Are 7 Gears on a Bicycle Enough? - How many speeds on a bike do you need?

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and E-bike industry, and today I'm going to answer the question, is seven speeds enough for me on my bicycle? Stick around.

All right. So today I'm going to answer the question, are seven speeds enough gears on my bicycle? But before I do, hit subscribe below. Stay in touch with us here at 630. Be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways, and of course new product releases.

All right, so you're in the market for a brand-new bike. You're looking at all the gears 1, 3, 7, and 21, and you just don't know what to get. And you're wondering, I see a lot of seven speeds. Is that going to be enough gear for me? Let me answer those questions today. Right here I have our sixthreezero Touring Hybrid Cruiser Bike. This is a great around-town riding bike. We have this at three-speed and seven-speed. We sell a lot of the seven speeds because it's a good middle-of-the-road gear range that a lot of people like.

And let me walk you through if seven speeds will be good enough for you. Now, if you're going to be doing primarily flat ground riding and you don't anticipate hitting top speeds or trying to hit top speeds, you just want to cruise, then you can look for single speeds or three speeds. You don't need gears in that case. It's when you start to introduce a longer range or you want to go faster or you have hills where the gears start to become a huge benefit. And again, unless you are looking to go really, really fast, so you want to go on flat ground, you want to get exercise, you want to push your body and you foresee yourself shifting into high gears 8, 9, 10, 11, I don't think a lot of people are going to need more than seven speeds.

Again, the gears that are above seven speeds are designed to go faster and faster and faster. Because when you shift up, you start to get harder and harder to pedal. But as you can pedal when it gets harder and harder, the bike can go faster. When it's easier to pedal, you're just moving your legs, but you're not moving the bike that much. So if you don't foresee yourself caring about your top speed, you care more about just the ease of the ride and how easy it will be for you to go up hills, seven speeds will definitely be more than enough gears.

The reason also is when you're in first gear, you can see that it's going to be on this biggest cog back here. That cog is going to be similar to a lot of 21-speed bikes, a lot of three-speed bikes or other geared bikes. So when you get into first gear, it's still going to be very easy to pedal. So if you have to go up that hill as I said, you put it into first gear, it's going to be very easy to pedal. When you go into seventh, it'll be harder. So you'll have some range when you're on the pavement and riding, you just aren't going to have those top-level gears that guys that want to average 20, 25 miles an hour, 30 miles an hour. They need those gears above seven to perform that.

But if you're around town riders, you're riding with ease, and again, you just want a little variance to make it easier to pedal at times, and make it harder to go faster at times, I believe seven speeds is more than enough. But everybody's riding habits are different. And again, it's totally up to you. But last time I'll say it, the higher gears are going to be there to hit top speeds. If you don't envision yourself going faster than, let's say, I want to say no more than 12 miles an hour, then you don't need more than seven speeds. And honestly, 12 miles an hour on a cruiser is pretty fast, it doesn't sound that fast, but going 20 miles an hour on a bike is fast. And to do that, you're going to need higher performance and more gear. So around town, local commuting, easy riding, moderate hills, and seven speeds will be more than enough for you.

So if you have any other questions at all, please comment below or email us, at theteam@sixthreezero.com, or you can call us at 310-982-2877. Also find every journey on our website, sixthreezero.com. And if you don't know what bike is right for you, go to our website, and take our proprietary body fit quiz. Answer a few questions about your body and your life, and our proprietary algorithm will fit you to the perfect bike for your body and your life. And we have a 30-day test ride your bike policy. If you don't love your bike in 30 days, send it back. No questions asked. No money out of your pocket.

Also in advance of purchasing, join our Facebook Peddlers group and download our app. You can talk to other riders in advance of purchasing, see how they like their bikes, ask them questions, and also see how they're riding on the app. Then after you have a bike, track your rides on the app, and make new friends in the peddlers' group. It is a ton of fun. So thank you for sticking around. And don't forget, it's your journey, your experience, and your ride.