I think I need the benefit of some other opinions on this.
Waffle (go to The point: to avoid)
Having been back into using my bike after a 10 year lay off, give or take the odd mtn bike session I've now had about 10 months to establish a pattern and analyze my riding style, which has changed, as has which gears I now use.
I now have a Dawes Audax, prior to this, apart from the mtn bike, I had an old Rotrax which I had bought in a shoddy state and fixed up. For some reason I got rid of that about 12 years ago - wish I still had it.
Anyway, my previous riding style was basically to choose a gear, normally 75" and ride it. Only changing for big hills and wind assisted straights. I was much more of a 'balls out' rider than I am now.
The Dawes came with a Tiagra chainset 52/42/30 12-25(10 spd). I changed the 52 to a 49 immediately as i knew I would never use a 52.
So: Where I live is quite bumpy, mostly singletrack with some quite challenging hills in the vicinity. There are no flat rides within a 30 mile radius.
My riding style is much more fluid than it used to be and because of modern STI's it's quite easy to maintain that fluidity, so I tend to ride, on the flat, at about 90rpm, dropping into the 70's and 60's for hills and into the 50's for 10% and all bets off for greater than 10%!.
To achieve this I now ride a 64-68" gear, except on long flats when I get into the 70"s. If I go past 22mph then I'm going downhill. I'm also a crap climber, always have been, so I need low gears.
The point: I don't use the lower half of my rear cassette. It might as well not be there. Instead I'd like a lot more choice around the 60-70" gear range and some lower gears around 27" for when I tour around here. I also need some more in the 70" range for when I am on the flat.
I like the triple and I'm thinking of setting it up thus:
outer ring - bigger 70-80" range for flatter longer roads - top gear 100"
middle ring - so named my singletrack ring for 47-65" range perfect for around here, usable top 71" (=20mph at 90rpm)
inner ring - for climbing only, once it gets past 1/4 mile 7% it would be engaged.
So with a 12-25 cassette this would mean a 46/38/26 on the front which at 90rpm gives me a speed range of 26-12mph for the outer and middle and at 55rpm 9-4.5mph on the inner.
For this I'm looking at a Stronglight chainset to replace the Tiagra.
So I'm just looking to bounce this off people and get some opinions on the gearing and Stronglight chainsets and rear/front mech compatibility i.e. will I be able to keep the existing rear 105 short mech and the front Tiagra. Also BB, will that need to be different for a Stronglight?
Just to be clear I don't race nor do Sportives or Audax events. I ride a modest 250 miles a month and consider a good ride out to be 40-60 miles, with an occassional 80 (I get bored and fidgety after that). My average speed really varies with the terrain but on a flat ride I do about 16.5mph average; this is adequate for my purposes.
Waffle (go to The point: to avoid)
Having been back into using my bike after a 10 year lay off, give or take the odd mtn bike session I've now had about 10 months to establish a pattern and analyze my riding style, which has changed, as has which gears I now use.
I now have a Dawes Audax, prior to this, apart from the mtn bike, I had an old Rotrax which I had bought in a shoddy state and fixed up. For some reason I got rid of that about 12 years ago - wish I still had it.
Anyway, my previous riding style was basically to choose a gear, normally 75" and ride it. Only changing for big hills and wind assisted straights. I was much more of a 'balls out' rider than I am now.
The Dawes came with a Tiagra chainset 52/42/30 12-25(10 spd). I changed the 52 to a 49 immediately as i knew I would never use a 52.
So: Where I live is quite bumpy, mostly singletrack with some quite challenging hills in the vicinity. There are no flat rides within a 30 mile radius.
My riding style is much more fluid than it used to be and because of modern STI's it's quite easy to maintain that fluidity, so I tend to ride, on the flat, at about 90rpm, dropping into the 70's and 60's for hills and into the 50's for 10% and all bets off for greater than 10%!.
To achieve this I now ride a 64-68" gear, except on long flats when I get into the 70"s. If I go past 22mph then I'm going downhill. I'm also a crap climber, always have been, so I need low gears.
The point: I don't use the lower half of my rear cassette. It might as well not be there. Instead I'd like a lot more choice around the 60-70" gear range and some lower gears around 27" for when I tour around here. I also need some more in the 70" range for when I am on the flat.
I like the triple and I'm thinking of setting it up thus:
outer ring - bigger 70-80" range for flatter longer roads - top gear 100"
middle ring - so named my singletrack ring for 47-65" range perfect for around here, usable top 71" (=20mph at 90rpm)
inner ring - for climbing only, once it gets past 1/4 mile 7% it would be engaged.
So with a 12-25 cassette this would mean a 46/38/26 on the front which at 90rpm gives me a speed range of 26-12mph for the outer and middle and at 55rpm 9-4.5mph on the inner.
For this I'm looking at a Stronglight chainset to replace the Tiagra.
So I'm just looking to bounce this off people and get some opinions on the gearing and Stronglight chainsets and rear/front mech compatibility i.e. will I be able to keep the existing rear 105 short mech and the front Tiagra. Also BB, will that need to be different for a Stronglight?
Just to be clear I don't race nor do Sportives or Audax events. I ride a modest 250 miles a month and consider a good ride out to be 40-60 miles, with an occassional 80 (I get bored and fidgety after that). My average speed really varies with the terrain but on a flat ride I do about 16.5mph average; this is adequate for my purposes.
