Originally Posted by
TCroadie
hello everybody , I have kind of a newbie question on gearing .
To try to explain I come from a MTB background and have been riding a Trek 8700 Composite for the last 9 months for fitness ands wieght lose (started at 334 1 1/2 ago now 260 ) i am building myself a reward bike and my first real road bike ..
I have bought a 2013 Ridley noah pro and have deciede to go with Campy Chorus gearset < i am very interested in getting involved in Endurance cycling , but coming from a background of mtb's and triples i am wondering what would be the best chainring & cassette set up
Cassette options are a 11-25 or 12-27
and for crankset would i be better off with a standard 39-52
or a compact 34/50
I plan on doing alone of my riding alone the Pacific coast highway and some climbing ... any help or ideas would be greatly appretiated
Tony
If you're planning to do serious long distance on hilly terrain, then I think you need to think in terms of having a very-low bailout that lets you spin up the steepest climb instead of having to stand up. On our most recent 200km, there is a climb that's about 420 feet -- the first 200 are at about 11 percent, then there's a "flat" bit where you climb only about 20 feet in 1/4 mile, then you hit the steep stuff climbing at 17 to 20 percent for the final 200 feet of the climb. (If anyone watching this thread guesses "Marlu Ridge, the hard way" -- that's what I'm talking about.)
Even with a 24-tooth granny and a 32-tooth cog, I find it pretty hard to stay seated all the way up that last bit. I use a Sugino XD600 triple (24/34/46) paired with an SRam 11/32. I seldom need the 11-tooth, though it came in handy on the last ride when I found that the front derailleur wouldn't shift up to the "big" ring in front, so it turned into a compact double. I was surprised how few times I wanted a gear bigger than the 34x11. Partly, that's because it was pouring rain and I wasn't pedaling hard on the downhills.
Nick