Hi guys, new to the forum and new to road-ish type of biking. Please don't hesitate to re-locate this post if it isn't in the right spot.
I'm new to "road" type riding and have just got myself my first drop bar bike. It's a Giant Revolt 3, 2015 model. The goal is to have it be a commuter for evenings / weekends, leisure bike as well as for my to dabble my feet into road riding for excercise/fitness. I plan to have the majority of my seat time out for fitness on 20-35km rides, with the intent to work up to and try out longer rides on weekends here and there.
I've got 180km on the bike so far in the few weeks that I've had it. Note: I'm a fair weather rider only and I'm not a small guy, 5'8" - 240lbs. I've also never ridden drop bars before this bike.
The bike came with a 11-32 8spd HG51 cassette on the rear (11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32t) and a 30/39/50 triple on the front. Typically when I'm out on a ride for exercise I find myself flipping between 3 or 4 gears on the rear (18-24 sprockets, or 15-24 sprockets).
What I'm finding is that the steps between those gears are larger than I would like. One gear pedaling is too easy, the next gear my pace is a little slower than I think I want it to be.
Would swapping the cassette at the rear to a smaller range with slightly smaller steps help smooth out my cadence for me when I'm trying to push a little harder? Ideally I would've bought a higher end 9 or 10 spd drive train, but this bike was already a fair step up over what I initially wanted to spend and I couldn't make the next jump. The current setup is fine when I'm being lazy or just around town. It's when I'm out on a 20-30km+ ride for exercise that I want to be a little smoother.
What I've found available at my LBS is a Shimano Claris cassette that I can get in an 11-28, or for a couple $ more a SRAM PG850 cassette that I can get with a 11-28, 12-26, or if I go crazy a 12-23. I'm not sure if there's any real world difference between the 2 brands / models.
Can anyone offer any input? Would the SRAM shift any worse than the shimano with the rest of my stuff being shimano Claris? If so I won't consider it at all. I'm planning to keep the chain on the bike right now as it's still new (with the rest of the bike).
As of right now I'm leaning towards the PG850 in the 12-26 configuration (unless the shimano is recommended) with the idea that 12-23 might be too big of a jump. I found this page:
Shimano and Shimano-compatible 8-speed cassettes and it lists that 12-26 cassette as 12-13-15-17-19-21-23-26 so it looks to be a little tighter than the stock one with mainly 2T steps vs 3 or 4T. This comes with the expectation that I would step into my middle and smaller rings up front more than I currently do which I'm OK with.
If you're interested the rest of the bike is great. The shop helped me adjust the seat and swap the stem to fit me better - swapped the tires to something more road-rolling friendly and a little wider to keep me more comfortable with the transition from MTB to road type bike. They also fitted a Topeak rack to the back so I can use my existing bag easily when I'm romping around town with it. I threw on my lights, bike computer and the clip less pedals from my XC hardtail (was never comfortable off road with them, but on road I love them). I'm really happy with it so far.
Sorry for the long post, but thanks in advance for any input.