All CR's:
In regards to the comment:
>>This business of having every possible gear combination from 40's up to
103 seems wasteful in general.
>>(Culminating with the new 30 speed race bikes that can be seen everywhere
now)
>>Does anyone really think that having all the in between steps available
makes the racing enthusiast any faster?
I have the following opinion:
I think it is not necessarily wasteful; the "extra" gears need to be evaluated in context. If you ride a particular course (flat or hilly) on a regular basis you can certainly optimize your gearing down to the essential few gears necessary for the specific and relatively controlled circumstances of that particular environment. However, having more gears certainly optimizes your efficiency under a greater variety of (uncontrolled) circumstances. This doesn't make you stronger, but given a change in wind direction, your particular strength on that day, and the group you ride with, having the "right" gear can make the difference between keeping up and getting dropped. It potentially makes racing faster as well, since every rider can operate at greater efficiency.
Also, consider the logistics of a mechanic supporting a 60s or 70s Tour de France team:
Do you remember the scene in "Course en Tete" where the Molteni team mechanic is rebuilding the freewheel for Eddy Merckx's bicycle, in preparation for the next stage? Imagine the time and work involved in doing that task -optimizing the ratios for every bike used (8 to 12?), plus spares- for every single day, for 22 days in a row. That is a lot of work, and a lot of spare cogs and freewheels to haul around.
So, having a greater number of gears also simplifies the life of the mechanic. A smaller number of cogsets (or cassette gears), reduces the amount of daily work since the same cogset will work well for a greater number of stages, and the alternate cogsets (for hilly stages, or time trials) are also fewer in number.
In my circumstances, having the extra ratios on my Ergo 9 (the 16 and 18 cogs) versus the 7 speed 13-14-15-17-19-21-23 really helps on my Saturday 70 mile rides. Having the 16 (by using a 42 x 16 instead of 42 x 17) can knock about 10 minutes off of my overall time by being to push the right gear into the headwind on my way back home.
Andrew Gillis (warm and windy in Long Beach, CA)