Excuse the roadie question, am doing some TDF stages in the Pyrenees in the summer and am being recommended to get a triple, I have a compact – to 28T rear Ultegra groupset at the mo, and adding a triple seems to imply new chainset (obviously), brake levers and front derailleur – too expensive for me. Any ideas, the rear derailleur is limited to a max 28T, if I put a larger one on, whats the impact, not enough chain, or will it simply not change up. Is a long cage RD a better bet, much cheaper option to achive some lower ratios? Thanks in advance.

How strong are you? Compact with 28t isn’t too bad.

You can fit an MTB (9 speed) rear mech and cassette, which is what I’d do if you want lower.

Your chain will likely be too short, so you can either replace it, or avoid going big/big.

SRAM did something called a wi-fli gearing range. Which took the rear cassette to something like a 32t. This was for use with a compact up front.
But afaik – you could just use a Shimano long cage rear mech and stick an MTB cassette on the back.
Obviously it would depend how fit you were in the first place but a compact with a 28t at the back is how one of my friends did a couple mountain stages of the TdF. And I would say he is/was pretty fit when he did them and prepared well.

Don’t forget that many alps and Pyrenees roads are a lot less steep than UK roads, they just go on a while.

I’d be amazed if compact (assuming you mean a 34 inner ring) and 28 wasn’t enough to get you up pretty much any hill.

Thanks all, reckon I need to knuckle down the the training and HTFU….

If you’re at a reasonable (i.e. club standard) fitness, 34×28 will get you up anything fine. Remember, they are mountains, and no matter what gearing you’ve got, they will still hurt.

I’ve donethe Bealach Beag in the Highlands and Mont Ventoux on 34/28 (admittedly from Sault, so the ‘easier’ route) and ain’t no racing road whippet. You may have to grit your teeth at times, but you’ll get up.

As others have said though, you can stick an MTB cassette on (indeed the pros have been known to do this on mountain stages). That does however mean you lose the closer ratios of a road cassette that are nicer on the ‘along’, rather then ‘up’, bits.

I spent a week in the Pyrenees with 34×27 which was fine for me – it would have been nice to have a lower gear as dropped to a cadence of 50 at times but I was fine really. I saw some with triples spinning along at very slow speeds so some need them I suppose. I’m going back this year – my new bike has 34×28, doubt I’ll notice.

If riding for more than a few days gotta make sure you don’t hurt yourself too much, some of those climbs can take 2 hours for people whi thought they were fairly fit – take it steady and no attacking your mates!

9spd you should be able to bung on an MTB cassette and mech, pretty sure 10spd road/mountain use different pull ratios so can’t do that trick.

I got a 32T mtb cassette to work fine with a road mech ‘limted’ to 28T. Give it a try and see.

pretty sure 10spd road/mountain use different pull ratios so can’t do that trick.

As I said – you can, just need a 9 speed MTB mech.

Did Wiggo not run an MTB cassette on the tour for one of the alps stages? He was on Di2 so 10 speed, this would suggest you can swap Shimano 10 speed……. Unless of course Shimano did a spot of personal wizardry for him?

HTH

Kev

TBH I’d just get a compact and the biggest cassette your mech will cope with, I’m on Sram road stuff so had the option of sticking a mid cage X0 or XX mech on for long prolonged climbing but there’s not much you can’t get up on 34/28. We used to go to the Alps with 39/25 and put up with the fact we were creeping up hill.

I got a 32T mtb cassette to work fine with a road mech ‘limted’ to 28T.

by winding the tension screw all the way in/out? till it cleared

If you’re running Shimano then you could run up to a 30 in back with an Ultegra derailleur. I bought a Tiagra one for doing the 3 peaks cross race to give me 34 x 30 with the compact up front, I didn’t have any problems with this.

34:32 gives the same ratio as 30:28

you can do 32 with a mtb casette/ mech. 30T is a triple. gaps on the casette won’t be so close….

I’ve ridden a fair bit over the years in the Alps, Pyrenees and Dolomites and have previously used 10spd 34/29 in Campag, although its now currently built up with 11spd 34/27. As long as you get used to riding for an hour or two uphill then you’ll probably be fine with 28. The main thing about having lower gears is that you end up spending longer going uphill 😉

RealMan – Member
Remember, they are mountains, and no matter what gearing you’ve got, they will still hurt.

I’ve found alpine climbs like alpe d’huez hurt a lot less than a lot of the climbs around here in’t west/north yorkshire, as they aren’t anywhere near as steep.
Obviously it depends on how fast you ride, but in general on the sort of climbs that the tour takes in, you can ride at whatever is a comfortable pace for you if you want (certainly with a normal compact gear range).

