@ebubar 60510 wrote:
Looking for gearing advice from my pals on here. What say the experts of bike Arlington? 16 speeds too limited for my needs?
It’s not so much the number of gears as the range. The low gear on that is a 34/32 and the high is a 50/11. That range is almost as big as my touring bike. The low is about 30 gear inches while the high is around 120, which is absolutely huge.
What gearing you need depends on your riding style and where you ride. I am very rarely out of my large chainring in Arlington. Furthermore, the difference between 8 and 10 cogs is the gap between gears more than the range. Because of this, you may wish to change the cassette at a later date to one with narrower spacing an a larger small cog. (8 speed cassettes are cheap online, about $20.) With a narrower range cassette, you might find that you will use the smaller chainring more.
Look on Sheldon Brown’s page for gearing information. (http://www.sheldonbrown.org) Certain oldtimers would suggest that larger cassette size (i.e. number of cogs) fosters an “arms race” between component manufacturers and there really isn’t a benefit over 7 cogs.
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