[Closed] 11-32 on your road bike

Well if strava says it's quicker then it's a winner

9spd mtb mech works perfectly with 10spd road shifters. I've got an xt on mine. Runs an 11-32 no bother and could do more.

Spinning is winning...

My mate has an older bike with Tiagra shifters so we're going to do a bit of mixing and matching with mtb cassettes and mechs to see if we can lighten the load a bit.

I know this is very uncool but I went one further and stuck a 11-36t mtb cassette on my road bike using a 9sp XT mech with 10sp 105 shifters. Even more heretical is the 30t front small chainring. Works very well and gives some silly low gears for towing baby trailer and touring. Saves having a triple and the ridicule that entails.

been on 11-32 for ages, its good, switching to 11-40 XTR 11 Speed with a Lindarets Road Link

Tom,I don't do cool, triple sounds fine, 36, however sounds huge! 😉

I did three days in the Alps with an 11-36 and standard ultegra mechs / shifters. Got some very jealous looks spinning along side those with 'normal' road gearing.

@dirtyrider are you importing the road link or is there now a uk supplier ? I want one bad since I saw it in the CTC mag.

Since i discovered that Contedor used 30x34 in a Giro up hill time trial I feel sure that lots of people ride road bikes with the wrong ratios as they have been told that they don't need a lower gear. Rather than it being true

So will a normal Ultegra or 105 rear mech take a 32 tooth cassette without any problems? I've applied for a place on the Fred and figure a 32 will increase my chance of getting up Hardknott from sod all to almost sod all.

11-32 works well on both di2 and mechanical Ultegra 6800 short cage mechs with just a twiddle of the b tension screw. You don't need a medium cage mech as long as you avoid inner ring/smallest sprocket combos.

Cheers. Am guessing any more than 32 needs a medium or long cage mech?

32 on the back definitely helped on the Fred for me. Meant I could keep grinding out the pedal strokes up hardknot while all around me people were stalling.

Likely,but compact with 32t is super low, you'd be quicker walking 😉

That's the thing there's far too much stigma around low gears, but if you're still spinning happily and they're struggling or walking then who gives a crap!

Thanks for the advice. Appreciated.

One thing I'd say so on the "you'd be as fast walking" business . First time I did the Fred I walked up more than half of Hardknott. Timewise I suspect it didn't make much difference. However I did get very tight calves, and more crucially, wore down one cleat so much that I couldn't get clipped in again. Not much fun we you still have Wrynose etc to do. Therefore would rather stay in the saddle if possible.

I think a lot of the stigma has gone now, given even the pros are happy to use super low of need be eg Tirreno Adriatica a couple of years ago.

It's not just hardknot either. Running a lower gear everywhere meant I got to hardknot with relatively fresher legs.

I'm on a 34/32 bottom gear on the commuter, it feels just as hard, just slower. Probably will go back to a 12-25 block next time I need a new cassette.

I use 11-32. I try not to use the 32 (next is 28) but it's there if you need it. 34/30 is still a much bigger gear than 22/36 on an mtb, but we are quite happy there. It's all macho bulls@@t IMHO.

Just to clarify, I'm in the Midlands not the Alps. I'm no hero. I'd want an MTB cassette in the Alps.

11-34 and 9sp mtb mech here, works for me 🙂

I'm on a compact and 11-32 and still struggle up the top of the Steyning bostal. I'm a long way off the best climber but by no means the worst. Got up Ditching beacon on an 11-25 last summer, nearly bloody killed me. The closer ratios were lovely on the flat but not that lovely.

So do mtb cassettes fiit on road hubs no problemo?

Just answered my own question:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/are-shimano-road-and-mtb-cassetteshubs-intercompatible

I find hill gearing chat frustrating but I like this thread. Pick gears that work for you - no one is going to be counting teeth when you climb - especially if you drop them.

Being able to stay seated on longer climbs is a massive advantage.

I ran 34:25 on the Fred Whitton route and would have loved a 25. Thought I was going to rip my bars off on Hardknott and struggled to keep moving - wrong gear choice!

macho stopped years ago ... minimum 28 now. dabble with 34 or 36 on
the front depending where I'm going 🙂

I have 11/32 on my cx with the Middleburn incy compact 26 / 38 up front though will probably go up to a 40. Mostly on hilly forest roads tracks sustrans bog and rough back lanes.

I have the 12-30 Ultegra cassette for trips to thr Alps, its a road cassette and is about right for most stuff. UK hills are a bit steeper IME and so would run happily run 12-32 or more if needed.

11-40 with road link user here. Love it.
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40 up front and a short mech.

On Ultegra compact with 11-28t.

Manage fine in the west Pennines but I notice there's now an Ultegra 11-32t cassette, which might be useful in the Lakes.

Wish I could try it without having the expense and faff of changing cassette and chain.

Maybe in the Alps but round here (down south) it'd be rubbish. Massive gaps in the cassette are not nice. Usually run 25-11 in winter and 23-11 in summer here.

11-30 works fine with a short cage 105, and the 11-32 with a medium cage.

Got 11-36 and an 9 speed XTR mech on my Tripster but unless going 1x on the fron t I think a super-compact at the front and less range at the back might be better as the chain and cage is further from the mud and possible rock strikes on bumpy stuff.

Got an 11-32 on cx bike, which is great.
Never needed more than a 27 on the back of the road bike though.

11-32 on a compact front has been a saviour for me. I'd struggled numerous times trying to force too high a great up some hills and it now hurts my knees. Going to the large cassette setup has made the hills more enjoyable again. Who cares about what others think.

Yep, live in the hills and have 11-32 compacts. At an overweight 52 yyrs and needing a new hip I'll leave the quads of steel " I can ride up walls with my 11-25" bullshit to the usual suspects.

The whole big gaps argument doesn't hold as much water as it used to either, we used to manage fine with 6-7 cogs going 12-25 so now there's 10 or 11 sprockets you can get a lot more range with similar gaps, especially down at the small end of the cassette.

I *can* get by on a 36x25 bottom gear round here on Dartmoor, but it's thoroughly unpleasant and wears me out quicker so why not use lower if it means you're not as wrecked towards the end of a big ride.

It's personal too, I can't stand tiny 1tooth gaps, I end up changing two gears at a time, possibly comes from riding a lot of SS though, I'm amazed on club runs sometimes how frequently some people shift, they're. Ever in one gear for more than a few seconds!

@dirtyrider are you importing the road link or is there now a uk supplier ? I want one bad since I saw it in the CTC mag.

We (18 Bikes) are selling the Lindarets range in the UK. [url= http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/m9b0s599p0/GEARS/Lindarets ]Click for more info![/url]

25/12 (11 speed) is the one for me! It means you have to stand up all the way on the 25% hills. But I use pretty much all of my gears all of the time. My other bike has a 28/11 and the 28 and 11 barely get used.

And to think a few years back I was laughed at on the for fitting an 11-32 mtb cassette on my road bike 🙂

TBF; they do look stupid on a road bike.

Yeah, you need to put an 11-32 on a gravel bike to look cool 8)

Well as it happens it was an Allan cx bike (old school gravel) 😉 with Road tyres and cantis how cool is that 😉

Fine! I apologise.

Spinning is winning afterall. Although if it's a 32t you're spinning, you'll still get beaten by someone spinning a 23t 😉