Cassette on new bikes.

[HLaB]

As far as I am concerned, there is no other! Pedalling downhill? Weird...

No choice yesterday, hills I usually free wheel down close to 30 mph I was having to pedal down hard at 18mph

 

[DCBassman]

No choice yesterday, hills I usually free wheel down close to 30 mph I was having to pedal down hard at 18mph

Yup, been a tad breezy...

 

[Hugh Manatee]

As an elderly fat man, 12-23 is what I use around here:

It isn't that clean now!

 

[I like Skol]

I guess the people that don't like an 11T small sprocket don't live somewhere particularly hilly?

 

[Smokin Joe]

I guess the people that don't like an 11T small sprocket don't live somewhere particularly hilly?

I don't like an 11t because I do live somewhere hilly. I'd prefer a 12 or even a 13 to either close up the ratios or give an extra large cog on the cassette.

48x12 is easily enough if you are not racing, descents are there to rest your legs and recover energy.

 

[nickyboy]

I guess the people that don't like an 11T small sprocket don't live somewhere particularly hilly?

To be fair, on reasonably steep descents I don't pedal.

But it's those annoying 3-4% ones where you need the 11 tooth. Freewheeling gets you 30mph but if you want to go faster you have to pedal

Long Hill from Buxton to Whaley Bridge is a good example. It's about 5 miles down at about 3% so it's a boring descent without pedalling

 

[KneesUp]

It gets worse...I bought a bike from Decathlon. Decent road bike. Presumably standard specced for UK.

Lowest gear was 34-25. I live in the Peak District. It was tough going. I did make it up Winnats pass with that gearing for a bet but it wasn't pretty

I remember cycling out of Borth y Gest to Porthmadoc and then on to Harlech castle on my 1980s Peugeot with 52/42 and 14-25, when all the cycling I'd done until then had been in lovely flat south Manchester. I would not be at all surprised if the knee pain I get now, nearly 30 years later, is as a direct result of that day.

 

[ColinJ]

I remember cycling out of Borth y Gest to Porthmadoc and then on to Harlech castle on my 1980s Peugeot with 52/42 and 14-25, when all the cycling I'd done until then had been in lovely flat south Manchester. I would not be at all surprised if the knee pain I get now, nearly 30 years later, is as a direct result of that day.

Especially if you went by the scenic route!

 

[Jody]

descents are there to rest your legs and recover energy.

Nah. Descents are for adrenaline not rest.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I don't particularly give a stuff about the spacing.

There's the crux. If a rider doesn't care (or realise that closer spacing might be beneficial) then why not have an 11t or indeed a 34t (if the RD can cope).

 

[DCBassman]

The alternative is going for a triple to get the desired range

No, have the 11-34 AND the triple! It's great!.

 

[Hugh Manatee]

I guess the people that don't like an 11T small sprocket don't live somewhere particularly hilly?

Or have a 53 big ring. Stupid autocorrect wanted to change that to a Bing ring. I'm not sure if I want to know what one of those is!

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

How about new bikes being shipped to dealers without cassettes or chain rings (just the cranks)?

I can see that dealers may not be happy stocking a range of chainrings for each groupset in a manufacturer's range for both cost and space reasons, but I suspect that if this were to become the norm, chainrings could be supplied in dealer bulk packs reducing cost significantly.

Cassettes would seem to be a bit easier to stock especially if we went back a bit in time and each sprocket could be added individually, even if standard sizes had to be used I suspect that the supply chain would become more used to holding and shipping a higher volume than is currently the case.

I was looking at a Specialized Allez recently and it came with an 11-32 cassette (11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32), 8 speed Claris, with 50/34 chain rings, it was bought by someone who had not cycled since school to do triathlons on and she didn't know enough to ask for a cassette change.

For where I live and at my current level of fitness that is almost a 3 speed bike, 34*18, 50*18, 50*13. the 15-18 jump is really wrong for me as 15 is too large a gear and 18 too small a gear on the large ring so it is also almost 4 speed with a lot of gear changes.

If I were buying the bike and could specify the cassette it would ideally be 12-14-15-16-17-19-21-24 and if I didn't know what I wanted I could ask for something typical for my area.

Bye

Ian

 

[KneesUp]

Are you suggesting that if only I were to use close spacing the scales would fall from my eyes and I would realise what I've been missing all along?

Well, maybe, but I like my 11-34 cassette too much to risk it. The alternative is going for a triple to get the desired range, which would mean completely re-engineering my bike, something I don't have the time or inclination to do.

I can honestly say that I've never, ever thought "this gear in the middle of the range is OK, but really, it's not quite right. I wish it were just a smidge higher (or lower) but not a whole gear change". I'm sure that there are plenty of other people who do think this. Probably people who are fitter than me, who ride faster and do bigger distances.

I generally go for range - I think I have a 12-32 on the currently used wheel. Might be a 34. I also have a triple. However, the other (very rarely used at the moment) bike has a I-don't-quite-remember cassette on it that I bought because it was in the bargain bin at a cycle jumble and had seemingly no wear. It has 1 tooth gaps. I am not fit, and only really used it for commuting (until the novelty of the speed benefit of the other bike being lighter wore off and I was annoyed by it's relatively hard ride, fragility of the wheels versus the craters in the road and lack of mudguards) but I have to admit that on my lightly undulating commute the 1 tooth gaps were quite nice. If I were to ride any distance around here I suspect my lack of fitness and the lack of range would soon cause problems though, which is why I generally use wider spacing. That said, now I've thought about it I might swap that cassette on to the used bike for a bit because my current level of fitness does at the moment leave me wanting a gear in between two gears. It's not a massive problem though, as you say, and not one I'd spend money to sort out - but 10 minutes with a cassette tool, maybe. If it's not cold or raining at the weekend. Otherwise, forget it !

 

[postman]

You had a front clanger? You must have been well off! I dreamt of having 10 gears instead of 5.

Cue "You were lucky, we had to eat COLD gravel" response.

Brakes brakes you were lucky when i wer a lad we wore out the fronts of our shoes got a right slapping orf me mum.