I’ve dropped the granny ring off my Cove and run 2×9. You don’t need the granny ring with a 34 on the back.

davidtaylforth – Member

Im not sure why xc chainsets still have the granny ring anyway. If your riding an xc bike you can usually power your way up any climb in the middle ring without a problem. I think the granny ring is for lazy people.

Piffle. some of us live where there are hills.

Todays gentle xc runout has a climb of 700 feet in under a mile – including one section of > 1:4 lasting a couple of hundred yards. Only super fit types can get up there without a granny ring – most folk walk it even with a granny ring. thats not the steepest / longerst hill I regularly climb.

You are better off in granny ring using 1-4 on the rear cassette so you can keep up a decent cadence.

22/ 36/ bash is where its at. Climb most hills and pedal up to 28 mph.

Not all of us live in flatland you know

I live in the lake district so some of the hills are pretty decent.

I should have said lazy/weak people

Still piffle old chap – utter drivel. Might be OK for you but to say its not needed for most is just garbage. How often do you climb a couple of hundred yards of 1:3 – 1:4? Or climb a more than a thousand feet a mile?

You are either super fit or bust a gut at a really slow cadence. Some of us know how to spin. On todays ride we used every gear 22/ 34 bottom gear to 36 / 11 top. 1×9 simply does not have enough gears.

Why make life hard for yourself. there is no way ( unless you are super fit or prepared to really mash it at a knee straining low cadence) that you could get up some of my local hills – let alone the real big ones

1×9 simply does not have enough gears.

teej i think it does
i only use 1 other gear and that is granny to 34 sprocket.
on a ride i might use this once or twice.
the rest of the time i am in the middle ring using the whole of the cassette..

Ton – exactly – you use your granny gear sometimes – so 1×9 ain’t enough for your hills.

It may be enough for you – even tho you use granny ring – but to say its enough for anyone is simply wrong – I like to be able to spin up steep long hills at 3 – 4 mph at a nice high cadence – slow cadence hurts my knees and I like to be able to hit 30 mph while still pedalling 22 / 36 bash with an 11 / 34 cassette gives me the gears to do this. I simply cannot spin up a 1:4 hill using a 36 ring only.

Still piffle old chap – utter drivel. Might be OK for you but to say its not needed for most is just garbage. How often do you climb a couple of hundred yards of 1:3 – 1:4? Or climb a more than a thousand feet a mile?

You are either super fit or bust a gut at a really slow cadence. Some of us know how to spin. On todays ride we used every gear 22/ 34 bottom gear to 36 / 11 top. 1×9 simply does not have enough gears.

Why make life hard for yourself. there is no way ( unless you are super fit or prepared to really mash it at a knee straining low cadence) that you could get up some of my local hills – let alone the real big ones

I was sort of joking with that comment, I wouldnt say Im super fit by a long shot but I do get bored with just sitting and spinning my legs. Doesnt really feel like your doing much or getting anywhere quickly, I think I prefer to just use harder gears and ‘bash on’

Still piffle old chap – utter drivel. Might be OK for you but to say its not needed for most is just garbage. How often do you climb a couple of hundred yards of 1:3 – 1:4? Or climb a more than a thousand feet a mile?

You are either super fit or bust a gut at a really slow cadence. Some of us know how to spin. On todays ride we used every gear 22/ 34 bottom gear to 36 / 11 top. 1×9 simply does not have enough gears.

Why make life hard for yourself. there is no way ( unless you are super fit or prepared to really mash it at a knee straining low cadence) that you could get up some of my local hills – let alone the real big ones This is drivel, actually. Are you talking about a tandem? because you’re not making any sense if you’re talking about a regular MTB.

It’s too much of a style thing to make ridiculous generalisations about busting a gut in a low cadence versus spinning. Spinning in the granny would be wholly unsuitable for me on anything rough and steep, as I’ll never get the power down to move the bike forward (I’m a big bloke) and end up meandering all over the line. It can be great for smooth, steep and long climbs (a ski-slope is a good example) where you need to get into a rhythm, but we have relatively few climbs in the UK that are sustained enough to merit this. Certainly not round Edinburgh FFS – where are these monstrous climbs you’re talking about?

I can only think of the Howden burn climb as being really tough round here, at least among tracks that you’d think about taking a bike up. I’ve certainly never cleaned it. I’ve also never run out of gears on it, either. Just lungs and legs. I rode up to the radio mast at GT today, skipped the kips and went straight up the hiking path. Difficult climb for me but doable using 32×28. Anything less would have had me spinning on the spot.

Howden burn climb is one of the worst – I have ridden all bar a few m of it and I am old unfit and slow – nice low gears helps me. took me 20 mins tho. Granny gear from the bottom

a lot of it is about style. I like to sit and spin. Solo and tandem. It wasn’t me that was making the sweeping generalisations – it was the others with the ” no one needs a granny ring”

Again I find it far easier to keep a line spinning away – steadier and less chance of losing traction

I can ride up a steep hill nice and smoothly at 3 mph with a nice easy moderate cadence – around 60 ish?. If you have no granny gear you will be either riding 30% faster at the same cadence ( which I dont have the fitness to do) or at a 30% slower cadence at the same speed. ( which puts more strain on your knees.

A rider actually produce more power at a higher cadence – more torque at a lower one. I find traction much better at a higher cadence