I thought I would pose this question on here so the STW collective could give some sage advice.

I have just completed the C2C (the road one) on my Tricross . I managed to ride everything but only just, the climb out of Rookhope nearly giving me a coronary.

I am fairly lardy and was carrying all my kit in panniers. Current set up is a double with 48 / 34 up front and a 12 – 27 cassette when the hills got really steep I felt that I needed a granny ring just to let my cadence up. Then I had another thought…….

The rear mech meeds replacing anyway, so if I put on something with a longer cage on (XT perhaps) could I run a MTB cassette say 11-34 or 11-36?

Will that work or am I mad?
Is there a good website that explains all this stuff?
How do I work out what Cage length (medium or Long) required?

Any answers appreciated

My son says I should just ‘Man-up’!

Dave

I did the same route on my Boardman CX Pro but didn’t have panniers on. I did it in two days and stayed in a B&B. I didn’t struggle with gearing but that could be down to the difference in weight we were carrying.

To answer your question though yes that’ll work. You’ll need a long cage mech as its got to take the chain on very small gears and the larger cogs. Any mtb long(er) cage mech will do

Should work, I’d have thought you’d need a long cage mech and a new chain.

But are you going to need such low gears again?

Thanks Gents

I think I will do it, or something similar again.

Re the weight, I am 15 stone and not sure of the Pannier weight but I had 30 litres loaded up with clothes etc. I also used B@B but took three days.

I am not fit enough (yet) to do it in two!

Subsequently found this and thought it was good

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How about another crankset for touring? A 26/36 double perhaps? Should be possible if you can move your front mech down a bit…

I did that C2C recently and dropped down a chainring size in preparation for some loaded climbing.

my road bike got an xt mech and 34 tooth cassette (52/39 chainset)on it when I moved to the lakes, worked fine, big jumps but gives you the low gearing you’re after.

Thanks all

I did this last week to the CX bike I use for my commute (compact chainset). I used a 9 spd Deore mech, 11-36 cassette & a new chain (didn’t actually measure the old one to see if I could reuse theat but thought it best with a new cassette).

I had been meaning to do it for ages (and I now wish I had since it works perfectly!) Hills are now a breeze if I am feeling lazy & slow (even with loaded panniers).

As well as the extra low gears I suppose I now have one slightly bigger gear as well! Definitely worth the slight extra weight IMHO.

Thanks zilog.

I am going to do it.