rdtompki

There is a small climb on one of our rides (.9 miles, 300', 12.7% max grade, 6.8% average grade) that we've done a dozen times. When we started little more than 1-1/2 years ago we struggled in a 24-34 while being passed by a strong rider on his single leaning back one-handed and taking pictures of folks with his digital SLR.

This weekend we got up this bump in a 24-24 pretty comfortably. Some will say "why would you ever need anything more than 1:1 unless your touring", but we're fighting off advancing years When we're able to sustain this sort of effort we'll turn a 2 hr. climb into a 1-1/2 hr. climb

wheelspeed

From using the 34 tooth rear cog to a 24 tooth rear? That is a HUGE improvement!

I've always assumed people that say they don't need the granny-gear live in non-hilly areas or are fairly serious racers. We're only 40 and 47 years old, and use our easiest gears often here in Pittsburgh even on smaller rides with no luggage. Our last ride (in November), we had to outrun a dog for a bit. Thankfully we managed that, but I was wheezin' pretty good after that so was thankful for the granny gear on the next mild uphill. Or, if you have a bit of a hill near the beginning of your ride, you may not want to kill yourself that early.

zonatandem

Congrats to you two!

Being 'youngsters' at 78/75 we have been saving our knees with easy gears for decades!
We utilize an 11-34 9-speed cassette mated to 54/42/30 chainrings.
While we seldom use the 30/34 combo, it's still nice to have on the rare occasion when the climb/wind/body throws us an exstra challenge.
Growin' old is not for sissies!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

diabloridr

We've run a 28-42-52 chainring setup with a 11-32 9-speed cassette for years. May not need it everyday, but when you need it, you need it.

Happened to use the 28T on Saturday to save the knees on a 200 yard long tough pitch on a hilly 53 mile loop we ride. Everything else was doable in the 42T - at least this time.

rdtompki

We've got a 24-36-48-60; 24-32 is plenty low. On a long climb we would be in the 24-32, but we're trying to build strength for these tougher climbs. We'll soon be going 10 spd to improve the spacing of our 11-32, but I don't see going below 32 unless I buy an alternate cassette for relatively flat rides.

diabloridr

I forgot to ask: Have you lost any weight as your climbing has improved, are you just producing newly found monster wattage?

rdtompki

We're a 350 lb team give/take so loosing 10 pounds or so ain't a big deal. I'm just over 200 now, probably 215 when we bought the tandem. I'd been pretty sedentary for the better part of 20 years after having been a fanatical runner. I could calculate the monster wattage, but my slide rule doesn't have that many significant figures I'm a former geek and would get a Powertap if one were available in a tandem hub configuration, but no such luck, but I think such a device might be risky marriage-wise.

My wife and I were both pretty competitive in our youth, now we're just out to smell the roses at a respectable speed. We enjoy organized rides and would like to keep doing 100K and Centuries as long as we can with the possibility of sneaking in one or two that have a bit more climbing.

Homeyba

After seeing you guys on at the Lighthouse, I'd say you're riding great! Especially considering the heat that day. It was melting a lot of people. Sounds like next year you'll be ready for the hilly version.

Chris_W

Cool! Another excuse to discuss gearing. Our latest setup is 28-42-53, with a 12-32 10-speed cassette (which was an 11-32 until I customized it by replacing the 11 and 12 tooth cogs with a 12 and 13 to get better spacing). The lowest two gears are there to bail us out when we need them, but hopefully won't be used too much. As well as the lowest gears, the other advantage I've discovered of having the wide-range cassette is not having to shift from the middle chainring as often as with a tighter-spaced cassette.

ftsoft

Whoa! Pittsburgh is really hilly! Your assumption is pretty accurate as far as we are concerned. We live in a pretty flat area here in Ohio and have to go looking for hills. We use a 12/25 locally and switch to an 11/34 when we leave the area. Being 69 and 63, we like to have the granny around when we don't know the terrain.

Frank and Terry