Put gear in high when parking bike?

[ohmish]

Hi

I have a bike with 8 gears (outside), and I'm just wondering..

Is it always best to put the gear in highest position (where there is least cabel tension) when parking the bike - or is the gear cable normally strong so this does not matter at all?

Thanks

[Bill]

Awesome question! Would have to say less stress is best. As with any metal stress pulls to stretch the cable (many strands put together) so I guess if one relieves the stress off of it then it would make it last longer.

If I am thinking silly today please someone come along and correct me lol .

Bill

[Joe_W]

I generally put the bike in the gear I like to start... a habit I try to form because of triathlon, where it sucks if the gear you start in is too high. Especially if you try to do the first transition barefooted and leave the shoes clipped in the bike.

From a mechanical point of view, I'd say that the shifter cables are stretched mostly during the first days / weeks of riding. After that, they lengthen only marginally. The most likely cause of cable failure is corrosion. So your method would only work it the cables are completely enclosed, otherwise the corrosion of cable / casing will lead to degraded shifting performance (as well as broken cables) much faster than the stress caused by the tension.

[DaveM]

Yeah, I have to agree. "Stretch" isn't what wears out cables. It's corrosion, getting crimped as the housing wears out, etc. Anyway, I suspect the wear put on the cables is vastly higher when you actually shift than it is just sitting under tension. So leave it in the gear you will start off in and save a shift. Worry about taking care of the parts that are hard or expensive to replace (like your knees).

[ohmish]

Yeah this shouldn't matter much. Not on this ol' bike anyway hehe. Just wondering..

I'm going middle way and setting the gear to 3 or 4.

Wouldn't it be smarter if tension on bike gears was reversed? You leave it in 1st and you want to start in 1st. So 1st gear should be without tension imo.

Thanks all!

[Archey Sturmer]

(11-24-2009, 06:20 PM)ohmish Wrote:  Yeah this shouldn't matter much. Not on this ol' bike anyway hehe. Just wondering..

I'm going middle way and setting the gear to 3 or 4.

Wouldn't it be smarter if tension on bike gears was reversed? You leave it in 1st and you want to start in 1st. So 1st gear should be without tension imo.

Thanks all!

Yeah, remember a few years ago Shimano tried that on the XTR kit. Turns out it SUCKED. But a worthwhile experiment, anyway.