Road bike cassette size?

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

Sounds like you could do with one of these saddles too…

104km with 173m of climbing

– went up the banking on a couple of laps ?

😯

Northwind – do you find a 52 OK then ?

looking for a replacement for my 56:11 fixie. It’s quite a handfull* on anything over 25%

*yes, my I’m an enormous cock

Compact and 11-28 11 speed here. Living in Leicestershire I don’t tend to need the 28 that often but it’s nice to have.

The wife is on the verge of buying a new roadie and it’ll come with a compact and 32t cassette, however coming from a triple I think she’ll be grateful.

On my good bike I have a compact and 12-27. That gets me up most of my local (Yorkshire) hills and most of a ride I did in the Peak district too.

On my winter bike I have a triple with 30 on the back. Last winter I did use the smallest gear (mainly because if it’s there I end up clicking down into it) but I’m not so sure I’ll need to use it this year. It’s what it came with and a bigger cassette than I would have chosen but I’ve never got round to changing it.

The bike I use for riding up mountains in the canaries* has a triple and either 27 or 28 on the back I think.

Oh, and the fixie is 44-16 I think.

*my parents live there, and so does the bike.

I live in he part of Suffolk that is by no means flat but can be done happily if you give it some power up the short, sharp climbs.

I used to ride a 53/39 but now run the new 52/36, both with an 11-23 cassette.

for going further afield, I bang on the 11-28 and im golden.

round these parts, I never use the inner ring

I think you all took the “spinning” bit too literally. The point being that unless you are constantly riding up 20% gradients or 10-20km long climbs, then cassettes of mtb proportions seem overkill IMO. I’m happy to push a 34:25 gear up a relatively short 20% climb, although if it stretched into the kilometers, then I may need to reach for something larger.

pretty much anything I’d ride normally I can get up with 34/23

Which is virtually the same gear as 39/27? Not particularly tall, albeit taller than is fashionable I concede!

I think you all took the “spinning” bit too literally

Eh? You said:

50-25 has me spinning up a local 1:5 gradient.

There’s not really any room for interpretation there! This:

I’m happy to push a 34:25 gear up a relatively short 20% climb

Is very different altogether.

End of the day it’s horses for courses innit. Chap I know has just built a Dogma, lovely bike, went with 53/39 and 11-25, because it looks good (which it does). He’s grinding away on the climbs, but he still gets up them. I suspect many people would manage with taller gears if it’s all they had, but for very legitimate reasons they’re disinclined to try.

Which is virtually the same gear as 39/27? Not particularly tall, albeit taller than is fashionable I concede!

Yes – before the compact I ran 39/23 and I do enjoy the ability to get up the steeper stuff I used to tend to avoid without suffering too much!

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.

What makes it “road?”

10 speed chain will work on a 10 speed cassette, won’t it?

I’m on a 11-34 PG1080 (I think, could be 1070.) with a single 48T ring up front.

It works. I’m not going to be winning races on it (mainly because I shan’t be entering any), but the spread’s good.

went up the banking on a couple of laps ?

I live in one of the flatter parts of the Netherlands, the only ‘hills’ are bridges over the highway.

I’ve got a compact and 13-27 and live in Reading, so no big hills, but lots of short sharp ones, and lots of bail out routes for days when the legs don’t want to know. I’ll happily admit to being an unfit fat biffer though so I’d advise whatever makes you happy, except a tripple they’re just wrong.

Triple 53/42/30 and 29-13 here. Big ring for descents, middle for most everything else and 30 for climbing.

cookeaa – Member

Surely that Massive Cock just adds extra weight and potentially diverts blood flow from the guns?

It’s carbon fibre.

50/34 and 11-25 for me. Relatively lumpy round here, but it’s not exactly the alps.

50-11 gives a taller top gear than 53-12, and getting an 11-25 insteading of a 12-26 or whatever was a cheaper way of getting a slightly taller top gear without the expense of chainrings.

Horses for courses but this works nicely for me.

I’d never really thought about this. Apparently I have a 50/34 and 12/25. Does me up all the hills round the Dales/North Pennines/Lakes and only end up grinding once it gets up around 20%* but I think I’d want something lower on something really long.

*or when I’m blowing up.

I have got “SORA 50/39/30 triple crankset, 9-speed 12/25 cassette” apparently 😉

I would like a bigger cog at the back as up a few stiff climbs I am still faster on my Mtb than I am on this. To be honest, I don’t get all the snobbery. Ride what you want. I like the idea of being able to leave home and ride up anything I encounter. If that means hauling around a couple of extra teeth then so be it 🙂

Nedrapier- It’s not a macho thing, if you’ve got a 48 tooth chainring that’s designed for a hybrid which is great because you’ll mostly be riding on your own and not wanting to sweat. However 48 /11 will max you out at 31mph for 100 rpm so in a fast group road ride it’ll leave you a little short of pace.
Equally so if you want to winch up an off road climb you’ll need a real low gear or maybe your building fitness or maybe your absolutely smashing it and live in Suffolk in which case 52/39 -12/23 is all you need, it’s just different options but you can say some are more suited to road, commuting, MTB, touring, etc.

Guy in our group on Sunday had something like 25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16

Never seen anything like it.

Haze – Member

Guy in our group on Sunday had something like 25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16

Never seen anything like it.

Clearly you’ve never watched countdown.

Incidentally, for my fellow big strong manly men with massive cocks, I see Wolftooth now do a 52T narrow/wide chainring. It’s not cheap though…