Thanks all, very useful comments, will swap over my MTB cassette and give it a go, or just go with the 34/28, will let you know how I get on! cheers

So, I ride a bit in the Pyrenees, I’m getting on a bit, a stone overweight but at my last fitness test fitter than 75% of the male population for my age . . . allegedly.

I ride compact chainset and 11-28 at the back which is apparently as big as you can go with a Shimano 5600 groupset. The hills are hard, but do-able if you are reasonably fit. Recent big hills inlcude the Col de Mente and Superbagneres. Previously Col de Tourmalet, Col de Peyresourde and Port de Bales, all on 34-28. All done slowly, but I got there.

I am running 34 compact chainset with a 32T Sram Rival cassette and a standard 105 rear mech. Says 28T max but it runs fine. I have done this on a Tiagra equiped 9 speed standard length mech too. Try it, should be fine and gives you enough for most climbs.

Hamster unless you are very unfit dont, I rode 2 Pyrenees classics this summer with no problems using a 11-25 cassette. They are no way as hard as some of my Yorkshire climbs. As you can see from the photo I’m no young racing whippet. You just have to be able to grind out a hill for an hour, so its more about pace.

I have sparrow legs and easily got up tourmalet running a compact with an 11-25 cassette without being particularly fit

It may have been handy to have had 28T for the few 10% bits but there’s nothing there a bit of MTFU’ing won’t get you through so you should be fine as you are

Shimano do a 12-30 in 10sp ultegra. I use one on my winter bit and I find it gets me up everything with a compact on the front. I wouldn’t really want to go any higher than 30, the ratios would be too far apart.

I’m doing la Marmotte this year and will probably go with the WiFli and compact. For me, the 4 big climbs over 174km means I would rather have gears when I get Alp d’Huez.

Does anyone use a standard double on the front with an 11-32 on the back? I’ve got the bits to give this a try, as it obviously gives a really wide spread of gears, but my more roadie mates as suggesting that it isn’t really the done thing.

bol – you’d prob need a mtb mech for that range but otherwise seems OK to me (mind, I’m not a proper roadie and the gaps between gears normally seem too small for me generally so I wouldn’t notice the bigger jumps)

(I’m quite sure it won’t be the done thing 😉 )

bol – Member
Does anyone use a standard double on the front with an 11-32 on the back? I’ve got the bits to give this a try, as it obviously gives a really wide spread of gears, but my more roadie mates as suggesting that it isn’t really the done thing.

Thats what David Millar et al have used before.

As others have said, you’ll be fine with a compact and a 28 tooth.

Njee so does a 9spd mtb mech work with a 10 spd road shifter?

Does anyone use a standard double on the front with an 11-32 on the back?

i was considering it for trying the Fred Whitton route*, i’m not buying a new chain set for one ride. Think junkyard tried the concept out (all 9spd kit) and it worked ok, guess there’ll be big jumps but maybe worth it for silly steep rides.

*been on the To Do list for ages, not got round to it yet

Njee so does a 9spd mtb mech work with a 10 spd road shifter?

<njee impersonation>
Yes, it does (shimano/shimano anyway, IME/YMMV/IANANjee)
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🙂
Don’t have any 10spd stuff but useful to know.

Does anyone use a standard double on the front with an 11-32 on the back

My Condor has a 50/34 front, with an 11-32, 9 spd XT-M770 on the back.
For completeness (tho’ it’ll make dull reading unless you actually want a parts-list 😉 ) I’m using an XT M770 SGS (long) rear-mech, and some kinda Tiagra tripe front mech (with the limit screws set to stop it going too far), and shifting via Dura-Ace 7700 bar-end shifters … and it’s great. (It did have an M810 Saint on the back for a bit, but the return spring on that mech was so strong it used to ghost-shift under load, as the bar-end shifter just couldn’t hold it).

I don’t mind the wide gaps in the shifting, but then I don’t ride in any kinda measured / technical way, so I never worry about maintaining cadence etc … I just ride comfortably along looking over hedges and the like. If I rode a road bike in they way that some people do, I can see why it’d probably not be the done thing.

I’ve also just finished off my old 90’s road bike – that’s a mix of 8 and 9 spd stuff, that’s got a conventional 53/39 front and an 8 spd 11-30 on the back. A mid cage Ultegra rear coped ok with that range (ok, it did for me), but I’ve swapped that for an XT SGS too, just to give everything an easier life.

I have run mid-cage Ultegra at 22/32/44 x 11-28 with no problems (in case it helps – not sure it will as I seem to have just rambled on and on here …) anyway, the point is you’ll probably get away with extended the specified range for things by a little bit (but not too much). 8 and 9 speed stuff feels tougher and more tolerant than 70 speed (in my experience).

🙄