Less teeth cassette for harder gears?

[vman]

My question is simple, but every time I ask I get a different answer. It comes in 2 parts.

I use my mountain bike on the road %99 of the time now. So I need harder gears and never drop to the smallest cog on the chain set.

So I got a cassette 11/28 instead of what I have 12/32.

Will this give me the desired effect and do I need to swap the chain, which is new or chain set. etc. Or can I simply swap the cassette and leave everything else as it is?

 

[Bigtwin]

Get a larger front big ring.

 

[adscrim]

You should be able to simply swap the cassette although there doesn't seem much point as you've not affected your longest gear by much. Have you thought about putting a larger chain ring up front?

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

No chain swap required (assuming that the chain is not too worn, or using it will knacker your new cassette) just change the cassette and you will have "harder gears" with the smaller cog sizes, but (IIRC) it's more effective to change the large front ring for a bigger effect.

 

[vman]

Thanks for the quick response. I hadn't really thought much about it until I bought the wrong cassette and then instead of sending it back considered it may be the solution to my lack of high gears. I think I'll try this first and next time increase the size of the chain ring. Thanks

 

[Globalti]

Keep the MTB for offroad and buy a road bike. You'll get a lot more speed for the same effort.

 

[vman]

Fair point. I did get a road bike last year, but got knocked off in my first week. So it's probably time I repaired it.