Counting the teeth

September 14, 2014

Counting teeth has long been the means of estimating age of cattle and horses, but have you ever counted the teeth on your bicycle's group set or cranks? I hadn't, before today! I was reading a book about getting faster on a bike and one of the things that was described were the common gear options.  I learned that the most common option for a ten speed cassette is sprockets ranging from 11 teeth to 23 teeth which is simply called an 11-23 set while a 12-27 set is generally considered a better bet for tough climbs. When I did the counting, mine turned out to be a 12-27 set, which in essence means I suck a whole lot more at climbing than I thought :(  It also means that I might be losing out on some higher-end speeds. Oh, well. If I need to get any faster, I must simply cut back on junk food and lose some more weight and bike more.  Bah!