Road bike cassette size?

11-28 on the current 10 speed, with a compact up front

have 11 speed to fit – that will be 12-28

11 25 for long days in the peaks or rather lots of climbs over 10% is just too much for me. About to switch to a 12 27 which is what I have on my other bike.

11 28 will be fine for most riders.

The reason the vuelta riders were on such small gears was because they were hitting 20% ramps after 120 miles. Best answer is pick what you think you’ll be comfortable with given your fitness and usual terrain.

11-28 on my singly ringly bike, works well for me but I think it’s personal taste too- I don’t care for close ratios, I had a 12-25 on a bike for a while and all it meant was I did lots of double shifts.

11-25 with a 52 36, riding in the lakes. Feels like a good compromise for me between outright speed and being able to climb the steep but relatively short climbs round here.
I tend to climb out of the saddle on any steep ramps.

50-34 compact & 11-28 out back, I like spinning I do

11-28 with compact chainset has got me up everything I’ve tried in the Peak (up to 20%). I put on a 12-30 for the Ventoux last weekend and was very glad of it. A better solution would be to lose my gut but a new cassette was quicker and easier. Even if my rear mech would handle a 32 sprocket I think I’d notice the gaps between gears.

Winter bike has 50/36 & 11-25, new bike is similar but with a 52 and 11 speed.

Massive improvement for me, the winter bike is getting a 52 on the front.

Anything more than a 11-25 with a compact chainset is overkill IMO, unless you are riding the alps. 50-25 has me spinning up a local 1:5 gradient.

If by spinning you mean about 90rpm then 50/25 = over 14mph. Not bad for a 20% gradient. Have you thought of turning pro?

Mine is a 50 34 with 10 speed 11-32. Rides round here are all either long grinding ups, or long fast descents, averaging 1000 feet climbing for every ten miles ridden. . I’m not an avid road rider but a fifty year old with knackered hips and too much ballast, so that combination allows me to ride just fine. I’m in the process of ordering an 11 speed, and was chuffed to see that has an 11-32 as well. I sometimes get out of the saddle in the big ring on short ramps, but my ride home is a climb of 1000 feet in six miles, with just a quarter of a mile that doesn’t go upwards. Most of that is in the saddle!

If by spinning you mean about 90rpm then 50/25 = over 14mph. Not bad for a 20% gradient. Have you thought of turning pro?

😆

Hehehe

All these Billy Big Bollocks types that insist on having small cassettes and big chainrings… How are your hips and knee joints by the way? Either you’ve not learnt how to spin (spinning is good incidentally, you should try it!) or you’re knocking on the heels of Cat1/Elite riders…

To finish first, first you have to finish (and all that crap)… I see no point in having a low gear that is fine for your steepest local terrain when you’re fresh, but may be a totally different story if you’ve got a century in your legs already. Gear the bike for when you’ve already done a ton and you’ll rethink your strategy!

With that in mind, and my constant improvement in cadence over the last 18 months (I’m up from about 78 avg on a ride now to 94 avg typically), my bike has a 50/34 compact and a 12/30 cassette. If I was going to the alps I wouldn’t hesitate to fit an 11-32, but round here there’s not much facility to spin out 50/12 (and I mean spin it out, not tap out 80rpm) and the 30 lowest just about does me when I’ve got the best part of a century in my legs and am faced with a steep hill. For normal training rides round here, the lowest gear I’ll generally use is 34/21, or sometimes I won’t even drop from the big ring if it’s a flatter ride.

Downsides? On odd occasions I’ll find that a 16t cog would be useful, sat in a group occasionally I may find the 15 a touch tall and the 17 a touch too short geared, but it’s more of a minor inconvenience than it is an issue. In a hillier area, the gaps between smaller cogs become largely meaningless to be fair! Just ask Brad, who was known to have used an 11-36 MTB cassette on his Dogma in some Alpine Stages in the 2012 TdF (along with a modified derailleur) to help him keep his cadence up around 100rpm even when the roads went nearly vertical…

2:1 “spinning” up a 1:5 indeed… Alberto Contador would like some tips! Or at least to speak to your doctor for a prescription… 🙄

11-23 here – do I win?

