cmacnulty

I am not sure exacting where to start this question since it falls in to several categories. But I will start here and I am sure that if necessary I will be redirected. First some background. Newbie rider, over 60, new 2011 Giant Defy composite bike. My long weekend rides are up to 40 miles and 12 to 14 mile week day rides. My question/problem: are the gears set up correctly. As I said I am new but here is the info I got on the set up nowro ride 53T / 39T front
11T thru 25T rear. I live in the Oakland Ca. area and there are lots of hills and long grades. I find that I am struggling on the hill especially the long grades. For example:
https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/85809339
Cat Start End Length Min Max Avg. Max
7.74 mi 8.95 mi 1.21 mi 391 ft 588 ft 3.1% --
13.93 mi 15.58 mi 1.65 mi 352 ft 656 ft 3.5% --
18.85 mi 20.61 mi 1.76 mi 465 ft 800 ft 3.6% --
22.21 mi 23.35 mi 1.14 mi 693 ft 896 ft 3.4% --

Is there anything I can do with the gear ratio and make an adjustment and make it a little easier on this 60 yo plus body.

02Pilot

The easiest thing to do would be to switch to a cassette with a larger low gear. You would also need a longer chain, and you'd need to make sure you do not exceed the capacity of your rear derailleur.

Tandem Tom

Though I am still a newbie I will take a stab at this.
This past weekend my wife was trying out some new bikes at the LBS's. One of them had a 11-28 cassette and one had a 12-30. at the end of each test ride we had to ride up hill back to the shop. She could really tell the difference as to it being easier with the 12-30. And this just happened to be the bike she liked the most. It is a Giant Women's Avail 1.
So the larger the rear cassette the more climbing gear you will have. I would go back to your shop and ask what they could change yours out to. It may require a new rear derailer to accomodate the larger cassette.

LarDasse74

You could likely put a cassette on with a 28 tooth large cog and not need to change anything else. You derailleur can handle it definitely. You may need to change your chain.

jon c. 

That adjustment wouldn't be enough for me I know. I'd look at going to a triple or at least a compact double.

CACycling

I swapped my standard crankset for a compact and it made a big difference. All it required was the crankset and lowering the FD. Going to a triple would be more involved. If that isn't enough, you can go to an 11/28 cassette (and would probably be OK on chain length because of smaller big ring on the crankset). You can play with the numbers on a gear calculator to get an idea of what the changes would do for you. Here is a simple one:
https://www.gear-calculator.com/#

shelbyfv

That would not be easy enough gearing for me, either. Your least expensive option would be a 12-30 Tiagra cassette, under $30. Next would be a compact crank with 50-34 teeth. You would also need a new, longer chain with the 12-30.

FBinNY 

This is getting closer to the solution. I'm not a fan of sprockets larger than 28 on road bikes, but going with smaller rings is probably the smartest solution. This will put your gearing into a range where you'll use more of the cassette, especially the "sweet spot" or the larger of the small sprockets before the spacing increases, ie. on a 11-25 cassette, 11,12,13,14,15,16,18.20,22,25 the sweet spot would be the 14,15,16, because these have the smallest percentage differences. there's also a low sweet spot of sorts with the 18,20,22 for the same reason.

The other option is to go to a triple, This allows the two outer chainrings to be sized closer together, creating 4 sweet spots and packing lots of usable gears in the range where you do 95% of your riding. Then you use the third as a "bailout" for those hills which require it. For years I toured with doubles, using two fairly close chainrings, but as I've gotten older I've gone the bailout granny route for touring. It's like eating your cake and having it too.

Tripling would require a new front derailleur and most likely a longer cage rear, but so would many of the half way solutions. My touring bikes don't use a long cage RD. My rings are close enough not to need it, but the granny is limited to the larger half of the cassette (then again, why would I be on the granny unless I needed those low gears.)

DiabloScott

Pig Farm and the Bears! You are doing some tough stuff, congratulations.

You just bought this bike - you probably should've bought one with a triple crank, but it's too late. Triple crank retrofit will be really expensive. Alpine rear end will be much less expensive - MTB rear derailleur and cassette that'll work with your shifters will be much cheaper - a 39x32 low gear ought to get you over the Pig.

If you bought this bike at a dealer (Hank and Frank?) they really should've discussed your riding objectives with you and recommended something different.

Al1943

If the bike is new the dealer should be willing to re-gear it to your satisfaction. In fact he should have known better than to sell you a bike with such high gearing for riding in your area.

gyozadude

I'm a bit confused. The Giant 2011 Defy line had composite frame/fork in the Defy Advanced. All had stock specs w/ 50/34 compact cranks usually FSA Gossamer in most models. Going back to 2010, same deal. And for the Defy Adv. 3 or 4 there were usually triples. For 2012, there is the Defy Composite line in its own right. But the stock crank, is still a 50/34. My confusion here is why you got a 53/39 crank on the bike? Did you order it that way? Or is this the specs the shop told you? Can you go do a quick peek and count the teeth? We need to know the base line to provide proper advice.

If you're going to do hill climbing in Berkeley/Oakland, yeah, that can be a good workout for anyone at any age. The question is how bad is it in a 39x25? (or is it 34/25?) Is it unbearably bad - like, I can make it 2 blocks and I gotta unclip and walk the bike? Or is it, I can make it 1/2 a mile up at 10% grade and then I'm cooked? Or is it, I make it up to the top and 1700+ ft of elevation gain in under 4.5 miles but I'm paying for it in my joints for the next week?

