Road bike gear ratio advice please!

[Globalti]

This summer I bought a second hand road bike. I found it over-geared especially living as I do in a quite hilly area so I fitted a compact double chainset with 50/34 and a wide ratio 8 speed cassette with something like 11-28.

This works well and gives me the right range of gears for my strength (I'm 52!) and the local hills. However I do find the gaps between the rear gears irritatingly wide and am beginning to think I'd have done better going for a triple with a nice little granny ring for those hills and two closer ratios for general riding, driving a flatter rear cassette. I'm ready to spend the money next year but the front derailleur is attached to a bracket, welded to the frame. Presumably a change to a triple will need a new derailleur with a wider arc of movement? (I already have a triple LH shifter.)

Is this likely to cause a problem? What gears would experienced riders recommend? The bike is used as a trainer and speedy, fun alternative to my MTB.

 

[Chris James]

I agree with you on all counts.

I think you will need a triple front derailleur. Also a long cage rear derailleur if you don't have one already.

I like my triple with a 12-25 cassette, although I would happily have a closer ratio casette too. Big jumps are a bit annoying. Plus, having ridden a 48/36 compact chainset in the past I seemed to need to shift between front rings regularly but don't do that much with a triple.

In contrast to many posters on here I find I spend a lot of time in the granny ring too, many people feel the need to say that they never use the granny gear when admitting they have a triple.

My riding is all recreational so my views might not be much use if you were hoping to race though.

 

[tyred]

I'm only a recreational rider as well and far from an expert but I would say the choice of gears is a personal thing depending on a number of things such as your general fitness, how hard you're willing/able to push, the type of terrain, etc. If the hills in your area are steep enough to need a granny, then you need it. I never use my granny ring so it probably means your hills are steeper than mine. Ideally what you need to work towards is having the gears in your normal cruising range closely spaced but a larger gap in the lower ones so when you do come across a steep hill, you won't need to bother with the in between gears. If you think it will be difficult to fit another derailleur on the front to accomodate a triple, you could try fitting a larger small ring to the front and reworking the rear cassette/freewheel so you have maybe two large sprockets to provide low gears when you need them and the smaller sprockets to provide your normal gears.

 

[peanut]

sounds like you have a pretty common predicament. A need for capacity to go up steep hills plus a reasonable ratio for riding on the flat or downhill fast plus have a reasonable spread of gears without nasty jumps.
I reckon its the holy grail for bikes myself having tried every ratio known to man over the years.

My solution is to have 2x rear wheels with different cassetes fitted and I change rear wheels to suit the terrain . Not perfect but works .

I would suggest you go on a typical ride and try to record the sprockets you spend most time in.
Its quite easy to buy a spare used cassette and change your sprockets and spread to suit what you use mostly.

ie if you use the small ring and big sprockets for a lot of climbing maybe make sure your 5-6 largest sprockets have an even jump but your 2-3 smallest have a bigger jump and vice versa if you mainly on the flat

I would suggest you lose the 11t and add a sprocket where you need it most to give you a more even spread .
Your 34t x 28t gives approx 34" wheras my 38t x 28t gives approx 36.6 " which is practically the same although I get that using a conventional 53t/38t 130bcd chainset

 

[Chris James]

you could try fitting a larger small ring to the front and reworking the rear cassette/freewheel so you have maybe two large sprockets to provide low gears when you need them and the smaller sprockets to provide your normal gears.

I don't think you can go any lower than 34 on a compact?

 

[MartinC]

RR. Your diagnosis sounds correct. A compact chainset and a wide range cassette will give you a good range but big gaps between gears. If you change to a triple you'll need to change the front mech - the profile of the inner plate needs to be different for the small ring. You'll need a long cage rear mech to cope with the bigger differences in effective chain length.

An 11 tooth cassette can give you a top gear so high that you'd never use it. However it'll give you some higher gears on the middle ring. This can be useful to avoid having the couple of gears you use the most needing a double shift (front and back) to switch between.

 

[peanut]

An 11 tooth cassette can give you a top gear so high that you'd never use it. However it'll give you some higher gears on the middle ring. This can be useful to avoid having the couple of gears you use the most needing a double shift (front and back) to switch between.

the reason that 11t sprocket is offered is to compensate for having a smaller chain rings. compact 50x11 is roughly equivalent to a standard 53x12

I agree though as I suggested in my post the op could lose the 11t and swop it for something more useful to give a smoother spread where he most needs it.

