Cycling

16 responses so far ↓

• 1 i ? cute (_Y_)utts // Mar 21, 2009 at 11:41 am

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  for normal city riding a gearless bike would do ya. But not for San Francisco lol

• 2 kronos_fir18 // Mar 22, 2009 at 11:10 pm

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  i preferred the gear one…by using gear bicycle,we can change the rate of cycling depends on the terrain….

• 3 JaneA // Mar 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm

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  The gears are there to make pedaling easier or more efficient for you. Depending on how your city is, flat or hilly, then you can determine which would be best for you. I suppose if it were flat then you could go without the gears, but it’s always good to have them just in case.

• 4 dotty.blue // Mar 27, 2009 at 3:59 am

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  Get a geared bike! I cycled everywhere in germany last year and the place i was living in was mostly flat. I only had 3 gears but they were definitly usefull! Especially depending on the wind etc.

• 5 Dr. Strangelove // Mar 30, 2009 at 1:58 am

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  Gear less bikes are only good for flat terrain. If you have hills to climb you will want to be able to shift.

• 6 Spencer S // Mar 31, 2009 at 1:42 am

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  for normal city ride than gear less if you want, but I would take gears because if you need to go up hill or through grass you can use a lower gear to go through much easier. Also with gears you can go much faster or just adjust the bike to ride the way you want. If you don’t have gears on a bike than you can’t change anything really. But if you take a geared bike you can’t use pedal brakes, even though no bikes have them anymore any ways. Geared bikes do take more maintenance though.

• 7 crotonapark_sobro // Apr 2, 2009 at 7:51 am

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  I use a gearless bike for city riding, but I use that because I jump and do tricks on it so the chain won’t fall off all the time. If you are only biking “normally” I would suggest you got the one with the gears! Good luck!

• 8 EpicRacer // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:11 pm

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  it depends where you ride- if you live in a hilly area then geared is the way to go. most bikes come with at least 21 speeds these days.

  for flat areas you can go with a single speed. this is only for really lazy people who just want to enjoy the ride without changing gears.

  for the city, you would probably go with a geared bike. looked at some of the city.commuter bikes offered by different brands. they generally have no suspension or maybe a front shock, but basically meant to be comfortable, efficient, fast and sporty looking.

  check out the Specialized Globe series. a bit pricey (starting at $400) but if you want to commute by bike, this is the way to go.

• 9 seifer93 // Apr 3, 2009 at 5:37 pm

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  I like geared. That way when you go up hills you can make it easier to peddle.

• 10 jb // Apr 6, 2009 at 4:10 pm

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  The purists say go gearless and let your legs do the work. Gearless is also lower maintenance.

  But if you will have hills and/or stuff to transport, you will appreciate the chance to shift gears and take it easy once in a while.

  For durability, the frame and your personal comfort are more important than the geared-vs-gearless issue. Even on a low-end geared bike in the city, you’re only replacing parts every year or two, depending on how hard you are on it. So if you think that having a gearless bike will be a pain, just get the geared bike. It’s no biggy, I don’t think.

• 11 Chuck Norris said so...... // Apr 7, 2009 at 10:40 am

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  gearless

  Advantages_

  Less repair
  Cheaper
  Less hassle when riding

  Disadvantages

  hard to get up hills
  fix gears will have continuous pedaling.

  In the long run having a good geared bike works well. If you are only planing on riding on flat land though you could get by with a non geared bike.

• 12 paco v // Apr 9, 2009 at 9:52 am

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  Helmeted cyclers or brainless cyclers

• 13 bazjohn178 // Apr 11, 2009 at 10:40 pm

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  If you only ride along flattish roads, then a single gear is fine. If you do a lot of hills, then you need the gears.

• 14 dougmctx // Apr 12, 2009 at 9:39 am

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  Two definitions:

  single gear bike, gearless bike: a bike that has no gears. If you pedal backwards, it either engages a brake (coaster brake) or does nothing — the back wheel is unaffected. If you stop pedaling, the bike keeps going.

