Afternoon all, I guess this question may have been asked more than once, but I think my predicament is a little different to most. I’ve mentioned before that I have several medical issues, I cannot get out of the seat to pedal and have great difficulty on steeper climbs, my road bike has lowish gearing and I can just about manage, but I have the opportunity on a disc braked gravel/CX bike, but the gearing is still not low enough for me. I’d like to stick to 2X on the front and 10/11 on the back, with 40+ on the biggest ring, is there any current bikes that have this option or can be converted to the bigger option, by using an MTB rear mech? Alternatively, is there any smaller crank rings that would help with the gearing?

Another addition to this, would I be able to get a spare set of wheels and use them for the road on the same bike?

I’m not an all out go faster guy, so having different bikes for all different disciplines is not my thing, so, I would like to have one bike for two uses.

Thanks all.

Alan.

You could fit an MTB crankset, for Torino-Nice i used 38/22 front and an 11-36 rear cassette with medium Ultegra rear mech, it was a really low gear and meant i could crawl up those Alpine hills with a loaded bike?

There are also a number of chainsets now available in 46/30 front chainrings which i think are perfect for gravel bikes.

There are various ways of doing this but the simplest could be to run a triple chainset as a double just using the inner and middle rings. You might need a triple front mech depending on how well the front shift works.

My fist port of call would be a gear calculator, just to make sure you are getting the right range and know what you are comparing.
MTB cranks do sound like the obvious answer if your front mech will reach down far enough

Spa Cycles do a huge range of chainsets and rings. I think go down to 40/24 or thereabouts.

I use 44/30 cranks on my 650b drop bar bike with an 11spd 11/32 cassette. That is enough to winch up 1000m plus climbs loaded.
I don’t use the Praxis Works chainsets as I don’t like being tied into proprietary systems – my cranks have 110/74 BCD chainrings which means the spares are readily available.

With a 40 big ring, your smaller ring will be 26 – I fitted the same with an XT MTB chainset but needed a triple front mech in order to get it to shift smoothly on the bigger ring (slightly wider chainline) – it came in handy riding rough stony tracks in Scotland where you needed to stay seated to maintain grip

Would you consider a triple? I’m not sure that a double has much to offer over a triple (except perhaps by saving a smidgen of weight) as you still need a front mech. and second shifter. 40, 34, 24 triples are readily available and you might still find a 44, 32, 22 9 speed triple which should be find with a 10 speed set up (not sure about 11); you’d get a nice spread of gears without the need for monster cogs.

replaced my 105 road chainset with 30/40/50 set up, to a mtb chainst with a 22/32/42 set up, just yesterday.

just got in from a 50 mile ride, and my legs feel better. spinning is better than pushing for me.

You needed to use a gear calculator like the one provided by Sheldon Brown, calculate the existing ratios on your road bike and then use that as a starting basis for the gravel bike.

ton – what shifters are you using – was it a flat bar set up? Did you have to change anything else at the same time?

ton – what shifters are you using – was it a flat bar set up

durace thumbies/bar end shifters.
10 spd, work with everything.

didnt change anything else.
10 spd 105 mech front and rear. works fine

I have 11sp ultegra shifters, and an SLX double chainset, fitted with 28/46 rings. Old ultegra triple front mech. Doesn’t shift perfectly due to the big jump, but it is useable. I think if you went to a 30 or 44 chainring to close the gap it would shift much better.

In the past I’ve also used a standard 10sp MTB 24/36 double chainset and front derailleur (slx) with road shifters. It’s not meant to work but I found it absolutely fine.

I’ve also set up many bikes at work with ultegra r8000 and an XT 11-40 cassette. Worked totally fine even without a hanger extender on our bikes.

Personally wouldn’t bother with a triple any more as decent shifters are hard/impossible to come by. The latest 105 or ultegra shifters are so good I couldn’t take the step back to old 9/10sp.

If you’re looking for a bike with this option whats budget?

Topstone 105 for £1300 ish has 11-34 cassette and 46/30 cranks, with the crispy Shimano 105.

30 + 34 climbs fantastically, and theres plenty of speed on the flats/road with 11 + 46.

I found this article helpful. I’ll be acting on it in the new year.

Basically 105 shifters and mechs will work with 46 30 upfront and upto 40 at the back

https://road.cc/content/feature/246424-how-get-ultra-low-gearing-gravel-bike-adventures

I just changed my 105 triple to a 42/26 double plus chain guard. Running 11-34 10 speed cassette with 9 speed mtb mech.

