rms13

My first real road bike had Sram wifli with compact crank and 11-32 cassette. Just bought a new bike with standard cranks and 11-25. Did some climbing this morning and got a serious reality check !

Might have to change the cassette down the road but going to try to live with it and build up strength for now.

datlas 

Most if us are going from standard to compact.

Hope this change is right for you. If not, you can swap back to compact gearing.

SpeshulEd 

If you want to keep the standard crank, it might easier/cheaper to swap out the cassette. If you still have the 11-32, swap it with the 11-25, that should help some.

rms13

Yup. It's what came on the bike. Did some climbing this morning. Did one 4 mile stretch at 4.5% avg grade with no problem. Well see how it goes this weekend when I do some longer climbs

superslomo

I can almost hear the twanging of your knee ligaments from here as you attempt to live with that change. My hat's off to you... but I think it might be a tough go

dalava

He might have to swap in the wifli RD to use the 11-32.

SpeshulEd 

Yeah, you're probably right. 11-32 is a bit extreme. I know some RDs can handle them though.

dalava

If you don't mind the noise and potential wear on the RD and chain, most RD can handle it. Done the emergency cassette swaps before a mountainous century a few times and it worked out ok.

rms13

I was under the impression that Shimano could only handle up to 28t in the back? I assume I might need a longer chain to do that also so probably looking at $100.

Lately as I've gotten stronger I haven't been going lower than 34/25 combo when climbing which is 35.8 gear inches which is obviously still a lot lower than the 41 gear inch of 39/25 combo. But in a lot of the shorter climbs I had been staying in the big ring and even big ring/large cog combo of 50/32 is 41 inches. I like to climb out of the saddle so in theory I should be ok on most of my rides for now but when I get onto some longer more sustained climbs I may be hurting

Bob Ross

Good luck OP. I must admit, every now and then when I'm doing what seems like an inordinate amount of FD shifting on my compact chainrings I think "I should get a 53/39 standard on my next bike"

...until I find myself stuck in the middle of Vermont or Sardegna climbing an 18% grade for a mile or so, and then I think "I must be out of my freakin' mind for even considering a standard!"

Darth Steele

FFS .... HTFU

Switch to the 39 in the front and 25 in the rear and get up the hill. Repeat the hell out of that hill, after a while that 4% is not going to both you. As a matter of fact you will start taking that hill in the 23... Fine, if you are doing tons of repeats then 11-28 may needed. But if you are going over the hill once then 11-25 is more than enough.

woodcraft

I hung for a while after changing bikes- triple to std w/11/28

Definitely got stronger, but bailed to compact (34/48)

The flat rides around here are over 3,500'

TrojanHorse

Is 4% even a hill?

I had a standard up till about 3 years ago. No thanks. My knees prefer the compact.

rms13

I was riding fixed gear for a couple of years before I got a road bike so my knees appreciate just having gears/freewheel. Most of the rides I do don't have many extended climbs above 4% (according to strava). There are some 10-20% sections but they are usually .2-.5 miles. I could get a Ultegra compact crankset for $137 from Merlin right now so I'll probably do that since price is right

TrojanHorse

Head up into the hills! You should be pretty close to some excellent climbing. ACH, Big T, Little T et. al. I never make it over there but I hear it's nice.

rms13

I climb the local hills in glendale/pasadena area. I will do 1500-3000 feet on a 2 hour weekend ride but haven't graduated to ACH/GMT etc yet. I just ordered a compact crankset to switch out...you all scared me

Bike Gremlin

Wouldn't a triple be the best of both worlds? You have 39, and also a bail out?

For me it works very nice - I ride flat lands mostly, but mountain is across the river from my city, so I ride mountain too. 30 ring is good when exhausted after a days ride. Plus triple allows for straighter chainline most of the time (compared to a double). I've considered a compact. Then tried riding flats from the big 50 ring. Not good. 34 would be too small, 50 is too big.

I <3 Robots

Lol...take the 53/39 11-25 up Angeles Crest to Redbox.

See how well that works out.

rms13

I don't think I would make it up there with the 34/32 gear. I'm too worried about getting ridden off the road by people racing their Ferraris and Ducatis to ride up there anyway

chip1

Few months ago I missed out on an incredible deal on a CAAD9 4 Rival on Craigslist. 53/39 with 11/25 gearing that was on the bike is the only reason I'm not kicking myself over it. I really needed a compact crank.

I'm still kicking myself to this day, just not as hard. Because of you know...the gearing.

rms13

I got an incredible deal on my new bike and an incredible deal on new set of compact Ultegra cranks for $137. After I sell the standard cranks I will still have an incredible deal on the bike so it's all working out

Darth Steele

The Op specifically mentioned 4%

He can also change cassettes as needed for extreme hilly rides.

Bob Ross

You would think... Sadly, there are some obstacles to making a triple crankset a practical alternative for many cyclists. The ones that are most germane to me personally are
A) triple cranksets & long cage RDs are being orphaned, at least at the high end, by most manufacturers. Campy only makes one version (if they even still do offer the Comp Triple) which was sub-Athena quality, Shimano might still offer an Ultegra triple...but then again might not, and SRAM doesn't offer anything. Most egregiously, none of the big manufacturers offer an electronic triple, which to my mind would be the best argument for bothering with electronic shifting at all...because
B) I've yet to meet a bike mechanic who can tune up a triple such that it performs as smoothly, effortlessly, noiselessly, and predictably as a double (standard or compact).

If Shimano ever came out with Ultegra electronic "Di3" with 53/39/30 chainrings I'd be all over that.

rms13

This too^

I LOLed at the thought of me riding up ACH at this point in my riding career, especially since I have no car access and would have to ride to the ACH from Glendale/Burbank and then ride up it and ride back home. Could happen one day but that is more riding than I do right now. Some of the rides I do get up to 20% in some areas but I like to stick to 20-30 miles as I don't see much benefit in riding longer on a regular basis

Also, didn't people stop using LOL somewhere around 1998?

topflightpro

I'm fine on a 53/39 and 11-26 up to about 10-12 percent. When it get's steeper than that, it's nearly impossible to climb for very long. And yeah, I"ve been on rides where it's 15-18 percent for three to four miles.