Originally Posted by
bigfred
You would probably also advise me to pick a fight with my redheaded wife:-) Trust me when I say I couldn't care less about other's perception. It's all about me, my ego and not accepting that my age continues to increase.
Who wears the pants in your family? Oh wait, I have a red headed wife too...I know.
Don't know how old you are but I'm 50 this year.
Originally Posted by
bigfred
Well, if you're going to try to hang with the "Pro/1/2's" you might want to look around at what they're driving. There were probably a fair few 54 or 55 tooth chainrings in that group if "any" of them could push the pace that high. A 50/11 gives you plenty of gear inches and at a cadence of a mear 90 should have you going in the low 50's (kph). Plenty for most us mortals.
I got the compact and took it on that ride because I listened to all the "know it all's" who said that a compact was all I needed for moderately hilly centuries with 6,000ft of climbing. I was running a 50/12 big gear so at 50kph that was about 20rpm higher than I normally spin at. For that particular ride the compact wasn't the optimum set up for me. If I ran a 54 or 55/11 I would have been able to hang in the group much easier but I still would need the smaller gears to get me up the hills too. If I would have been happy riding along at 41kph all by myself for the rest of the ride then the compact would have been just fine. That's the point.
Originally Posted by
bigfred
If you're riding with pro's and getting dropped at speeds in excess of 50kph I understand you wouldn't have the same concern as Mrs. Fred, who averages about 22-24kph on her rides. Presuming you don't want to use the two most extreme chainring/cog combos and maintaining a cadence of roughly 90, the crossover from small to large chainring on a 34/50 happens at 27-29 kph. That's right in the sweet spot for Mrs. Fred when we're cycling along nice flat to rolling terrain. Subsequently, she finds herself frequently having to shift both front and rear to maintain the correct gearing. Versus a 39, which can carry you up into the low 30's before heading for the big ring.
JFYI, I get dropped all the time, just not usually in the flats or downhill. It seems like every time the road tilts up my fat butt is off the back.
In reality Mr's Fred's problem isn't any different than one that I might have or anyone else for that matter. The only difference is the speed and the gear choice. She just needs to change to a different cassette or change her chainrings so that it moves her sweet spot to the middle of the cassette. That's pretty simple.