Originally Posted by
zvez
Luis, how long did they say?
For the one I just ordered they said it should be here end next week or beginning of the week of the 6th. For the organge or blue it was 2 months +/-.
Originally Posted by
bigfred
Luis, I don't know you, your fitness level, nor riding aspirations. But, let me throw a spanner in your gearing works. I played around last year with moving between 130 and 110bcd. From 53/39 X 12-25 to 11-28 & 12-27. My new 110bcd cranks came with 50/34 and I tried those with the aforementioned cassettes as well as an 11-26. I also tried 36 and 52 rings on those cranks.
I learned two things I feel are worth mentioning:
1. I found a 16 tooth front shift to be less than ideal. The biggest concerns about it were the necessity to make three rear shifts instead of two in order to select the next gear in the sequence and the reduced overlap between rings if used with a close ratio cassette.
2. While big, low ratio cogs in the back are nice for solo toodles and recovery rides, I found them to be a distinct disadvantage on group rides and fondos. If I'm any lower than a 23 or 25 in the back, on anything but the steepest of climbs, I'm going backwards in comparison to others.
My happy medium ended up being a 50/36 X 11-26. It provides me with more top end than my previous 53X12, reasonably close ratios from 11-23 and a bail out 36X26 for the really steep stuff or if I've simply popped. If you're at a level where you require a 52X11, I would be surprised if you need anything as low as 34X28, unless you're attacking on grades of greater than 12%.
YMMV and if your fitness and terrain warrant 34X28, by all means that's what you should get. I just thought I'd throw my thoughts out there for building up what is most certainly, first and foremost a race bike.
Great stuff right there! Thanks for that post. My current level of fitness I think is ok. Currently sitting on a 260FTP (might be a little down since weight loss) on 166 pounds. I will be peaking soon probably 1-2 weeks from today and I can attest not needing the 28 cog right now. However I like having it because recovery rides pretty much require me to have it. It doesnt matter how strong you are it is very difficult going up a 8% in zone 1. My neighborhood / town has a few 10%+ climbs of .5 to 1 mile length.
I will accept that I do not need a 52 / 11 just yet but I am training towards needing it. I really thought hard going 11-26 but like I said I need to spin for recovery and it is really hard to spin 80+ rpm below 140 watts on an 8% gradient. I've proven to be able to climb on low gears since sometimes I do club rides on my Panasonic from 1988 which has a 42-23 climbing gear and still get to drop the pack (bragging just a little but it's true
). The bike also weighs 23 lbs. Yet I need to stand up on the pedals for anything over 3% and cadences get crazy low after 8%. I'd say that a good inbetween from "53/42 w. 12-23" to "50/34 w. 11-28" is probably "52/36 w. 11-28". Am I right or not? The current crank arm is 172.5mm.
Also, unrelated my Roubaix was officially weighed in today and it did great at 17.04!!! The guy at the LBS guesstimated my Venge S works between 14.5 to 15.5. Pretty darn good for an Aero bike.