Cannondale Bicycles manual Shifting, Why all those gears?

D. SHIFTING

Your multi-speed bicycle will have a derailleur drivetrain (see 2. below), an internal gear hub drivetrain (see 3. below) or, in some special cases, a combination of the two.

1. Why all those gears?

You will get the greatest fitness benefit, produce the greatest sustained power and have the greatest endurance if you learn to spin the pedals at high revolutions per minute (called cadence) against low resistance. You will get the least fitness benefit and have the least endurance by push- ing hard on the pedals against heavy resistance. The purpose of having multiple gears on a bicycle is to let you chose the gear that allows you to maintain your optimum cadence under the widest range of riding con- ditions. Depending on your fitness level and experience (the more fit, the higher the cadence), optimum cadence is between 60 and 90 pedal revolutions per minute.

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