Going from 25 big cog in the back to 30 will make pedaling about 25% easier. You'll be able to spin, say at 75 rpm x 30/25 revs x 2.124 meters per rev x 60 mins/hr = about 11km/hr (6.7mph) (assuming 700x25c tires). If you go with a 34 x 32 ratio, that same cadence will climb at about 6.3mph. If you get a road triple, 52/42/30 - e.g a cheap Vuelta Corsa road triple $45 plus vuelta cartridge BB $13 - you might get to 5.9mph. It's possible to go with mtb gearing and get a 44x32x22 crank (Vuelta mtb crank for $30 plus $13 for catridge BB), but you need to upgrade the FD, the chain, the RD and rear cassette, the brifters.... then we might be talking 22F x 32R which would yield at 75 rpm cadence, about 4.1mph. That's just a tad above walking speed and you don't have to get off the bike.

But knowing what the actual specs are on the bike where you're not able to suffer up the hill is important.

Oh, BTW, I am assuming that your issues are primarily with steep, sustained grades, yes? The average 3+ percent climbs have lots of ups/downs, and it's the steeper ups that last a while that cook your legs/lungs?

fietsbob

this is about range of ratio spread, and not A ratio, like a fixie/single speed..

when 42:26 was all they had, Merckx and his contemporaries, climbed the Pyrenees
and all the other mountain stages with what there was..

bradtx

cmacnulty, I'm not a fan of compact chainrings except if one lives in an area where everything is either riding up or down and few level areas. I think a change to a compact crankset and a 12-28 rear cassette will cover your needs. You can change them one at a time or both at the same time, singularly each will help.

Brad

davidad

This will give you some idea as what to expect from the change in gears. https://www.jbarrm.com/cycal/cycal.html
A friend has put a cassette with a 32 on his BMC Al. road bike and it works. I thought we were going to put a mt. bike der. on the rear of his bike.
I have 69 year-old legs and I ride triples with 20t grandpa chainrings.

Drew Eckhardt 

I think a triple is the right choice since it gives you low gears without compromising on spacing, especially if you run a granny ring smaller than the traditional 30 which comes stock on most bikes.

A compact-double only yields one gear lower than you'd net with a standard double and can't take an appreciably smaller inner ring. For example with a 34x26 cog you end up with a gear like 39x30. In theory you could swap on a 33 ring although that's less of a change than one tooth on the rear and not significant.

A triple nets two gears lower with the defacto standard 30 ring. 30x26 is like 39x34.

A 28 will shift well with 28x26 like 39x36 which you can't buy. A 24 is manageable with a chain catcher.

Things like 50-39-26 x 12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23 are possible, providing a low gear like 39 x 34 or 34 x 30 except the cassette doesn't run 12-14-16-18-20-23-26-30-34 or 12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-27-30 which still lacks a 16 cog.

It also means a new left shifter (OTOH, second generation Campagnolo escape levers are only $86 a pair including cables imported from the UK and third generation Powershift levers start at $103; they'll run a Shimano rear derailleur using a $40 Shiftmate), front derailleur, and rear derailleur in addition to the crank change you'd be making to go with a compact.

Velo Orange sells a 46-30 super compact crank set which will provide a low gear like a stock road triple (but 25% harder than if you really pushed it). Just start tucking a bit sooner than if you had a bigger gear - I was plenty happy with a high gear that small (50x13) for the decade plus I spent living in the Colorado Rockies.

cmacnulty

So how to you say oops to so many nice folks for giving them the wrong info. I went out and rechecked


Diabloscott you hit the retailer dead on. So based on what I have read so far maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill. It seems that my bike is set up correctly and it just an matter of getting stronger to handle consecutive hills. I have only been riding since the beginning of May and I may have to high of an expectation and I did make the look on the route that I referenced above including the 22.21 mi 23.35 mi 1.14 mi 693 ft 896 ft 3.4% at the end. Thank goodness there is always a down hill.

I what to thank everyone for there responses and as I become more knowledge I hope reply and help someone.

DiabloScott

Well it's good to know those guys didn't sell you a completely unreasonable bike.

A normal double crank with 11x25 would be suitable for a strong rider... a full out racer might be able to get by with an even higher low gear, but not much.

A compact double with 11x25 is suitable for an experienced rider who does some amount of serious climbing - like you will be in another year or so.

I've got a compact with a 12x27 and I've been riding Diablo for 20 years so you may still want to change your cassette. Riding is supposed to be fun.

gyozadude

I got my Dad into serious cycling and commuting when he was 59. After going with some road bikes and some crashes, I got him a touring bike, Bridgestone T700, with half-step 50/44/28 front and 14 - 34 6spd rear. He did pretty well on that, and could climb Pleasant Hill Road/Taylor Way up to Lafayette and then up to Lafayette Resevoir, full fishing gear attached. We did it regularly. He spun in the granny going up, but only for the steep/sustained hills. Trying to have him push something higher didn't work out well and ended up hurting his knees. And mind you, here's a guy who's been a farmer, gymnast in college and working hard most his life. He was slim and muscular. So he was no slouch.