Hi All

Be gentle. My first post.

I bought a cyclocross bike recently. It was a ‘compromise’ forced upon me by the wife between an out-and-out Road and full off road. Compromise because she wanted me to able to take the kids out on their mtn bikes off road.

Anyway that seems a waste of time now as the kids still aren’t interested in going anywhere anyway.

The cassette on the back doesn’t go as low as I’d like regards to hill climbs (I’m comparing it to my old Trek Fuel Ex8’s amazing climbing low gears). This is putting me off going out as much as I’d like on it.

The stock cassette is a Shimano 105 11-28T. Just ordered online another shimano 105 11-32.

Will it just be a straight swap without changing anything else. Indexing should be good but what about my chain and the front crank?

Thanks in advance.

The chances are you will have a short cage mech, for an 11-32 cassette you will need to change the mech to a medium cage as well.

Hiya!
If your chain is currently the optimum length then you’ll need 4 more links maybe…

The chances are you will have a short cage mech, for an 11-32 cassette you will need to change the mech to a medium cage as well.

Not necessarily… very much dependant on dropout/hanger geo and front ring setup with regards to required wrap/tooth capacity. Mrs has 11-34 running with a short cage Ultegra mech and no issues (compact at the front).

Best bet is whack the new cassette on, check/adjust indexing and see how it goes, you might need to wind a bit more b-tension on, and you might need another couple of links int he chain, but that depends how it was setup initially. If the short cage mech isn’t happy with it then look at new mech, but you might not need to.

Wot amedias said, and you’ll get away with no more links in the chain if you don’t use the big chain ring and biggest cogs at the back at the same time (which you shouldn’t do anyway, really)

Wot amedias said, and you’ll get away with no more links in the chain if you don’t use the big chain ring and biggest cogs at the back at the same time (which you shouldn’t do anyway, really)

Unless you’re adjusting the limit screws to actually prevent this combination, there’s no way I’d recommend this as you can guarantee that you’ll eventually lose count, foul up your gear selection and be down one rear mech and a few spokes. If the chain needs a couple more links, then get ’em on (or even change the chain – they’re pretty cheap things), but running a chain that is too short will eventually cost you a stack of cash!

I bought a cyclocross bike recently. It was a ‘compromise’ forced upon me by the wife between an out-and-out Road and full off road. Compromise because she wanted me to able to take the kids out on their mtn bikes off road.

Anyway that seems a waste of time now as the kids still aren’t interested in going anywhere anyway.

Lol, I can feel your pent up frustration and passive aggressive stance towards your cyclocross bike from here.