Forum menu
I have praxis 48:32 on my Diverge, it spends winter as a slicked up road bike and the gearing is fine for here down south, pedally downhills are rare though, bit I dont think it would matter. Not had an issue with it apart from the eye watering price of replacement rings. Scotroutes reports bent rings and soft cranks, I've not had any probs, but then his are hire bikes and maybe ridden by uncaring/numpty riders. BB are shit but cheap and easy to fit once you have the special tool... not sure I'd go praxis if given the option but not sure what else provides those sized rings.
Isn’t this whole debate easily solved with the return of the triple? Or have I missed something?
Not really, that's using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut in my particular case. I'm not really looking to increase the range or number of gears, just refine which gears I use for particular efforts, basically trying to move the chain further down the block more often!
BB are shit
Shit how, poorly sealed? Otherwise they just appear to be a really beefy external threaded BB.
I think now I'm erring toward absolute black rings if I do it at all, need to weigh up cost vs. other, probably more vital upgrades!
Just a comment on the statement ‘in the bottom of the cassette where the 1t jumps are’.
This misconception comes up frequently.
It’s not the number of teeth of the jump, it’s the percentage. In other words, the jump 30>32 is smaller than the jump from 11>12.
As far as the original question. Yes, a no brainer. If pro roadies ride a 53-39 crankset, 46-32 should workout well for most people, as surely the vast majority of riders in the world are more than 20% weaker than a top pro?
Not to mention the fact that they are racing, where they need to be able to keep up to the pac in an alpine descent at 90kmh, and be able to spring for the win at 60km/h.
For most riders, those situations don’t apply, so even if they were limited in their top sprint, or alpine despicable speed, it wouldn’t be a problem.
I run what I think they call a pro-compact - eg 52/36 in front. Paired with an 11-30 at the back. Gives pretty good choice. If I decided to do Haute Route - I would probably go compact to 50/34 and / or put a 11-32 on the back.
I'm using an Ultegra 46/36 on the 'gravel' bike, really liking the small gap when changing on front. 12-29 I think on back
My road bike is a triple 28/38/48 with an 11-30 out back. Perfect for everything.
I kind of figured the whole point of a subcompact on a road bike was to give you a chainring below 34t so could still have useful climbing ratios with a smaller range cassette, obviously sacrificing the tall end but gaining a closer range better suited to maintaining a spinning cadence for longer riding...
I kind of figured the whole point of a subcompact on a road bike was to give you a chainring below 34t so could still have useful climbing ratios with a smaller range cassette
The point for me would be less to do with lower gears (a happy bonus) but more the mechanical advantage of being able to use slightly smaller sprockets instead of spending all my time in the upper half of the cassette. Think I've realised going down to a 48 wouldn't achieve much difference.
HOWEVER if I spent the money going 46/30 on the gravel bike with Absolute Black oval rings (once I figure out compatibility with my existing GRX mech) then that would free up my existing 48 tooth GRX ring which I could stick on my Tiagra cranks, giving me a 48/34 on the road bike and a 46/30 on the gravel bike. More marginal gains for my £££ 🙂
As far as the original question. Yes, a no brainer. If pro roadies ride a 53-39 crankset, 46-32 should workout well for most people, as surely the vast majority of riders in the world are more than 20% weaker than a top pro?
It's not quite so simple.
It works for climbing, i.e. you should probably have a lowest gear equivalent to what the pro's ride reduced by the ratios of your W/kg to theirs. Say about 66% of theirs. So if Froome has a 11-32, you should have a 11-46.
Downhill though the opposite it true, those extra kg's are pushing you along, even on a moderate gradient gravity is probably 1000W of work on the average person. Whereas the skinny pro climber is struggling to keep up. So on ballance everyone ends up needing about the same high gear. Hence why a compact is 50 and a pro TT bike is still only 10% bigger.
Rather than change chainring on my last bike I just fitted a roadlink and a 36t cassette so I had 34F/36R which was a nice bailout gear but the gaps were a bit wide on 10sp.
That bike just got written off via a dickhead driver so on the replacement I'll have 11sp 11-34 as standard at the back and will got oval 32/48 from absolute black. Should be best of both worlds.