I am wanting to run a bigger cassette/ratio on certain courses over the cross season and i know that i will need to change the rear mech cage length to accomodate the bigger cogs but how do i know what length the chain needs to be?

Is there a proven method that i should be using? Any help appreciated…

Ok mate this is simple,
Put on big ring front,top gear rear smallest cog….jockeys should be vertically in-line…
Thas it!
Go do it! 🙂
Pete

Thanks fella i will try that over the weekend…

Also been thinking that perhaps if i am going to be changing cassettes quite often i should have 2/3 chains at the required lengths for each cassette…Is it worth doing???

Do you really ‘NEED’ to change cassette? Surely just stick with the smallest you can get away with…

I don’t need to change cassettes no but am at a stage with my racing where i want to try different ratio’s to find which one work better on certain courses, i have been picking up different cassettes on STW to do this,,

Am not sure what/if it will make any difference but i have been training better and thought why not, it’s something that i am wanting to learn and it may give me a few extra places over people running harder gears on certain courses…

Chain around big ring and biggest sprocket should overlap two links when it does not go through the rear derailleur.

Changing sprockets is not a huge deal. My road bike came with a 28 and I run a 23 on race wheels. A five tooth difference is easily accommodated.

TIRed when you say overlap do you mean have to extra links in the chain before going through the rear mech?

And are you saying that perhaps i won’t need to worry to much about chain length when reducing cassettes down from say 28 to a 26 or slightly less?

But am thinking i would need increase chain length when say going up to a 32 sprocket?

Hope all that makes sense??!! and thanks for your help…

This article has never let me down.

Park Tool

A 1″ overlap is two links. Loop it around the sprocket and chainring and back. Overlap two links. Take off the excess and thread the chain through the derailleur and close. The Park article shows a picture of precisely this.

Start with a 28T. You’ll easily cover a 26T and a 32T should offer no issues if you don’t use the big-big combination. If you are 1×10 there will be no problems either. If you plan on using 32t most of the time, set it for that. The 26T will still be OK. As I said mine was set for 28T. I don’t use that cassette and run either 25 or 23T without chain length adjustment. That is for a road cassette. MTB long cage can accomodate even more.

All that makes good sense and am thinking with what you have told me i may not have to bother adapting the chain length which will make life a lot easier!!!

Thank you for your advice and i shall post to let you know how i get on!!! 😀

If full sus, dont forget to let air out of rear shock to allow for growth due to sus movement!