Just getting into road biking and got a 9 speed 50/34 with 11-32. will be going 10 speed with a 48/33 and 11-32 because i enjoy going for a ride and would like a bike that helps with that rather than something that looks pro and means that I can brag about it on the internet, but makes me enjoy going out on my bike less.

As said before, there’s no right anwer, but a 32t on a road bike is most definitely wrong 😆

That’s why I question if a 32 was even available for the road, thought it was just a MTB thing and maybe an oddball SRAM.
The options (I thought) were 12/25 most common, 12/27 for a bit lower gear, 11/28 for extra top an bottom but could be gappy, 12/30 ultegra nuclear option.

All these Billy Big Bollocks types that insist on having small cassettes and big chainrings… How are your hips and knee joints by the way?

not sure who these people are, I thought we’d pretty much established its a case of find what works for you and ride it? I prefer my standard to the compact I bought to replace it, I’d have hardly dropped £££ on a new, smaller crank if I was desperate to be an internet hero. I spin at 90rpm on flat/rolling stuff but climb out of the saddle. Contador and Froome have completely different climbing styles, each works them so neither approach is wrong.

Cassettes are cheap enough (tiagra 10spd is £12.99 @CRC) for the OP to easily experiment.

I think Mikey falls into that category – ‘spinning’ 50-25 up 20% gradients!

I ride a triple up front! Just putting that out there for support of others. You are all keeping quiet but I know you are out there feeling slightly ashamed.

I’ve heldheld on to my childhood mentality, the more gears the better

I ride a triple up front!

I used to and it was fine but I’m finding less choice is better for me. I was never quite sure when I hit the hills whether to go for the middle or small ring. With a compact and 28t I only lost (less than) 2 gears compared with the triple and 25t and there is no question about which front ring to go for.

aracer – Member
11-23 here – do I win?

reckon so on that basis mine are this big >>>> : (actual size before being shredded and reconstituted via the web)

MTB touring triple here and 12-32 but I do ride a lot of off road and wouldn’t think twice about a 25% hill, seen lots of people on challenge rides pushing on 10-15% hills, presume they bowed to the belief that if you ride enough you’ll get strong enough to ride a standard with a 25 all day long

wilburt – Member
That’s why I question if a 32 was even available for the road, thought it was just a MTB thing and maybe an oddball SRAM.

Mine has an XT 11-32 with a “long” cage 105 mech.

I spin at 90rpm on flat/rolling stuff but climb out of the saddle.

Try climbing out of the saddle for about 12 miles. 😀

I ride a triple up front!

my triple receives sneering comments (30:25 low)

mostly from people riding compacts and 28/32s 🙄

I’m just (Finally) finishing up a build that will see me go from 50/34 with 12-25 (9 speed) to a 39/53 with an 11-28 (10 speed) cassette.

I did some sums, and I’ll lose less than 1 gear inch at the top end and gain 17 at the other end (although I doubt I’ll use all of that TBH)…

It’s an experiment more than anything, I have a feeling I’ll probably be getting a Compact once I wear out the rings on that standard chainset, but the 53/39 + 11-28 range seems like it will suit me for my Local riding (I’m not likely to be climbing any Alps) and there is a 12-30 Cassette available should I decide I need to to incrementally tweak the gear range a little but still don’t fancy going the full 12-32 Bhuna…

TBH there’s so many potential combinations of Chainring and Sprockets it’s possible to create just about any range of gears you might fancy…

I do ride mostly with a mate who uses 53/39 and 11-25, I could out climb him before on my heavier bike with a compact, I’m hoping that effectively replicating the top gearing from that on a lighter bike will mean I can still climb at about the same rate, He still won’t consider changing his Cassette though…

Compact chainset and 11-28 on the good bike, 11-23 on the fast commuter and 12-25 on the winter commuter.

