volantis

Just started riding seriously in the last few months. I'm doing well so far, able to hang in with pretty quick rides and quick riders over flat areas. I have considered changing my cassette and was hoping for opinions.

I currently have a compact front crank and a 12-25 rear. I live in East TN and our rides are rather hilly. Very up and down. I weigh 225-230 right now and I'm 6'5".

Going downhill I feel like I run out of gear sometimes. I think the 11 would be nice for top end speed. But the bigger issue is uphill. The 25 is good for climbs less than a mile, but I recently did some climbs that are continuous 4.5% for several miles. No relief or flat at all. On those, I found myself working pretty hard to turn the 25 over at a decent cadence. I've been wondering if the 24-28 bottom end combo of the 11-28 would be better. I have other climbs I'd like to do that are steeper than what I did and worked really hard on.

Any advice on the 12-25 vs 11-28 crank? Seems like the best of both worlds here where we don't have flats that require finer tuning of the middle gears to optimize speed/cadence.

Seve

Assuming you have a shimano/sram hub.

12-25: 12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25
11-28: 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-28

11-32: 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 22, 25, 28, 32

You might also consider the 11-32 [sram] giving up some mid range to get more gears at the lower end, which I suspect is what you are looking for.

kevin_stevens

You don't mention what group you have, but you probably need to go to a long cage (Shimano) rear derailleur to accommodate the wrap on a 11-28. I had one bike set up with a short cage, but I got large-large jam that I had to consciously avoid.

I have an 11-32 w/50-34 compact double in SRAM Rival with a mid cage now, and I like it almost as much as my Ultegra long-cage road triple 11-28. It's lighter and less shifting, but the triple is nice because you can stay in the middle ring under a lot of circumstances where you're between the big and small ring on the CD. The CD works just fine though.

KeS

JimF22003

I use a compact with an 11/28. I wouldn't go with anything less if you have hilly terrain (or even just lots of rollers.)

I have to go out of town a ways to get to any true climbs, but even here in DC there are plenty of places you can find 15% or even 20% percent sections.

I don't worry about the high-end gear. I can pedal comfortably up to about 35 mph, and that's fast enough to go down hill for me

RichardGlover

I'm building a bike around the 11-32 10-speed SRAM cassette, medium cage derailleur with a compact 50/34 crankset.

BTW, you didn't mention your crank. Are you running 53/39, a triple? 50/34? You might be able to get the gearing you need by switching something up there.

jethro56 

I'm running a 28-11 behind a 50-34 with I believe a standard 105 RD. I don't miss the triple front.

CraigB

I have the same setup on the new bike that Jethro describes, and other than getting used to the giant jumps you get from shifting at the chainrings (going through gears incrementally is now a much bigger PITA than before), it's worked well for me so far. Granted, we don't have many long, steep hills here, but considering the gearing is considerably lower with the compact than I had with my old bike's standard 52/42 rings, I'm pretty happy.

Mr. Beanz

The humidty getting to ya?

chasm54

Personally I run a 50/34 compact with a 12-27 cassette.

I'm surprised you feel the need for an 11 sprocket. With the 50-12 I am going close to 40mph before I spin out at about 120 rpm - about 33 mph even at a cadence of 100 - and if I'm close to 40mph downhill I'm happy to coast. YMMV. I find the 12-27 a pretty good compromise, though. I can climb pretty much anything on a 34-27 and I don't have quite so many big jumps between gears as you'd get with an 11-28.

FrenchFit 

I use a wide range 10 cog 11-30 IRD cassette and compact crank. Good for general riding, I could have dropped in a triple but there was no need. There are big jumps, but I don't mind.

Seattle Forrest

That's what I thought, too. But I hate the 11-28. I spend a lot of time being in the wrong gear now, because the cassette doesn't have the correct gear. More range means bigger gaps between gears, so bigger jumps between cadence when you shift.

cooleric1234

I run a 34/50 with an 11-28. I don't really care much about the 11, wish I could go to a 12 on the bottom end. But the 28T is pretty good. I've done some good climbs in the area with that cassette. We'll see how I fare in the Copper Triangle this weekend. Still, if I had the choice I'd get SRAM and have one of my cassettes be 11-32, then I'd go try Mt. Evans

Many derailleurs will work with a 28T large cog. My Dura-Ace is listed as max capacity of 27T but supposedly 28T works fine. I have had shifting issues but I think it's unrelated to that. You may need a bigger chain though, as your current one might not be big enough to handle that size cassette.

Mithrandir

I had an 11-28 (7 speed, with a 24/32/38 crank). I didn't like it at the time, because I never used the low gears for anything.

