Originally Posted by
Arasteh
Hi,
I want to attend my first century which has a lot of hills. I have realized that my bike needs a upgrade to tackle the hills. I was wondering if I could upgrade my rear cassette to something like 13-27 or 13-31. (and what should I buy that fits this) Here are the info about my bike and the gear set:
I'd install a triple crank, with 30x23 like 39x30 and 26x23 like 39x35. Left ergo levers will run triples, you'll have the same gears for flatter parts of your rides. and period-correct Racing-T parts won't be very expensive.
I would not run a compact crank, which only gives you one more on the low end and radically increases front shifting with a tight cassette. Running 50-34x13-23 9 cog I was constantly shifting from 50x21 to 34x15 and 34x14 to 50x19.
13-26 is the largest available Campagnolo brand 8 speed cassette. Miche makes a 13-28.
While theoretically you could get a pre-exadrive 13-30 or 32 from Campagnolo's mountain gruppo effort it'd be a collectible and priced accordingly.