Ignore the bravado and go with this advice:

mrblobby – Member
Really depends on you and where you ride. For most training rides I have 11-25 on a 53/39, but then it’s pretty flat around west berks and the climbs are short and punchy. Spent a couple of weeks riding around Pembrokeshire recently though and if I lived there I’d probably be riding a wider ratio and/or a compact.

wilburt – Member
That’s why I question if a 32 was even available for the road,….maybe an oddball SRAM

got the impression that the “oddball” SRAM 11speeed 32 was becoming popular enough option for non club road riders that shimano found out that 32 was possible with a 105 mech and added a cassette with it

thomthumb – Member

my triple receives sneering comments (30:25 low)

mostly from people riding compacts and 28/32s

I’ve only got a 52T chainring, do I have permission to sneer? Since clearly I have a massive cock.

Do those with a 32 find you use it on nearly all hills rather than a bail out gear? Reason I ask is a mate of mine had a 32 and found his natural reaction was to use it on anything uphill, he changed to a 28 and found he was a lot faster over the same route and didn’t miss the 32 like he thought he would.

Never used a 32, but it would be incredibly twiddly on a compact. It really is a bail out gear, and most people could grind on a 28 or 29 up anything. I do think if you have the gear you’ll use it, like your mate found. I regularly try (and often fail; like going up Crowdecote a few days ago) the “forget you have a lower gear” game and try to ride in a bigger gear. On a sub 40 mile ride in the peaks its not a problem but as the distance ramps up or you do grippy route having a lower gear will get you home.

My commuter came with a 11-32 and I used the 32 a lot on steep climbs but (and the horror) with the 50 at the front. Then basically you are riding a 1×9 setup for 90% time. Main reason I do it is it reduces the chance of dropping the chain going onto the smaller ring.

OK I’ll stick my head above the parapet and admit to having 50/34 11/34 on the road bike 😳

12/23 and 42/52 for me. I just checked and my last road ride was 104km with 173m of climbing.

Just depends how strong you are and where you ride and how hard your rides are.

I use compact with 11/25 and only need that when my legs are tired for getting up some of the 20% ramp around the Surrey Hills – would like more for Barhatch when really tired though! I was happy with a compact and 12/27 in the Pyrenees – not so steep so able to spin even at my most tired up the Hautacam say. I’d really prefer a normal double with 12/27 for most my riding but usually have to return home via a steep climb so that’s when need a lower gear.

I’d really prefer a normal double with 12/27

That’s what I’m running, it’s fine most of the time, just on occasion a bit lower would be nice. I still reckon I’ll go 11-28 11 speed with 52/36 next time I build a bike.

hooli – Member
Do those with a 32 find you use it on nearly all hills rather than a bail out gear? Reason I ask is a mate of mine had a 32 and found his natural reaction was to use it on anything uphill, he changed to a 28 and found he was a lot faster over the same route and didn’t miss the 32 like he thought he would

No. When it hurts to pedal in the gear I am in, I change down. If it gets too hard to pedal in that gear, I change down again. If it hurts to pedal in the lowest gear I just keep pedalling until I get to the top. If/when it gets easier I change back up. Having a 32 cog means it hurts less of the time.

MTB touring triple here and 12-32 but I do ride a lot of off road and wouldn’t think twice about a 25% hill, seen lots of people on challenge rides pushing on 10-15% hills

I do put on an 11-25 for sportives with 25% climbs, but pretty much anything I’d ride normally I can get up with 34/23 (which includes sustained 10-14% climbs around here) – maybe a bit of a heave, but no big problems, and I find the cogs you lose in the middle are just about in my normal speed range, so more irritating not to have them than to have to get out of the saddle occasionally.

Don’t often get to ride proper hills living down south, but on a recent jaunt to South Wales found myself grinding up Preseli for over 20 mins into a vicious headwind with 39/25 on tired legs (over 300w average and slower than walking pace such was the headwind.) A humbling experience. Even entertained the thought of walking at one point. If you’d have offered me a touring triple I’d have taken it 😳

Northwind – Member

thomthumb – Member
my triple receives sneering comments (30:25 low)

mostly from people riding compacts and 28/32s

I’ve only got a 52T chainring, do I have permission to sneer? Since clearly I have a massive cock.[/quote]

Surely that Massive Cock just adds extra weight and potentially diverts blood flow from the guns? you should consider changing it for a “Compact”…