new bike advice

[busdennis]

hi all.

been doing some researech on the net for my new road bike purchase. i have a Specialized mtb which i love so have been mainly looking at this brand. my old road bike is a carrera virtuose.
my question is about the chainset, the virtuose has a 52/39 chainring and a 8 speed 11-30 cassette and being an heavy/fat rider i can turn a big gear on the flat but struggle up hills.

most bikes look to come with a 50t front ring as standard and even a 12 as the smallest on the cassette when i was hoping to increase to maybe a 53 or 54t. am i missing something about the working of gears

the second question being would the major components be transferable to a bike frame like this
http://www.ebay.co.u...=item1e64bef695


thanks for reading



dennis

 

[Paulus]

Good morning Busdennis, you say you can turn a big gear on the flat, but struggle up hills. Are you struggling in the 39/30 combination? With a low gear like that you should really be able to get up all but a vertical wall. With a 53t or a 54t chainring at the front, unless you are training for time trials or the TDF I would stick with the gearing you have. Get the chain on the smaller chainring,39t and see how you go. I think you are pushing too big a gear, when you really need to change down to a smaller one, ie the 39t chainring and use some of the bigger cogs at the back until you can build your fitness up. It does not take long, then you can start to go up the gears.

In a nutshell, the bigger chainring you use, the harder the pedalling will be, as will the smaller cog on the cassette at the back. Try to find a smaller gear that suits you within the gear range you have already.

 

[busdennis]

Good morning Busdennis, you say you can turn a big gear on the flat, but struggle up hills. Are you struggling in the 39/30 combination? With a low gear like that you should really be able to get up all but a vertical wall. With a 53t or a 54t chainring at the front, unless you are training for time trials or the TDF I would stick with the gearing you have. Get the chain on the smaller chainring,39t and see how you go. I think you are pushing too big a gear, when you really need to change down to a smaller one, ie the 39t chainring and use some of the bigger cogs at the back until you can build your fitness up. It does not take long, then you can start to go up the gears.

In a nutshell, the bigger chainring you use, the harder the pedalling will be, as will the smaller cog on the cassette at the back. Try to find a smaller gear that suits you within the gear range you have already.

tthanks for the reply

on the 39t with the top end at the back i can get up all the local hills, cloughton bank, staxton hill (scarborough) but it would be just as quick to get off and walk, but on a long flat i feel i am geared too high as i feel i would like to reduce my rpm and increase the gear to achieve the same pedal resistance.

 

[Paulus]

So you like pushing a big gear then. A word of warning though, it can take it's toll on your knees as there is a lot of pressure mashing a big gear through the knees. Moving up to 53 chainring would lower you RPM(cadence) and increase the topspeed but would make it hard(er) work.

 

[lulubel]

on a long flat i feel i am geared too high as i feel i would like to reduce my rpm and increase the gear to achieve the same pedal resistance.

Doesn't the pedal resistance increase when you change to a higher gear on the flat?

Personally, I'd suggest practicing pedaling faster. I know that grinding (pedaling slowly) and spinning (pedaling fast) stress your muscles and CV system in different ways, so your body has probably got very good at grinding, but spinning is a struggle for you. If you practice spinning, you'll start to develop another kind of fitness, and as your fitness improves you'll be able to go faster with the same gearing - plus your speed uphill should improve dramatically. It will also make you more flexible in that you can mix up the 2 different techniques and reduce fatigue.

The reason a lot of the bikes you're looking at have a 50 tooth big ring is probably because they're compact chainsets - 34/50 is common. If you're happy with a 39 tooth small ring, you'd be looking for a standard double, which will give you a bigger big ring. But make sure the cassette has enough teeth on the large sprocket if you do that. The bike I just bought for my turbo trainer has a 39/52 double, but an 11-26 cassette. It's fine for the trainer, but I wouldn't like to try and ride up hills on it!