Bikes!

[glatt]

I guess I just figured it out for myself, using just the rear five and then jumping up to the highest gear by switching front sprockets.

So does anyone use all their gears? Seems like a 5 speed with properly spaced gears would be enough for most situations. A real low gear for starting off, a real high gear for racing, and three intermediate gears for getting between the two extremes should be all you need. Seems crazy to have ten gears and never use most of 'em. Mountain bikes have even more gears. I don't get it. Maybe it makes a difference when you are racing/riding long distances to have 12 speeds so you can find the one "sweet" gear for a particular situation, but it seems to me 5 or 6 gears would probably be enough for 99% of the situations you might find yourself in.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by glatt

it seems to me 5 or 6 gears would probably be enough for 99% of the situations you might find yourself in.

That's certainly been true in my case (even now when I have 21 gears ). But we live in more-is-better land.

On the other hand, I think the racers really do use all those gears. As I understand it, they try very hard to keep their cadence at one exact speed and vary the gears to the terrain.

I suspect that those of us who don't race would do fine with six. The kids and I have 21 gears on our hybrid bikes. My wife never has any trouble keeping up with us -- and she rides the same 3-speed Raleigh that she rode growing up.