Trail

A factor that influences how easy or difficult a bike will be to ride is trail, the distance that the
front wheel ground contact point trails behind the steering axis ground contact point. The steering
axis is the axis about which the entire steering mechanism (fork, handlebars, front wheel, etc.)
pivots. In traditional bike designs, with a steering axis tilted back from the vertical, positive trail
tends to steer the front wheel into the direction of a lean, independent of forward speed. [28] This
can be simulated by pushing a stationary bike to one side. The front wheel will usually also steer
to that side. In a lean, gravity provides this force. The dynamics of a moving bike are more
complicated, however, and other factors can contribute to or detract from this effect. [1]
Trail is a function of head angle, fork offset or rake, and wheel size. Their relationship can be
described by this formula:[40]

where Rw is wheel radius, Ah is the head angle measured clock-wise from the horizontal and
Of is the fork offset or rake. Trail can be increased by increasing the wheel size, decreasing
the head angle, or decreasing the fork rake.
The more trail a traditional bike has, the more stable it feels, [41] although too much trail can
make a bike feel difficult to steer. Bikes with negative trail (where the contact patch is in front
of where the steering axis intersects the ground), while still rideable, are reported to feel very
unstable. Normally, road racing bicycles have more trail than touring bikes but less than
mountain bikes. Mountain bikes are designed with reduced head angles than road bikes to
improve stability for descents, and therefore have greater trail. Touring bikes are built with
small trail to allow the rider to control a bike weighed down with baggage. As a consequence,
an unloaded touring bike can feel unstable. In bicycles, fork rake, often a curve in the fork
blades forward of the steering axis, is used to diminish trail. [42] Bikes with negative trail exist,
such as the Python Lowracer, and are rideable, and an experimental bike with negative trail
has been shown to be self-stable. [1]
In motorcycles, rake refers to the head angle instead, and offset created by the triple tree is
used to diminish trail.[43]
  SPOKE LENGTH CALCULATION
 CHAINS LENGTH CALCULATION

Bicycle gear ratios – gear inches

28/06/2015 by Relja

Updated: 16/11/2018.

This post explains what bicycle gear ratios are (often expressed in gear-inches), how
they work, what are the needed gear ratio ranges etc.

1. How do bicycle gear ratios function?

Bicycle is driven by transferring pedaling force to the rear wheel. When pedals are
turned, front chainring draws the chain, which goes over the rear sprocket, turning
it along with the rear wheel. Depending on the gear ratio, one turn of pedals can
make the rear wheel turn less than one full circle (“low gearing”), or more than four
full circles (high gearing).
 Bicycle
drivetrain.
Cranks with (front) chainrings, chain and (rear) cassette with chainrings.

The lower the gearing, the higher force can be applied to the rear wheel, but the
speed is lower, and vice versa. As it is shown in the picture below, when pedals are
turned for the same angle, with the same force, depending on the gear ratio, rear
wheel can travel a shorter distance, with greater output force (good for steep climbs),
or it can travel a longer distance, but with less force (good for riding fast).

Mechani
cal advantage at the rear wheel, depending on gear ratio.

 
2. Gear ratio – “gear inches”
Gear ratio is usually expressed in “gear inches“, i.e. the distance in inches covered
by the rear wheel for one full turn of the pedals (roughly speaking, for a detailed
explanation click on the link from at the beginning of this sentence). This depends on
the ratio between the number of teeth of the front and rear chainrings, as well as the
diameter (size) of the rear wheel.
For example: if the front chainring has 42 teeth, for one turn of the pedals, chain will
move for those 42 teeth. Rear sprocket will move for the same number of teeth, of
course. If the (rear) sprocket has 14 teeth, when 42 teeth of chain movement pull it, it
will turn for full 3 circles (42/14). If, however, it has 21 teeth, it will turn for only 2
circles (42/21). That is one factor. Now, for exact gearing the wheel diameter needs
to be taken into consideration. 26″ mountain bike wheel will travel smaller distance
for one turn, compared to a 28″ road bike wheel. So with the same chainrings ratio,
gearing on a road bike will be higher than on a MTB.
With bicycle gearing it is important to have two things:

1. wide range between the lowest and highest gear ratios (low enough for the steepest
climbs and high enough for the fastest downhill descents).
2. Tight gear spacing – lots of gears with 10 to 15% of gear ratio difference, so that
appropriate gear can be selected depending on riding conditions.
Bicycles usually have from one to three front chainrings, with relatively large gap of
teeth number between them.

