getting back into the sport, I think maybe just the insistence on a gear a few clicks harder would suffice to make a ride harder and stop me from trying to spin faster.

It is interesting to note, part of the Tridents Tri club morning training ride they do on Wednesdays consists of finishing off the session with a big ring, stay seated section from Parkes way all the way out to Scrivner Dam along Lady Denman Drive. Pushing 53x12 would be a whole lot harder if you can not stand up.

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