[Closed] Road cassettes - what's the obsession with 11T sprockets?

convert · 2019-11-18T11:21:59Z

Finally joining the 21st century and upgrading my road bike from 9spd to 11spd. Heady days..... Looking at 11spd cassettes I can't fathom the almost universal (not quite total) choice for 11T as the smallest sprocket in available road cassettes. Campagnolo seem to be the only mass market brand to have seen sense and have a bit more choice. Why? I don't get it. 50/11 is significantly bigger (well, 3% bigger) than the 53/12 most of us road raced in the naughties and nearly 5% bigger than the 52/12 most raced as a tallest gear up to the middle 90's. The best sprinters of all time, the likes of Cipollini and Merckx managed fine with less. It's the equivalent of a 55/12.Add the bigger tyres most are now using compared to the past and the gear gets taller still. Vast majority of road bikes are not being road raced, let alone by sprint specialists but are being ridden around non-competitively by middle aged rank amateurs with a fraction of the power to turn over a big gear. And you need to be going 55kph downhill to spin out a 50/12T - most folks are enjoying the ride at speeds above that on a descent. It just feels like for the vast majority of users it's a wasted sprocket that will virtually never be needed and it might was well be a 10spd cassette, just a little bit heavier. I'd far rather have the extra sprocket filing in a gap further up the range.

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stevious

Posts: 4380

Full Member

Which are not shimano options even if you went to madison HQ personally and gave everyone a reach around.

I tried that once. They gave me a BB30 bottom bracket that doesn't creak.

Posted : 19/11/2019 3:07 pm

thisisnotaspoon

Posts: 41786

Free Member

Contador had a 54/42 with an 11/28. From memory he needed to win the stage by 7 seconds to take the overall, no ridiculous climbs, Col D’ Eze I think was the main climb.

Yea........

But even the biggest of STW hitters aren't aiming to win a stage of the Paris-Nice by 7 seconds, however fast their mid week chaingang is.

And unlike MTB's, you can't really go lower at the front unless it's a triple or something obscure then you're stuck with a 34t.

But crucially my 13-28 cassette looks odd, and to some cyclists that trumps functionality!

Posted : 19/11/2019 3:53 pm

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