Mountain Biking - Cassettes

I'm fairly new to this and have a question about cassettes and cranksets. I'm looking at the SRAM Powerglide 2 cassette and was wondering if 11-28 or 11-32 was better. I have 11-28 now. Also am looking at Truvativ's Stylo Team crankset. Any good? Thanks for any input. Dirtgrinder

The Tru Vativ Stylo crank is very good if you are a heavy rider or just ride hard. Stiff, very well made, and you can use the bottom brackets with Race Face. They are not compatible with shimaNO but who cares. The 11 32 cassette gives you a slightly better climbing range. Couple this with a 20 tooth granny and it is like an elevator to climb with. That is unless you go vertical.

I think you will be better off with the 11-32 cassette, especially if you do a lot of climbing. It will give you a much lower gear ratio which will allow you to climb the really steep stuff.
Another advantage of having the 32 teeth cog is that you'll be able to stay in your middle chainring much longer.

Pozer

Thanks for the replies. It's extremely hilly where I ride so the 11-32 sounds good. My stock crankset (Suntour) is worn down to nothing so I need something badly. Thanks again, Dirtgrinder

Well, I have to chime in as I'm a fan of the 11-28. Tighter range of the gears will yield slightly better shifting between cogs. Little less weight (but we won't talk about that since, like Hunter, I am NOT a weight weenie). I personally hate bad shifting and having to fiddle with that all of the time which is why I run thumbshifters in friction mode. Of course, you will get a wider range of gears w/ he 11-32 and if you think you need it for your hills I think it is better to ride than walk, so go for it.

DirtGrinder, you have to watch out for the advice from Rider when it comes to cassettes. He's one of those crazy single speeders. They prefer to suffer on the climbs. In fact, he would rather have a single cog in the back and no derailleur...
J/K

Pozer

I'd like to see someone single-speed around here. You'd have to be tougher than woodpecker-lips!
:D

Joe is absolutely right! I do still have a geared bike (w/ 11 - 28). Just been getting rather dusty these days. Oh well, saves me from having to replace the parts so often. ;)