I use my bike mainly for riding down as opposed to up, but every so often I do go on XC rides with it. Now I’m pretty sure I never ever go into my largest cassette ring, and from looking at it’s condition my thoughts seem to be correct.

I’ve only just realised you can buy an 11-28, I thought the only options open to me were 11-32 / 11-34.

So what are the cons? Will I notice any judging from what I’ve written?

Thanks!

TomO

if u never use it you will never notice!! depends where you live and where you ride up hill. Lakes you would south probably not

See, now I think there are times when riding the Beast at coed-y-brenin that I probably do use the 32, but I’m wondering if maybe I use it purely as I have the ability to, and that if I went down to 28 that i’d just cope then.

The down side being that If i’m wrong, I may have wasted £40.

Damn you ratios. Anybody had the same dilemma and overcome it or failed horribly?

I found that 11-28 gives me a nicer spread of ratio’s than does 11-32, where I never seem to quite be in just the right gear.

That said … I’ve just swapped an 11-28 for an 11-32 as I was finding some of my local hills just that a bit too much of a winch on a 28 lately (not getting any younger etc).

An 11-28 does (or should) mean you can run a much prettier mid-length cage mech too, not the long, gangly SGS versions (like I’ve just installed to cope with the increased spread).

So, err, granted – whilst I’ve gone the other way, it was the right choice for me, and the riding I do.