Cyclists: how often do you shift?

Manual shift so no numbers but "a lot".
My area has very little flat or steady gradients so I'm constantly changing gear to keep in my preferred cadence range of 80 - 90rpm. Most of the local roads I regard as flat still have subtle gradient variations.
If you ignore the three big climbs you can see the general terrain is undulating.

Good question. But since I do it manually, I don't have a solid count or statistics. However, I can say I don't shift as often as I know others do, because, generally speaking, I'm "touring" more than pushing it, and I live in fairly developed, flat-ish coastal NJ (with some localized hills and substantive bridges to climb). On-road I shift more than on the rail trails around here (I ride the same bike everywhere), as you'd expect with start-stop-ride situations. My bike is 2x11 and made for cross-country. With my weight and start of year conditioning this year, I've been in lower than higher gears. I volunteer as a "Bike Ambassador" for the NPS at our local Nat Rec Area (Sandy Hook), which is also one of my favorite riding venues. I can crank it up uninterrupted by road crossings at a couple of lesser-trafficked spots for about a mile, that's where I go to do some HIIT-type work. Pic is from the other day, at the bridge leading to Sandy Hook.

Not very often as I ride the KATY Trail and it is uber-flat. "Hills" for me are headwinds/tailwinds. I just shift from dead-stopped to get up to speed and then just maintain cadence for the workout. The down-side is no-coasting.

Old summer pic showing the "huge hills" I deal with lol..

NorthCascades wrote: »

Probably crazy but I find long flats harder than undulating terrain. On a bike and on skis too.

I've never cycled in hilly terrain, thus can't comment. But wind is a killer! I cycled some 10km over a dike last weekend with stronger wind from kind of front. Ugh. It was not fun.

For my standard ride from the house - around 22/23 miles - the total elevation change across the entire ride is less than 500 feet, so once I hit cruising gear, I usually don't touch the shift afterwards.

@NorthCascades - That is a ton of shifting! I would ask if you feel you shifted that often. That is nearly 10 rear shifts per minute. I rode for 118 minutes on Sunday and executed 5 front shifts and 68 rear shifts. The day before that, I rode for 100 minutes and shifted 91 times in the rear with no front shifts. This seems pretty accurate to me. I live in Indiana so there are no hills. Both rides were also solo, which changes things. (No need to change cadence to stay with a pack!) Both rides were also gravel.

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

Number of shifts (or gear ratio) is a statistic I haven't even considered monitoring! You could calculate it from your speed and cadence data, if you wanted. Maybe I'll export it and try sometime.

In any case, my biggest gripe is that the three gears I use most often use are separated in diameter by 2 teeth, meaning there is a slightly larger jump than I'd like. I'm often switching back and forth between just those three gears, never being quite happy with any of them! You can buy a straight block for my system (Shimano 105 11-cog), but then you don't have gears that are low enough for a steep climb, which are also common in the area.

@Jthan, I had my rear cassette swapped out for an 11-30 cassette specifically for climbing. Its great to have another gear to allow you to maintain a reasonable cadence when climbing a long hill. My quads have loved the change.

Djproulx wrote: »

@Jthan, I had my rear cassette swapped out for an 11-30 cassette specifically for climbing. Its great to have another gear to allow you to maintain a reasonable cadence when climbing a long hill. My quads have loved the change.

Love hearing from DJ! Mine is an 11-28. With a 34 in the front, it goes plenty low for my typical rides (not many steep climbs). I sometimes work out on a hill near me in the suburbs, and I don't feel I "need" a lower gear, but maybe I'd like it. If I lived in Colarado, I might feel differently!

My main complaint is that I'm usually cranking in the large front ring (a 50), riding in the middle of my rear cluster, where it goes ... ,15, 17, 19, 21, ... Those 2-tooth jumps seem kind of big sometimes. And, there's tons of cross-over between the large and small rings. A buddy of mine addressed this issue by buying a straight-block and then keeping his largest two rings from his other block, creating a straight-block plus 2 climbing gears. Unless you go to a triple front, you will have to make some compromises somewhere (and a triple crank is a compromise in weight and complexity).

I rode 16 miles yesterday, 450’ elevation gain, so nothing really. I kinda half heartedly counted the old fashioned way. I probably shifted no more than 60-70 times on the rear. I’m sure that isn’t accurate, but I know it wasn’t in the hundreds. I shift up hill and downhill and then usually find a gear to match the cadence I prefer and run it.

You might consider switching to SRAM. The AXS, X-Range cassettes offer more 1-tooth jumps than their competitors. A 10-28 cassette is a straight block all the way up to 17. The combination of a smaller front ring on SRAM AXS drivetrains also means that you will be in your “sweet-spot” more often. The 48/35 or 46/33 chainring combos would work well here. Both offer a higher, high gear (@4.8 and 4.6 compared to 4.54 on the traditional 50). The lows are better on 46/33 (1.17) and similar on the 48/35 (1.25) compared to the compact 34 (1.21).

On my single speed... never.
On my other bikes... probably more than I think/realize.