[Closed] 12-28 cassette on a mtb

People tend to ditch a front ring rather than keeping a triple and going with a narrow rear. But some folks do prefer it (can't stand it meself on the road bike never mind on a mountain bike, close ratios just mean I do loads of double shifts)

Been using 8sp 11-28 cassettes on mine for years, not seen any point in a lower geared set up.

Back to the Future!

Way back in the 80's we rode everything on 26-36-46 on a 12-28 six speed screw on freewheel.

I must have been a lot fitter back then, as I never felt the need for anything lower, we only rode epics, trail centres had never been thought of.

We used a short arm Shimano 600 road mech (Shimano latterly made a short arm XT mech) , and watched the chainline. No chainslap and closer ratios. I never subscribed to indexing and stuck with my original XC pro thumbies.

If I still had the legs, I'd switch back tomorrow.

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This is a really good tool for deciding what cassette to opt or.

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

when i started 20 years ago the normal set up was 46/36/24 chainset and a 12x28 cassette. If you were weak and feeble you might try a 13x30 cassette. People still rode up and down hill and coped.

i have a 11-32 on my normal wheels and a 12-28 (now 11-28] on my race wheels which I often use on other days.

Run 11 - 28 on my bike and love it with 44, 32, 22 at the front. Speed and fitness have increased no end, but then again I don't ride techy trail centres, just single track and bridleways.

My 91 Clockwork Orange came with 48/38/28 and 12/28 gearing. Still got up lot of stuff though.

I use 11-28 on my race wheels with 40-28 up front. Love it for closer ratios.

I ran a 12-27 for a while, absolutely hated it. IMO unless you ride somewhere very flat the closer ratios are a hindrance more than a help, you just shift multiple gears the whole time and have to shift chain rings constantly. Double or single ring with a wider ratio cassette is far better IMO.

I run 11-28 as its as big as you can go with the roadie mech I'm running, with a 34 up front, bit narrow ratio wise but I get away with it for local and trail centre stuff.... Wouldnt mind 11-34 with a 36 up front but that'd mean actually spending money of which I have none.

As several have said 11-28 is what everyone used to use in the 90's. It was only the advent of Suntour's MicroDrive (being the first mass market 'compact' groupset) that put us on the trajectory toward the gearing we have today. And IIRC even MicroDrive initially shipped with 11-28, it was only after a while they increased the rear cassette sprocket sizes.

Boy am I old - I remember when all that stuff was brand new innovation!

The earliest mountain bikes I saw in the early eighties had 28-38-48 'rings, that's nearly a road triple now.

I ran 26/36/48 until 2004, XTR none the less! Went to a double in 2006, so only used a 'normal' triple for 2 years!

I like the tight cadences you get on tighter blocks, but no longer have the legs for it by the end of the ride (I am old and tired tho'). So much so I now run 11-32 on my road bike ...

48-36-24 upfront with a Suntour XC Pro front mech 11-28 on the back with a deore DX short cage mech (thats still working fine on one of the hack bikes) and thumbshifters - same (rigid) bike for XC/downhill/commuting/touring -ahhhh, the memories.

But in answer to the OP - it'll work fine , I'd have a look at a gear chart though as you may want to consider your chainring sizes (46-34-22 ??) to give better spread of gears

Thanks for the replies all, think i'll give it a bash when the current set up has expired.

I used to race with an Ultegra 11-27 on the rear with a Dura-Ace rear mech and a 29/44 duo chainset up front - never seen the point in lower gears.

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