Rear derailleur and rack - Alpine touring advice

[Adam Riding]

Hi, I am planning on doing a 1,000 mile tour from Cannes to Rome then from Milan to Lyon (obviously a train or two will be needed in between but its more of a hard core holiday than a challenge), will be doing Val d'Isere etc so there should be a hill or two!

Any who my rear cassette is 11-21 and having only just found out what those numbers mean and how they differ from my dads bike I now realise that even the smallest hill defeats me....my feat were strapped in, it was 20% incline, and I managed to go uncontrollably backwards until I slammed on the breaks and fell off.

I am riding an old Raleigh 531c with shimano 105 kit, just changed the rear wheel to a Mavic Aksium so I could get a new cassette put on (there were complications with the old hub) and now a few people have mentioned that my derailleur might not be able to take such a large cassette? Is this true? I can not afford to buy one that does not work so any advice would be massively appreciated.

I'm also going to order this rack, any one got one who has any advice?
http://www.rememberdelaware.com/p-8...x?gdftrk=gdfV21133_a_7c351_a_7c2656_a_7c82299

 

[Adam Riding]

Could someone also recomend a rear cassette that is light weight and durable please, providing the derailleur thing is not an issue? There are so many to chose from and I don't know if my budget of £30-£40 will be enoguh for something that is not rubbish, anyone had any expreiances with 2nd hand gears?

 

[david1701]

tbh in your case I'd rock up to a bike shop (of the local greasy mechanic type) explain what you want and ask for something with a massive hill climbing gear. You might need a long arm derailleur I don't know 105 kit I'm afraid also maybe a triple crank?

 

[PpPete]

Old derailleur mechs often cope with quite a wide range, but no way of knowing what your one will deal with.

If it were me I'd get a 9 speed HG50 cassette (11-32 or even 11-34 ) and a Deore derailleur mech - both of which are budget end of the market but very efficient and robust..... but it rather depends on what sort of shifters you have? 105 series STI? Downtube ? Indexed? How many speeds ?

If you can post some pics of your existing set-up we can perhaps give more specific guidance.

 

[Adam Riding]

Hope the attatchments work as I only joined yesterday. Thanks for the HG50 recomendation, looks like just what I wanted, think you're are right that I need to take it to a bike shop and hope they dont try to rip me off.

 

[mcshroom]

Are you sure that's a cassette rear wheel? It looks like a 5sp freewheel to me. (Difference between the two here)

Also looks like you have a 52-42 chainset. This bike is defintely not geared for loaded touring. The HG50 is pretty good (or the SRAM P850) if it's a cessette, if it's a freewheel then a Shimano Megarange freewheel should give you a 42-34 bottom gear which, although higher than I'd like would give you a lot more scope on a hill.

That 105 rear mech looks like it's a short cage, so I would guess it wouldn't handle a large rear cog. As for replacing it (if you do) then anything shimano compatible and mtb range should work. Deore is nice but even Tourney works efficiently enough, and at £8 you could fit it just for the tour then change back afterwards if you wanted.

 

[Adam Riding]

Thanks! Appreciate the links too!