gear ratios...

trying to help my buddie set up his 1x11 bike for better climbing on his 26" wheel specialized.. he had a 28 tooth front chain ring put on. i was hassling him for not getting a 26 like my other buddy has on his 29er. he mentioned this back at his LBS and was told that a 26" and 29 " wheeled bikes ,due to their different wheel sizes , can have different sized chain rings and still have the same pedal-ability…. and that a 28 tooth on a 26" wheel bike is the same as a 26 tooth chainring on a 29er.

now this is space math as far as I'm concerned. i looked at the sheldon brown calculator and inputed the numbers and i got more numbers back….

it kind of makes sense and i do think the LBS is correct , i just want to know is a 28 on a 26er egual to 26 on a 29er?

tia…

My quick math looks like a 28t on a 26" would be very similar to a 25t on a 29". Hope he has a 10t cog.

ok i tried this again…..black magic as far as I'm concerned… but it seems to be telling me that a 28 on a 26er is equal to a 26 on a 29er?

You're looking at how many pedal strokes it takes to rotate the wheel, but one wheel rotation of a 29" wheel will make the bike travel further than a 26". Need to look at the tire circumference (not wheel dimensions) to compare the two.

oh man… ultimately I'm just trying to get my buddies bike as "easy" to pedal up hill as possible. not really worried about speeds etc..just want something easy on the knees.. it is kind of too late to go put a 26 tooth on as he has now ridden it 2x.

Yes, 1.3 = 1.3, ergo the same.

Dont forget we like to go fast down and across too. He wont want to be in granny all the time.

nice use of the word ergo….well this is for nate's 1x11 bike… yea we were talking about that yday as well…are you saying a 28 wont give him enough across and down pow?

32T x 11/42 is perfect on the 27.5" Reign for both up and down. No experience with a 26" bike, but I wouldn't go less than 30T x 11/42.

My 29er HT has 30Tx11/36 and could climb most of 102/103. Old Buck, not so good. The 42 on the back changes the game.

Just let him ride the 28T without hassling him as he gets stronger and starts passing on the climbs.

2x10

2x10

word. my 2x is still working just fine.

Tell him to run the 28t and just ride more often. No idea what the optimum chainring that frame was designed around, but I'll bet it wasn't 26t.

I recall when I was much more stubborn and ran 32t/11-36 10spd on both a 26 FS and 29HT.

I didn't find gear ratio calculators very useful until I figured out which gears I was actually able to push. YMMV.

I ran a 28t on 11-36 on my Enduro 29 and it was great. Slightly tougher gearing than the 30x11-42 it replaced but I grew into it pretty quick.