I am not a advocate of a triple set up on a road bike unless its a heavily laden tourer .You'd be forever changing gears . If you need a triple chainset to get up a hill on a roadbike then something is seriouly wrong with the bikes componentry or the rider needs to find a less mountainess route.

 

[byegad]

I agree with you on all counts.

I think you will need a triple front derailleur. Also a long cage rear derailleur if you don't have one already.

I like my triple with a 12-25 cassette, although I would happily have a closer ratio casette too. Big jumps are a bit annoying. Plus, having ridden a 48/36 compact chainset in the past I seemed to need to shift between front rings regularly but don't do that much with a triple.

In contrast to many posters on here I find I spend a lot of time in the granny ring too, many people feel the need to say that they never use the granny gear when admitting they have a triple.

My riding is all recreational so my views might not be much use if you were hoping to race though.

Another granny pusher here! The point of almost all of my riding is to enjoy it, so I'm often pootling in 15" granny on my recumbent trike just like I was often in my 20" granny on my DF in the past.

 

[MartinC]

the reason that 11t sprocket is offered is to compensate for having a smaller chain rings. compact 50x11 is roughly equivalent to a standard 53x12

I agree though as I suggested in my post the op could lose the 11t and swop it for something more useful to give a smoother spread where he most needs it.

I am not a advocate of a triple set up on a road bike unless its a heavily laden tourer .You'd be forever changing gears . If you need a triple chainset to get up a hill on a roadbike then something is seriouly wrong with the bikes componentry or the rider needs to find a less mountainess route.

Don't disagree with you. Think we just want RR to be aware of all the options.

Lots depends on your style of riding (which may vary of course). Compacts are good. For a bike for pottering around on I prefer a triple. For me a gear of about 5m is the baseline - flat road, little wind. Flick up or down from this as the road changes. With a compact this puts the baseline gear on the cusp between the 2 chainrings so there's a lot of double shifts. A triple is good 'cos you can put the 5m gear in the middle of the range, use the middle ring normally, the small for hilly and the big for downhill or exuberance. Having an 11 sprocket allows you to have the 5m gear and 1 or 2 above on the middle chainring.

For a training or racing bike a compact's fine 'cos you can use the big ring normally and the small when it goes up. It won't give you as small a low gear as a triple though so if you really like to twiddle up long hills a triple has this advantage.

In my view changes are slicker with a compact but I don't understand your point about having to change more with a triple. Why? Ok, you've got more options but it's the road, wind or riding companions that determine how much you change. Are you saying there are more double changes?

 

[Will1985]

That's quite an expensive conversion job. As already stated, you would need a new braze-on front derailleur, chainset and possibly rear derailleur, but also a new bottom bracket (unless you go for external bearings).

IMO, nobody really needs 50x11 unless they are racing down a hill, and I might also say 50x12 if you aren't into fast riding. How often do you use 34x28 as well? As peanut says, lose the little sprockets and concentrate on your most common gears, then how about adding the 28 to the end like a megarange cassette (I've never tried this to see if it works with road derailleurs).

There exist some conversion rings which add a granny ring onto the inner ring of a double, but I don't think there is anything for a compact - this would be the cheap way in!

 

[Saddle bum]

30-40-50 x 13-26.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

30-40-50 x 13-26

In a nut shell!

You're not the only one to be duped by the compact con trick that feeds on roadies vanity.

If a standard road double doesn't offer you the range you need, don't ruin what you have by spreading them out all over the place - just add some more where you need them.

 

[Chris James]

I am not a advocate of a triple set up on a road bike unless its a heavily laden tourer .... If you need a triple chainset to get up a hill on a roadbike then something is seriouly wrong with the bikes componentry or the rider needs to find a less mountainess route.

How quaint! When I lived in Somerset it never occured to me to have a triple chainset either

 

[peanut]

I regularly use my 53x12t in fact every time I go out I use it to get up to 33mph+ on some nice downhill sections which gives me such a buzz.. I spin out at this speed because I am a big chap with a low cadence rate but its nice to just freewheel at 30+mph anyway

I noticed a chainset the other day with the conversion middle ring that carries a small 3rd ring. Frankly if you have a compact double with a 34t inner and a 12t-28t cassette ie 34x28 you'd practically fall off any slower than that shirley?

 

[peanut]

How quaint! When I lived in Somerset it never occured to me to have a triple chainset either

what part of somerset do you originally hail from? did you ever do the South Somerset century ?