- The gearing you have on your bike is such
an important factor when it comes to improving
your performance and your enjoyment,
yet it's possibly one of the most commonly forgotten things.
So, let's take a look at the gearing
you should choose for a triathlon.
(whooshing) (upbeat music)
Now, when I first started cycling,
people would often ask me questions like--
- What gear ratios are those?
What size chain ring is that?
- I'll be honest, I didn't have the foggiest.
It didn't occur to me to check,
let alone consider changing them,
but they really do have a huge impact on our riding.
Gears that are too low may leave you spinning out,
wishing you had a couple of extra harder gears.
Whilst gears that are too high may bring you
to a grinding halt on a steep climb.
(upbeat music)
The chainset.
Simply put, the lower the number
of teeth on the chain rings,
the easier the gear.
So, there are a few common options with these.
You have the standard,
which I have in my hands here right now.
It has a 53 tooth outer ring and a 39 tooth inner ring.
And then you have a semi-compact,
which I actually have on my bike here right now.
It has a 52 tooth outer ring and a 36 tooth inner ring.
And then you have the compact, which is even easier again.
It has a 50 tooth outer ring and a 34 tooth inner ring.
So, should you be looking to do
a relatively flat triathlon course where you're going
to be carrying a lot of speed as I am right now,
you may want to opt for a slightly higher chain ring setup.
Something with more teeth,
so that you can keep the power down without spinning out.
Something like a 53/39, perhaps.
So, there are a couple of ways you can go about this.
You can completely change the chainset
for a new one as I have here,
which is relatively straightforward.
Alternatively, and possibly a slightly cheaper option,
is to just replace the chain rings,
providing that they're compatible.
On the flip side of this,
if you're planning on doing a hilly triathlon course,
then you may want to opt for
a slightly easier chain ring setup
so you can get up punchy hills like this.
So to help, you might want to go
for a semi-compact like I've got on my bike,
52/36 tooth chain ring setup,
or even a compact 50/34.
There are also other options that you'll particularly see
in time trialling or with advanced triathletes,
where you see them riding a 54 tooth, a 55 tooth,
or even a 56 tooth.
And actually, they do go bigger again,
but they are pretty few and far between.
(gentle bells chiming)
The other area you can customise
your gear ratios is with your cassette.
It sort of allows you to fine-tune
and optimise your gear selection.
And you're not short of options, either.
Shimano cassettes, for example,
come in 11-25, 11-28, 11-30, 11-32, 12-25, 14-28,
I mean, it goes on.
And, whereas a larger number
on your chainset means a harder gear,
a larger on your cassette actually means an easier gear.
So for example, on my bike right now,
I've got 11 teeth on my smallest cog,
and then my largest cog has 30 teeth.
So, I've got quite a nice range for any hills.
There in my hand I have an 11-25 cassette,
so if I was to do a flat triathlon,
which is relatively fast,
it's unlikely I'm going to need a 30 tooth sprocket.
Instead, I'll go for something
with a slightly smaller range
so I get a finer adjustment between each gear.
And, the beauty of cassettes is
that you can simply swap them out with the right tools,
so you can change them from race to race
or course to course.
(upbeat music)
Whilst the gears you choose for a triathlon are important,
the way you shift between the gears is equally so.
And, it does vary between bikes.
So if you're riding a road bike like me,
you may have dual control shifters on the handlebars.
So, this allows you to shift through the gears
and brake all within one unit.
But, if you're riding with clip-on aero bars,
that actually still means you have to shift
through the gears with the same method,
but then we have the emergence of electronic gears.
They shift smoothly and precisely.
They shift quickly and sharply.
They even shift through multiple gears under load.
They really have taken cycling to another level,
and whilst you may argue that you have
to charge them from time to time,
one plus, and it really is a big plus,
is that they don't deteriorate in bad weather.
And in fact, you can actually place the shifters
wherever you like on the bike.
So, you can have them on the drops,
or perhaps even start putting them
on the end of your clip-on aero bars.
We're onto TT bikes and things get quite interesting.
See, with mechanical group sets,
you'll find the brake levers on the base bar,
and then gear shifters on the end of the aero bars,
which is fine, but you don't always sit in your aero bars.
Say you are cycling upright and you want to shift gear,
you have to lean forward to do so.
Not a problem with that,
but with the introduction of electronic gears,
such as DI2 from Shimano,
you now have gear shifters on the aero bars
and the base bar.
And from my experience this has been a huge benefit,
especially for technical or hilly courses,
where you're spending a considerable amount of time
out of the aero bars and you still need
to shift gear from your base bar.
And then to take things a step further,
Shimano have brought us Synchro Shift,
both for road bikes and TT bikes.
So, what does this mean?
Well, for their electronic gears,
as you are to shift through your cassette,
it would adjust the front mech accordingly, or on its own.
So, to give you an example of this,
say you're about to hit a climb, you're in your big ring,
and you shift through your gears
on your cassette to an easier gear,
it might drop your chain into the small ring,
but that'd be quite a sudden jump, right?
So, it actually adjusts the gears on your cassette
to reflect this in a Synchro.
And it works vice versa, and in so many different ways.
Clever stuff, eh?
Gearing can seem like such a complicated area,
but it's really not as bad as it first seems.
So, make sure you give it some thought
before your next triathlon,
do some research on the course profile,
and make sure you've got the right gear ratios for that.
If you like this video, hit that thumbs-up button.
And if you'd like to see more videos from GTN,
you can subscribe by clicking on the globe.
And to see how to bike like a pro, just click up here.
And to see how bike cadence can affect your runoff,
just click down here.