Why are the gear combinations in a ten-speed bike made for maximum speed advantage, while the combinations in a mountain bike are made for maximum mechanical advantage??
i seriously don't understand this :-\ please help!!!!!
The gears in a racing bike are lower gears. That is, every time you turn the pedal, the rear wheel turns by a lot. That means you have to work hard to turn it (you expend a lt of power), but it turns fast when you do... i.e., maximum speed.
On a mountain bike, you don't want to work any harder than necessary when going uphill, and you are not going for speed. So the gears are in a higher ratio: it's easier to turn the pedals, and the rear wheel turns more slowly. It's less work on your legs, at the cost of lower speed. You give up some speed in order to expend minimum power: that's maximum mechanical advantage. |
