cookstar

iTrader: (6)

For arguments sake is 6th gear the same no matter how you get it.

i.e

1x6
2x3
3x2

I hope you understand the question, just having a discussion and wanted your opinions

Franx2

I'd say yes to that. Only thing though, is that it's not generally recommended that you cross the chain from one extreme to the other

It certainly won't be far off anyway

Davey P

iTrader: (1)

No it's not.
6th gear would be little ring on the front and 6th sprocket down from the top on the back.

When people ask what gear your in, you would usually just give the cog number on the rear sprocket and not worry about the front too much because you wouldn't say you were in 15th gear.

OllyK

Depends on the number of teeth you have on front and rear chainsets. While you may get some duplication of gears, it probably isn't quite a straight forward as you make it out.

Brendan Hughes

The above two answers show we don't understand the question. Are you trying to explain to someone what gear you were in, or do you want to know if the various combinations all drive the wheel at the same speed?

imlach

You need to work out the gear inches to see if it is the same ratio - gear inches are the number of inches a certain front/rear cog combination will propel the wheel in inches.

Use either of these calculators :

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
http://www.panix.com/~jbarrm/cycal/cycal.30f.html

You always find crossover in gear ratios - so on an 18 speed bike, you'll get crossover on probably a third of these gears....ie small chainring and small rear cog is probably quite close to middle chainring and mid-large rear cog.

However, as someone else has said, you don't generally want to use big to small or small to big cogs as these mean the chain is stretched laterally the most and will cause excessive wear.

imlach

PS To answer the original question, the answer is "No" if you want an exact answer, but it *MAY* be roughly correct if you want an inexact answer

Franx2

That's what I was thinking - the gears will cross over at some point, although I dount they'll be exactly the same....