Originally Posted by
kovacsa
Hi All, Does anyone know about tighter gear ratios for cassettes?
Sure. I've ridden cassettes up to 14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23. Based on that experience I think cogs with a two tooth jump before the 19 cog are inappropriate for road riding, 10% is nice past that, a 22 between the 21 and 23 isn't noticeable, and 20 between 19 and 21 is worse because it's one more cog to skip changing rings.
Depending on starting cog, with 10 that allows
11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21
12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23
13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-25 or 26
14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-25-28
With a 50 or larger ring, 13 is a good starting cog providing a big gear like the 52x13 Eddy Merckx used to dominate the classics. We're not Eddy.
52x14 is also an OK big gear; although then you're forced to shift up to the big ring early from 39x15.
With a 34 small ring on a compact double, I'd want an 11 starting cog to have a usable 12 cog on the inner ring and would just run a triple because that'd mean loosing low gears or ones in the middle.