Originally Posted by papapapaof4
Just bought a new road bike and would like to have a better really low gear for those long hills. Is there any reason why one cannot simply replace the stock 12-26 rear cassette with a 11-32 mountain bike cassette to go with the 52-42-30 front gears?
--- I successfully replaced my original 12-30 five-speed cassette with a 14-34 six-speed cassette on my 1970's road bike. The new cassette fit between the stays and the original Suntour derailleur handles it fine. The new cassette was hard to find so I ordered it from Sheldon Brown.
By the way, I also replaced the chain.
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"The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well." Ivan Illich ('Energy and Equity')1974