Originally Posted by
RollCNY
OP, if I remember correctly from some of your earlier posts, you primarily ride solo and plot your own courses. You may want to consider an organized event. The Highlander is Sept. 10, and it starts at Bristol Mt, between Honeyoe and Canandaigua. They have flatter centuries and metrics to choose from (as well as the ones that earn the Highlander name), rest stops every 20 miles, and mechanical support. I am looking at the Corkscrew Century, and I am fairly certain there is an abridged version of it.
Will be out of town on the 10th, but I think driving out that far to do a century might be out of the question at the moment anyway, I'd lose too much time in the day. I suppose I could get a hotel, but meh... money
Assuming that you are on a hybrid (since you have 7 speeds now), you might want to look at SRAM shifters when you upgrade. I use an X9 rear and X7 front, and they shift much nicer than the 8 speed shimano stuff they replaced. You will like 9 speed, much smaller jumps between gear ratios. Unless you get the 11-34, which will still have fairly big jumps. I think SRAM has an 11-32 9 speed if you want to throw that in the mix. And you can mix shifter and cassette manufacturers, so don't worry SRAM cassette and shimano shifters or vice versa.
Thanks, ended up getting the parts a few hours ago and doing the conversion. Haven't ridden it yet but on the bike stand everything seems to be working great!
I got:
1) Shimano Deore ST-M590 shifters
2) Shimano Ultegra 12/13/14/15/17/19/21/24/27 cassette. Basically the same as my old one, but adds 24/27. I think these will be invaluable on hills as it adds a whole 100% to my gear range at the bottom end:
http://www.gear-calculator.com/#KB=2...UF=2099&SL=2.2
3) SRAM PC-951 chain
4) The new wheel of course
Going to test it out tomorrow on my commute... heh that might be a dumb idea but oh well.
If for some reason the 27 gear isn't low enough, I'll go for an 11-32 and a 12-23, and swap those out depending on what I'm riding. The 32 will be too low for my everyday riding, but the 23 will be too high for my long distance riding. Times like these make me wonder why I don't just buy another bike