On Mon, 11 Sep 2017 08:23:48 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Sunday, September 10, 2017 at 3:23:59 PM UTC-7, Duane wrote:
Emanuel Berg wrote:
The spacing between the cogs grows narrower
with growing numbers of gears

Are the sprockets always the same width, only
spacing grows narrower?

and since they have pick-ups to assist
shifting you have to make the chains narrower
to keep them from hopping gears all the time.

Does it impact anything else in the cycling
experience/performance to have
a narrower chain?


11 speed chains don't last as long as 8 speed chains, if that's what you
mean. Performance wise there are too many differences between my 11 speed
and the last 8 speed that I had.

That gear computer was for an eight speed. With a compact cranks and a 12-28 you can see that most of the gears have 10% spread between gears. There is no reason to have closer gearing unless you're racing.

So all you end up with is a set-up for which you need to shift multiple times rather than once to obtain normal performance. And a lot higher cost and faster wear.

This is what the point is isn't it? WHY have components designed to help only the highest performance professional racers other than to pretend to have that sort of performance yourself?

Yesterday I rode on a 35 mile ride. On the way out into a headwind I averaged a little less than 14 mph. I had a cup of coffee while in the city square the worst band I ever heard was making awful noises. When I was in a band if we had played that badly on our first try in a rehearsal we would have quit.

On the way back the wind had reversed and I had a hard time maintaining 12 mph for most of the way. By the time I got home I was exhausted. Do you think that I could improve my performance with an 11 or 12 speed?

I know my limits and it isn't playing as if I was Chris Froome.

Something I've always wondered about is how in the world can I ride an
out and back course and have a head wind both ways :-(

I think that the reason many? most? bicycles are equipped with the
"latest thing" is that is what sells bicycles.

I have, more then once, seen a bloke that very obviously knows very
little about bicycles come into a shop to buy a bicycle - quite often
it seems with the idea that riding a bicycle will make him slim again
- and the Sales Girl will, after talking to the guy for a while,
recommend a bike that she thinks might suit him. Invariably this will
be a middle of the price range bike and about as invariably the guy
will start looking at something much further up the price range. "Hmmm
this one's got 9 speeds and that one has 10.... Oh and that one over
there has 11..." and this is in Bangkok where I seldom shift more than
once in a two hour ride :-)

--
Cheers,

John B.