Ok so I have a 34/50 front with a 11-32 on the rear. Doing the Jenn ride in just over a week and worried I won’t have a low enough gear for any tricky uphills. Can I install something like the below with current rear mech which is a Shimano Tiagra 10 speed. Don’t want to spend loads really.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/shimano-slx-hg81-10-speed-mtb-cassette/rp-prod52312?mx=a

My apologies, I should have added, my road bike is 10 speed running 11-36 and a road triple on the front, I kid you not, even in the easiest gearing, and no matter what I do, I just cannot manage, my legs really are weak, I cannot do atrack stand, but with lower gearing, I can get a slow spin going, but still keep moving and maintain my balance.

My first MTB was 7 speed with something like an 11-28 and 42-32-22 on the front and I even had difficulties with that at times, that was 25 years ago, several physical issues and two seizures since.

Ta.

Tiagra 10 speed mech in mid length cage will run 11-34 with no problems, the bits are cheap and work really well, I have Tiagra with trigger shifters on my gravel bike and the gear change is rock solid.

Do you use 10 speed road or mtb chain with a mtb rear cassette?

cyclingwilly, just swap your road triple for a mtb triple. simples.

cyclingwilly, my suggestion would be to go with a wide range 1X11 or 1X12 that gives you the gearing range that you need then select a front chainring to give you the required bottom gear, for example a Sram 1X11 rear cassette giving 11:42 then run something like a 26 front ring, would give you a bottom gear so low you might not be able to balance but still give a reasonable top speed. The Sram 1X12 can give you 10:50 cassette which is a wider range than most folk have on a road bike, run that with a 26 front ring and it would be really slow in bottom gear, much slower than your original MTB. (I use Hope Spiderless chainrings on a Hope crankset, they are available in 26t up to 36t)

Another addition to this, would I be able to get a spare set of wheels and use them for the road on the same bike?

yes would be my answer have done this for last few years with no problems eg 25mm for road and 35 for gravel and not used matching hubs and have run 12-36 and 11-32 with same chain – some people have to reset caliper position which is a pain but not too tricky and/or tweek indexing maybe a small turn on inline adjuster – since swopped to thru axles never had to do either – only precaution is do use a chain checker to try to keep chain wear under control to avoid damaging cassette and screwing up indexing

as to gearing not sure can add to above hope get sorted get out and enjoy

I swapped the front Rival compact chainset for an X9 mtb chainset with 22/38. I dropped the derailleur down the seatpost and fitted a spacer to the bottom bracket and that was all that was required to get far better gearing, and weight saving compared to fitting a larger cassette than the 11-28 and rival rear derailleur.
I could fit an 11-32 cassette but in truth when in the lowest gear 22/28 it would hard to go lower and maintain enough momentum for balance.

lowest gear 22/28 it would hard to go lower and maintain enough momentum for balance.

have a gravel tourer with 10speed 105 STI XT double chain set 40 / 24 with 11-36 out back and XT mechs – thats about 20% lower than 22/28 I think and i’ve not fallen off – don’t understate how slow some of us can go when pushed depends on cadence at 70rpm I’d be doing 6km/hr but can keep that up [/whatnosmilies]

http://www.bikecalc.com/speed_at_cadence

Late to the party with this and I’m running 1×11 so might not be helpful.

Just swapped out my Rival 1 spider and attached 36t chainring (the lowest I can go on a 110BCD) to a direct mount 32t.

I’m not bothered about top end all that much, as I pretty much treat my gravel steed as a trail bike (rigid, drop bars and 40c tyres and pedalling over rough stuff doesn’t work). I’ve now got a 32:42 low end, which is great for winching up steep stuff and long climbs but still OK for cruising on the flat.

With the direct mount you can run whatever ring you fancy and go as low as you need albeit sacrificing the top end.

Hope this helps.

Given that you can pretty much cross chain fairly easily these days, why do front chain rings still over lap so much?

Why don’t we see something like a 26, 52 chainset these days? particularly on gravel bikes/tourers.

Given that you can pretty much cross chain fairly easily these days, why do front chain rings still over lap so much?

Why don’t we see something like a 26, 52 chainset these days? particularly on gravel bikes/tourers.

Rear mech capacity and front mech/chainring design/capacity. That would be 26T at the rear mech before considering the cassette (say 11-36 being another 25). 26-52 would be a huge jump for a chain to make without an interim cog.

You can get XT M8000 triple cranks for 3×11 with 40/30/22 rings. Then an 11-46 cassette for an insanely low bottom gear. That’s about as low as you could go I’d say. You may even have difficulty staying on the bike you’d be going so slowly!

Have you considered an e-bike?

My OHs Ridgeback tourer came with 44/32/22 11-32 gearing as standard, 8 or 9 speed I think.

Marin Four Corners has a triple.