Research · topics

The gear decisions riders are making

Not a spec sheet on one part — the question behind it. What’s changing, what the evidence says, and what riders actually report. Sourced, cited, free.

• Crank lengthShould you go shorter?Across cranks from 120 to 220mm, maximum power moves about 4% — the lever was never where the watts were.Read →
• Handlebar widthShould you go narrower?Narrow is the new aero — and from 2026 the UCI is drawing a line at 400mm.Read →
• Tyre widthShould you go wider?At the same pressure a wider tyre and a narrower one press the same-size contact patch into the road — the wider one's is just shorter and fatter, so the casing flexes less each rotation and wastes less energy.Read →
• Chain lubeShould you switch to wax?A properly waxed chain can run thousands of gritty kilometres with almost no measurable wear, where a wet oil chews through more than a chain over the same distance — the real case for wax is drivetrain life, not watts.Read →
• 1x vs 2xDo you still need the front derailleur?Dropping the front derailleur buys real simplicity and no fumbled front shifts — but a single cassette physically can’t give you both a 2x’s total range and its tight jumps, so you’re always trading one for the other.Read →