Bicycle Gears?

On a geared bicycle you will usually have two or three chainrings on the front. They are the round things that look like sprockets or "gears". You will have several on the back wheel as well. A 10 speed bike will have 2 on the front and 5 on the back giving you a total of 10 different combinations of gear ratios you can use, thus the name 10 speed. The bigger the gear in the front, the harder the bike is to pedal, and the faster you will go. The smaller gears in the back will make the bicycle harder to pedal and go faster. Sometimes the small gear in front is referred to as the "granny gear". If you were to use the smallest front gear and the largest rear gear you would pedal very fast but not go forward very fast. If you use the large gear on the front and the small gear on the back your bicycle would pedal harder but you would go forward faster.