Typical MTB cranks with three chainrins of 44,

32 and 22 teeth. Allows for a wide ratio of teeth number.

Rear sprockets are either single, or multiple (called “cassette”) – ranging from 5 to 11

or more sprockets. They have smaller gaps in teeth number between adjacent
sprockets.
 Typical MTB cassette with 8 sprockets, which
have the following numbers of teeth:
11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32

Large gear ratio changes are made with the front chainrings, while fine tuning of the
desired gear ratio is then made with cassette sprocket selection. Gear ratio is best
selected so that with 80 to 100 pedal turns per minute, it is not too hard to
push pedals, but also not too easy (as if there’s no resistance at all). The only
exception are steep climbs, where it is often not possible to achieve more than 50
crank turns per minute.
 

3. Calculating needed gearing

Basic reference gear inch points are:

 20 gear inches for really low gearing needed for climbing steep off-road ascents.
E.g. MTB cranks with 22 teeth small chainring and cassette with largest 34 teeth
sprocket, with 26″ wheels gives about 17 gear inches.
 Above 100 gear inches is good for flat paved roads with strong wind at the back.
 Range from 25 to 100 gear inches is enough for 90% of riding in 90% of conditions,

except for some extreme extremes      or for racing (where gearing is customized
to riding conditions of each race).
Apart from the total gearing range, it is good to have lots of gears between the two
extremes, so that for each moment the correct gearing can match current speed and
riding conditions. Like it was mentioned before, this is accomplished by narrow gaps
at the cassette chainrings.

How it is calculated:
Gear inch =  (Wheel diameter in inches) x (number of front chainring teeth) /
number of rear sprocket teeth.

To get the distance travelled per one pedal turn, multiply gear inches by 3.14
(number Pi).
 Inference

 A: driving chainring tooth count.

 B: rear chainring (“sprocket”, “cog”) tooth count.
 D: drive wheel diameter in inches.
 Gear inch = A/B * D.
When measuring diameter, a total diameter including the mounted tyre is taken.
A wider tyre will also be “taller” and give a larger wheel diameter. Formula clearly
shows that:
 The more teeth on the front chainring, compared to the rear one, the more
gear inches the drivetrain will have ( A / B ).
 The larger the rear (drive) wheel diameter, the more gear inches  ( * D ).
For example, if the front chainring has 50 teeth (A), rear one has 14 teeth (B) and the
rear wheel has a 28 inch diameter (D), drivetrain gear inches will be:

50 / 14 * 28 = 100 gear inches.

If we switch the rear wheel for a 26″ one, keeping the same chainrings, we’d get a
gear ratio of 93 gear inches (50/14 * 26 rounded to the closest whole number).

Likewise, switching only the rear chainring for a 12 toothed one, gives us 126 gear
inches (50/12 * 28).

See how easy these figures are to memorize and compare? 100, 93, 126… Gear
inch drive ratios rough guide is really simple:
  Up to 30 gear inches – relatively “slow”, “easy” gear ratios.
 From 30 to 70 gear inces – medium, moderately fast/slow gearing.
 Over 70 gear inches – “faster”, “harder” gear ratios.
What gear inches don’t show? The measure how far a wheel travels for one front
chainring (pedals) revolution. For that you’d need to multiply it with the number
Pi ( π ~ 3.14). Gear ratios used in examples would then be shown as:
 100 * 3.14 = 314 inches per pedal turn ( 100 * π ).
 .93 * 3.14 = 292 inches per pedal turn.
 126 * 3.14 = 396 inches per pedal turn.
These numbers are harder to memorize, compare and are not used in practice… not
when gear inches are used. Of course, like I said in the introduction, gear inches
also show what gear ratio would be achieved with a drive wheel of the given
diameter in inches (as the gear inch value shows) with the cranks directly attached,
using a penny-farthing design.

The more speeds, the narrower chain. Single speed chains are the widest, both on
the outside, and the inner roller width. They have roller width of 1/8″ (3.175 mm).

Inner roller width of all the multi speed chains is almost the same, being:

 Single speed chains have inner width of 1/8″ (3.175 mm).