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"Ninth" gear
Many beginner cyclists assume that there must be some standard sequence of gears on a multi-speed bike, for instance that a 10-speed bike must have a "1st gear, 2nd gear 3rd...10th."
In fact there is no such standard gear numbering system, nor should there be, because some gears put the chain at bad angles, and should not be used.
I know of 4 different "systems" for numbering the gears of a 10 speed:
- The 5 gears using the small chainwheel are 1-5, those that use the large chainwheel, 6-10
- The 5 gears using the small chainwheel get the odd numbers 1-3-5-7-9, large 2-4-6-8-10
- The gears can be ranked numerically by how high each gear is. The pattern would then depend on the sizes of the sprockets involved.
- I used to know an engineer who used a variation on the previous system: He plotted everything out on semi-logarithmic graph paper, and came to the conclusion that his 10 speed was actually a 12 speed that was missing 2nd and 11th. He numbered his gears 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12.
As you can see, if you try to actually communicate with somebody about your bike and use a term such as "9th gear" you will probably fail to communicate.
When discussing issues related to the function of the derailers, it is better to refer to "the second largest rear sprocket" or "the middle chainwheel".
When discussing issues related to the biomechanical aspects of gearing, it is better to use terms that relate to the actual ratios, such as gain ratio, gear inches or development.