Of course back then I didn't know what real hills were. Still probably don't, but I've learned that the world is a lot less flat.


So at the start of this year I had it replaced with a 12-21, because I wanted to have tighter spacing in the gears. I found myself constantly shifting up and down between two gears, neither of which were optimal for me. One was too low, the other too high. Anyway, I was very happy with the 12-21 at first, because I was still mostly on bike trails and flats.

Once I graduated from trails, however, I learned the true meaning of pain. 22/21 does not cut it for some of the tough inclines I've run across off the bike paths. Sure I can make it, but it kills me and I'm pretty sure that once I start getting into some bigger hills I'll have to get off and walk. That being said, I just got a new rear wheel which can take 9 speed cassettes, so I'm thinking of going from 12/13/14/15/17/19/21 to 12/13/14/15/17/19/21/24/27. I figure 22/27 ought to help me with the hills I haven't met yet. Another option would be 12/13/14/15/17/19/21/23/25, which is slightly higher than the 27, but still adds a low gear that's 20% lower than my current.

So anyway, I guess my point is that I love the tighter spacing and decided that it's better to upgrade from 7 to 9 speed in order to keep it and get the lower gears I need as well. Not sure what your budget is like however.

volantis

Thanks for all the input so far.

I have 50/34 in the front. I don't think I need 32 in the rear, as I'm able to get up 6% avg grade (and steady) over several miles on my 25, just feel like my cadence is too slow to be as effective as I could be. I'm also fine doing much steeper climbs (10%+, less than a mile) with no issue. It's just the long, long climbs where I think I'd need more gear.

I don't really care about the 11 as much, but I do spin out on the 12. I'm more looking at whether the 28 would fit me better.

Mr. Beanz

How much do you expect to pay for the new shifters to do go from 7 to 9 speed?

volosong

I'm running 11-28 Ultegra clusters on my 6700 Ultregra 52/39/30 bike and also on my 7900 Dura-Ace 50/34 bike. My style is more toward being a masher than a spinner. The triple Ultegra RD is a long cage (because of the triple, not the cluster), the Dura-Ace RD is a standard cage. As mentioned, mind your chain length. (The specs show that the Ultegra short cage can handle 11 and 28, but not at the same time, (11-27 or 12-28). Specs also show the DA can only handle 11-27, but my 11-28 shifts fine.)

The large gaps in the bigger sprockets don't bother me because those are usually being employed when climbing where grade and wind is more a factor influencing cadence than gearing. On the smaller sprockets, employed on flats and downhills, the gap is "normal", (i.e., narrow), and allows for a more constant cadence. Honestly ... even though I will not give up the 11, it is only used on downhills or long gentle down-grades. The 12 is pretty much the limit for me on the flats.

1855Cru

I live in Western NC so probably have similar terrain to you or maybe a bit hillier. I have an 11-28 cassette for my normal setup and that's good for longish climbs 3-4 miles @6%. I also have an 11-32 cassette on another wheel for the really nasty climbs 3-4+ miles @ 8+% avg. I know I would have a really hard time around here with a 25T as my lowest gear. I am running a compact 50-34 up front.

jbman100

Have you done Lookout Mountain with that set up?

cooleric1234

I've done Lookout. I've also done High Grade road multiple times. And High Grade plus some more climbing further down the road off Broken Arrow.

RichardGlover

Come do Bikefest in Hillsborough next week. I'll be the guy riding a black commuter with fenders, disc brakes, & trekker bars. If the ride hasn't filled up, you have until Aug 5th to register. I don't think they take same-day registration.

Mithrandir

I'm looking at about $100 I think. Not entirely sure yet.

Seve

12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28
12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 24, 27

Might be an option as well?

Mr. Beanz

Not bad. Then I'm thinking MTB shifters? I know Road stuff is 'spensive!

knobd

I'm up against the same issue as the OP. I currently have 46/36 on the front with 12/25 on the back and I would like to lower the gearing to at least the 31-32 GI range.

I saw those IRD cassettes (9 speed versions) and was thinking either the 11-30 or 12-30 would be a nice fit. I have a Sora medium cage rear derailleur on my cyclocross bike. Anybody see an issue running that RD with a 30 or 32 max rear cog? Not ruling out an 11-32 since its even lower and pretty common and therefore cheap to get.

Not trying to hijack but I think I have pretty much the same exact question as the OP.

motobecane69

look into the microshift MTB shifters, they are $30 at nashbar or performance bike and they work great. i've seen them on ebay as well. had them on one bike but they got stolen. I'm gonna give the microshift grip shifters a try now because nashbar doesnt have the trigger model in stock until next month.