  `fixie’ — a single gear bike, but if you pedal backwards, the back wheel goes backwards. (Note that this doesn’t let you stop pedaling. If you’re going down a hill, your pedals are moving, fast. The only way to stop pedaling is to take your feet off the pedals (dangerous!) or stop the bike.

  Gears are useful if you have hills near by or ride in the wind. Or if you don’t really know what you want yet.

  Gearless and fixie bikes are trendy right now — they’re simpler (and therefore often somewhat cheaper, though with good bikes the price difference is usually minimal), and can often be used to do tricks that geared bikes can’t do (if the bike is set up so that if you pedal backwards, the wheel goes backwards anyways. That’s generally called a `fixie’.)

  Ultimately, a geared bike is best for most people. You can pick the gear you want and if you don’t need to change it, you don’t change it, or if you do, you switch the knob and change it. Easy. Geared bikes are more versatile than single gear bikes.

  With a single gear bike, if you want a different gearing, you can change it, but you have to buy new parts and actually change the bike. If you don’t know bikes, it’s hard to know what the right gearing is for you (and it’s a very personal choice.) Riding with the `wrong’ gear can be very hard on your knees — and the older you are, the bigger of a problem this can be. (If you’re young, it’s less of a problem.)

  My advice? Avoid the `fixie’ trend and single geared bikes for now, at least until you get to know bicycles better. Once you do, then you can re-evaluate the situation, perhaps modify your existing bike or buy a new bike. (Serious cyclists usually have several bikes …)

  However, if you never have to deal with hills or wind, and don’t ever have to carry heavy stuff or pull a trailer or anything, you could do OK with a gearless bike. But you may have to change the gears a few times to get it just right — and being new to bikes, you might not know what’s just right yet.

  If you do go with a fixie (rather than a simple gearless bike) make sure it has at least one brake. Many fixies have no brakes, making you lock your legs to stop the bike. This is a difficult skill to master, and even when mastered a proper front brake will stop your bike 3x faster than you can without brakes. It’s a serious safety issue. If you want to go brakless fixie, do it much later when you can make an informed choice.

• 15 mtlbiker // Apr 12, 2009 at 10:46 pm

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  If you lived in a flat, windless world, gears would be optional. But the world most of us live in has hills, and the wind sometimes blows in your face, slowing you down, or if it is at your back, speeding you up. Gears on your bike are just like the transmission in your car, the more of them you have, the more efficiently your engine (or your legs) will operate. For short, flat rides at a leisurely pace, a single speed bike will do the job. It could have a coaster brake, which allows you to stop by pedaling backward, it could have a freewheel, which allows you to pedal backwards and coast without pedaling, or it could have a fixed gear, which means you have to pedal all the time, you cannot coast because the rear cog is fixed to the rear hub. Most of the bikes around these days have derailleur gears, with multiple cogs at the rear wheel (up to 11) and from 1 to 3 chainrings at the front. Derailleurs work well, but all the parts are exposed to the weather, so they require maintenance in order to keep everything clean and lubricated. Internal hub gears are enclosed inside the rear hub. They work well, and most of the moving parts are protected from rain and dirt. Hub gears tend to be a bit heavier than derailleurs, but are a great choice if you ride in all weather.

• 16 dahgutone // Apr 13, 2009 at 7:38 am

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  It depends on where you live. Like me, I live in San Francisco and they have BIG hills. I would prefer a light road bike with gears.

  If you live in a area where they have not many hills. I would consider a single speed.

  Price on the other hand, gears are more likely to be more expensive. While single is cheaper.

  As for reliability, a single speed wins hands down. Why? Because single speed has less components, so mechanical failure is unlikely. If something goes wrong with a gear bicycle, you would most likely spend a large amount of $$$ to replace it or get it fixed.

  All in all, I would still prefer a geared bicycle if money isn’t an issue and you’re on long trips. A single speed if you’re in a flat recreational city where there rarely are hills, riding short trips.