My current mountain bike is fairly old and I’m stubborn so will only replace it when I manage to break it. The only problem is the bike has a small chainset compared to the other guys I ride with and I find myself pedalling a lot harder most of the time.

Is it worth putting on a bigger one just for the road sections? I don’t want to lose out in the more technical sections of the ride.

could you be more specific about what you have already?

is it the number of teeth on the big ring that’s the problem?

be aware that changing chainrings/chainset may also mean that you end up doign the chain and cassette as well as they’ll all have worn together and new rings might cause problems.

I believe its something along the lines of 42 / 32 / 22T maybe abit smaller.

When I’m on the big ride in the highest gear (or top gear) I just can’t keep up on the flats.

you need to pedal faster 🙂

are your mates all on road bikes? ‘cos if they have the standard mtb gearing then they’re riding the same as you and just being more effective doing it.

you might get a 44 on there but it’s not going to make that much difference.

Maybe they have less draggy tyres than you but if you’re spinning out on then it’s probably not that.

Lead the ride to big climbs or really steep descents, this should even it up.

22/32/42 is pretty standard

you need to pedal faster

This.

I haven’t seen a new MTB with bigger than a 42t big ring in a lot of years, so unless your mates are riding 10 year old bikes, It seems very unlikely that they have bigger gears.
Plus, if you are spinning out along the flat off-road, you must either be unusually strong or struggling to turn the pedals smoothly at a speed most folk are perfectly happy with. If it was the first, you’d be dropping your mates and not too likely to be seeing that as something needing fixed…

you need to pedal faster

To put it in context, top gear of 42×12 on an MTB is 92″, about the same used by top track pursuiters (53 x 15). They can manage over 35 mph with this (at about 140 rpm).

A quick look on the internet (I’m not near my bike) and it appears the 42 / 32 / 22T setup I mentioned before is not correct.

Looking at pictures it appears to be half the size of everyone else’s when I ride. (apologies for the lack of technical info)

you need to pedal faster

I thought that would be coming… and it’s true… 🙁

what bike is it?

does it have a triple up front (if it’s old it probably will, tbh) or a double/single ring?

Its a vintage (stupidly old) Kastle (Hence the name) with a triple, yes.

you say pedal ‘harder’
do you mean ‘harder’ or faster?

Also does it run an old style ‘screw-on’ multi-freewheel on the back where the smallest sprocket may only be like a 14T or is it a ‘newer’ cassette where it could be as small as 11T . .may have something to do with it.

Can you remember how many gears there are on the back? If it’s an old style 7 speed you could have a 14-32 freewheel which would put you at a disadvantage in top gear (79″ compared with your mates’s 92″ or 100″)

it appears to be half the size of everyone else’s

Many men suffer from that belief 🙂

it appears to be half the size of everyone else’s

Many men suffer from that belief

You got me, I dont acuttly have a bike it was just a metaphor 😳

If it’s an old style 7 speed

It is 7 speed yes. Also the front derailleur doesnt attach around the seat tube, it appears to be held on by a bracket that’s between the chainset and the bottom bracket.

If you’ve got a smallest sprocket of 14 at the back then your top gear could be up to 20% lower than your mates. So to keep up with them on the flat you’re going to have to pedal 20% faster than them. Not much you can do to amend that without changing the rear wheel, gears, chainset, shifters etc. which is going to cost a bomb.
Learn to pedal faster or get a new bike (or just enjoy yourself anyway).

Bingo, that’s the problem, as mentioned above it’ll be the size of the small sprocket on the back, not the bib ring on the front that is limiting your gearing. Unfortunately you’d most likely need to change quite a lot of parts in order to be able to upgrade to 8,9 or 10 speed as the hub on the rear may only take a screw on freewheel or if it is a cassette, it won’t take anything other than 7 speeds. Plus you’d almost certainly need to change the chainset as well. It’ll end up being a big fraction of the value of the bike.

Cheers for the advice. There is no way I’m going to spend money on it apart from the very basic stuff to keep it going.

It’s got me back out biking anyway, I will just enjoy the off-road stuff for now and a new bike will defiantly be coming sooner rather than later.

In the meantime it’s good training 🙂

a new bike will defiantly be coming sooner rather than later

If you stick around here you’ll be buying a Ti 1×11 29er* before you know it 🙂
*Or was that last week’s niche?