Well, perhaps Skye misremembered, or perhaps I misremembered Skye, but Coppi’s climbing gear in the 1949 Tour might have been a 47/21: 60” instead of 68”. But in 1930?
https://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2013/07/gearing-in-1949-tour-de-france.html Still, a lot different from a 34/32 or 29”. On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 9:09 AM Patrick Moore <[email protected]> wrote: > It’s very interesting to watch old race video from the 1940s and 1950s > when, as I think was said by Skye Yeager, “Coppi climbed the Alp d’Huez in > a 48/19.” *And* he had a top gear of 48/14. You see riders spinning madly > on the flats — Coppi in particular seems to use the “twiddle and coast” > method: rattle along at 120 rpm for 100 strokes, then coast briefly. > > But on the climbs, oh my! Well below 60 rpm, with bodies all over the > place — recall a scene described by Thomas Merton in *Seven Story > Mountain,* how as a small boy living in a rural French village with his > artist father in the 1920s, he’d watch the Tour peloton go by, riders’ > “noses almost on their front wheels” — paraphrasing — as they grunted up > hills in the lower but still far to high gear of the 2 sprockets allotted > by their flip flop wheels. This was even true in Eddy’s era; climbing was > muscling far too high gears up steep walls and using all your body English > to help things along. > > I used to twiddle between 104 and 120 in a mid 60s gear — obsessively > measured it; but riding fixed and perhaps age made me a masher. > > > > On Sat, Mar 21, 2026 at 7:29 AM Guy Jett <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Grant has written extensively about this over the years. It seems his >> personal preference is for slower but a wider range. But he also >> acknowledges this is a personal preference. >> >> My personal preference is a narrow range between 90 and 100. In very low >> gears I do go much lower. I'm also working to widen my range. >> >> In the end, if you are comfortable with a lower cadence and keeping up, >> you are doing nothing wrong. It's just YOUR personal preference. >> >> GAJett >> > > -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgvMVUd4hb8T%2Bs5py0SBNQ7oc5JYQJtoDROxz5M9eoBmKw%40mail.gmail.com.
