Originally Posted by
hyhuu
Questions for those who live in hilly areas or love to climb:
What's your typical gradient and length?
Whatever I can find. Most of the longer climbs (more than 1600' elevation gain) here are in the 5-8% range. But we have some that are steeper. The road to my house has 2 miles of 10% and 1/3 mile averaging 16% with a 23% ramp.
Originally Posted by
hyhuu
Do you use standard or compact? What's size of the cassette?
50/34 with a 12-27 cassette. I rarely use the lowest two cogs but they are useful on extended 10% sections and that last bit to my house.
Originally Posted by
hyhuu
I have standard with a 9-speed 12-26T cassete and found it difficult to maintain good cadence on hill. I'm new to road biking but used to do mountain biking. Am I just too weak or should I try a different cassette? Also with the bigger cassette, is there anything special I need to do with the RD?
Can I just blame the bike for being too heavy? I know that not taking the two bottles of water make climbing easier (so much for the "weight doesn't matter") but that's not an option. Thanks.
Losing a bottle won't make much difference. You can find 9sp cassettes all the way to 11-34. You will need a road touring derailleur for cogs 28t-30t and a MTB derailleur for cogs larger than that. Get a 9sp MTB derailleur not the new 10sp ones. (I am assuming you have Shimano).
Asking what other people use is pointless. The gearing that works for me won't work for you. Pick the gearing that you need. Err on the low side. You can always shift up if it doesn't hurt enough.