bkrownd

I bought this bike for leisurely exploring the back-roads, which happen to be steep in this area. I am finding that the Jamis Nova's race-oriented gearing is not great for hill climbing. Has anyone changed the cassette or chainrings on their Nova, and can recommend a new setup that works better for hills? I don't want to change the derailleurs, but I may change the front if necessary. The stock setup is Shimano Tiagra FD 52-42-30 w/ Shimano 105 RD 12-25. I find myself wishing for my mountain bike's 42-32-22 crankset sometimes.

gobes

The easiest thing to do may be to just change the rings on your existing crank. I think that you can put 48-38-26 on that crank (maybe even a 24 small ring???). Depending on what kind of rear derailleur you have you can at least change the cassette to 12-27. If you have a longer cage rear derailleur you can obviously go with a bigger cog on the cassette. These changes won't get you the mountain bike gearing but the may help enough to get you over the hills.

bkrownd

The RD is a shorty. Know of a source of chainrings cheaper than replacing the whole crankset? The LBS would charge crankset price for a single used ring, so I'd need to go DIY. That 52 chainring is totally useless for me. I don't even use the 48 on my commuter bike. If I'm going that fast I coast.

bkrownd

Sooo...I got a Hussefelt crankset to replace my Elita crankset. Unfortunately there's about 4mm difference in chainline built into the crankset, so now I have to get the next size smaller bottom bracket, as well. Looks like I will also have to buy a tool to remove/install the ISIS bottom bracket. Stupid. Pfffft!

bkrownd

Components installed. Back on the road. The new gears (44-32-22 & 12-25) are nice and low for steeeep hills. The shifting from small to middle chainring is pretty rough though, so I may try to swap in one of my mountain bike front derailleurs.

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