[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 😉

As I say (to myself) you can always freewheel down a hill not up one

11-32 9 speed Sora with a compact up front Px Kaffenback trundles me up the local welsh hills, Horeshoe pass still hurts my legs cause im fat.

Very happy with 9 speed Sora compact front and 11-34 back on my steel Kona Honky Tonk. Like to climb and i am not very fit. Standard road gearing is way to high for a lot of road riders, but they won't admit it.

I've got 11-32 11 speed on my road bike and I really like it. I find my Croix de Fer with 34/50 and 12-28 is over geared for me, I'm thinking of going to 40 x 11-40 at some point.

Sorry for the stupid question, but what's the biggest cassette I can run on a 10s Tiagra mech? Reading the above can I squeeze a 30t in?

Wife's looking at a new bike, comes with a 28t cassette and, I assume, a short cage mech. She likes the 32t on here current nice bike.

From earlier posts it seems fine just as long as you don't make a habit of putting the chain in the smallest sprocket and smallest chain ring, at which point I guess the chain will get a little baggy

From earlier posts it seems fine just as long as you don't make a habit of putting the chain in the smallest sprocket and chain ring, at which I guess the chain will get a little baggy

unless your running XTR Di2 and it stops you doing that 😉

@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.

my road link was from Flatout Cycles

I'm thinking of going to 40 x 11-40 at some point.

There'll be a dedicated 1x11 road groupset at some point, surely? It seems to make sense, in so far as it's been around in mtb for a few years now and mountain bikes have always had a larger range of gears than roadie stuff...

A clutch mech would be good. I did run cx1 (on loan) but I hate SRAM double tap. On this experimental set up I have taken out as many links as I can ( a couple more since the pis was taken). It is a little baggy but Ive not dropped a chain and this bike is mostly off road/shiity roads.
Drop bar xtr/di2 would be the shizzle. All being well I get to play with Rotors hydro group sometime soon..

11-32 1x9, old MTB bits on my bargain bin Bridleslayer, went for a ride with my mate on his shiny new 2x11 5800 equipped Arkose, what cassette has he got? 11-32 of course quite how much benefit the extra two steps in the range really give I don't know, but there you go; Road/CX groups have caught up with MTBs and it only took about 15 years...

Just changed my 11-28 road cassette for a 12-30, the range will suit me a shade better and it's hardly that difficult to change backif I want... Strange that most people just stick with the same cassette range really.

I've run a 11-34 10 speed cassette on standard 105 shifters and rear mech. Worked fine and I don't understand the need for close ratios on road bikes. Too many hills where I ride to worry about that!

Have 1x10 on a CX/go anywhere bike. 38t narrow wide and 11-40 praxis cassette with a goat link from the good guys at 18 bikes. I quite fancy 1x11 on the road bike tbh!

I quite fancy 1x11 on the road bike tbh!

It would save a bit of weight, expense and faffing about, right?

It's personal too, I can't stand tiny 1tooth gaps, I end up changing two gears at a time

This- had an 11-28 on my cross bike with a double and it drove me insane. Always seemed to be clicking two or three gears. Got 1x10 with an 11-36 on a standard 105 mech and it's much better. Gear range is pretty similar too.

Side benefits include less weight, better mud clearance and at some point I'm going to see about setting up a dropper to the left hand shifter...

[quote=fathomer ]Sorry for the stupid question, but what's the biggest cassette I can run on a 10s Tiagra mech? Reading the above can I squeeze a 30t in?

Depends on your frame. 30T should be OK on most frames, but I found a 32T wouldn't work with a road mech on my CX bike - it might on some frames (and I think some here are reporting it's OK) depending on just how long the mech hanger is. The issue isn't the amount of chain wrap, but that the top jockey wheel hits the cassette. You can fix this to some extent by screwing in the B screw, but this will also move the mech away from the small cogs which will make shifting worse. TBH you're better off putting on a MTB mech if using a wide range cassette as the angle of the mech is different and will keep the pulleys close to the cassette over the full range.