Most bikes built in the last few years have between 8 and 11 cogs in the cassette. The gears on the rear wheel are called ‘cogs’ and when you put a few of them together in ascending size and attach them onto your back wheel, they are referred to as a ‘cassette’. On a triple they’re usually called “outer/big”, “middle” and the smallest one has a special name – “granny gear” or just “granny”.
Typically the chainrings are identified by mentioning their position (“inner”, “outer”, or, in the case of a triple “middle”), or by their size “big ring”, “little ring”. As we move the chain away from the centre line of the bike, the pedalling gets harder but you go faster. The smaller the chainring, the easier the pedalling. On the crankset, the smallest chainring is closest to the frame. Single (or 1x) chainrings are gaining popularity, particularly among mountain bikers and cyclocross riders, but are still a fairly niche application. Most cranksets have either two (called a double or 2x), or three (called a triple or 3x) chainrings. Actually, the whole assembly with the crank arms and the front gears together is properly known as the ‘crankset’, or sometimes ‘chainset’. The front gears are referred to as chainrings, or as a crankset, or by the less jargon-savvy cyclists, ‘the front ones’. Our complete guide to bike gears takes the mystery out, and will have you joining in with all the other bores banging on about ratios in no time at all.
The gear ratios you want to use for a hilly cycling holiday in Mallorca are not the same as the gears you want for a time trial, criterium, club ride or city riding. Most of us just end up riding the gears that came with our bikes, but if you don’t think about swapping out for different scenarios, you might end up making things much more difficult than they need to be.
Gears and cogs install#
choosing the right gears to install on your bike however, can be much trickier. You push the lever one way to make it easier to pedal, and the other to go faster. On the surface, understanding your bike gears is pretty simple.
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