In case anyone is wondering, I have received my HG61 and disassembled the cassette (ground out the rivets). When my cassette tool comes in tomorrow I will reassemble the rear wheel with the new cassette, probably with the 36-12 cogs minus the 14t one, but perhaps minus the 12t one if I can get it to work without the 12t bottom cog (with the 14t acting as the bottom). I am also going to order an Anderson 30t chainring with the 1x teeth configuration (no ramps and more robust tooth profile). I am preparing a write-up and will post more once I get them all installed. I can't go 1x until I get the chainring because the middle and inner rings are rivited together on my bike and I don't want to grind them off in case I decide to go back to stock. But, at least I was able to get the outer bash guard on there
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But yeah the lowest gear will offer about 20% more torque with the 30t chainring and 36t (up from 32t). I have experimented by climbing in the granny ring on the 26t rear cog, which has roughly the same ratio (22/26) as the 30/36 combo will. The 14t bottom cog and 30t chainring might be a little short in the long run--I have once go to a smaller cog than the current 4th, and that was to the 6th one very briefly. The 30/14 combo will be about like "5.5th" gear.
But, with the new cassette and chainring, I will basically have two gears below the three main ones I use now, those three will be stretched into roughly 3rd-7th of the new combo, and the smallest cog will be about like "6.5" gear, which is plenty.
But, I'll start a new thread with more info and reviews and such.