Gear Ratios The idea behind multi gear bikes is that you have options when pedaling. If it gets steep, you have an easier gear. The way this works is with ratios. The rings that I have been talking about have 27 teeth in the back and 32 in the front. This gives a ratio of 27:32 or .84:1, a very close ratio. So for every time the cassette makes one full rotation the crank makes .84 of a rotation. The smallest gear is an 11 tooth so the ratio is very big meaning the crank makes far less rotations than the cassette. This also makes the gear crank harder to turn because of the wheel to gear ratio, and why bigger gears are easier. For this reason, 14 speed bikes don't actually have 14 speeds, just 14 different gear combinations. My bike is a 1x11, meaning it truly has 11 speeds in its arsenal