Originally Posted by
rm -rf
11 tooth
I thought that 11 tooth sprockets were "marketing".
But they have a couple of uses:
Soft pedaling at a low pedal pressure on downhills. I like to keep my legs moving on a very long downhill.
Using the 34-12 cog without being completely cross chained. A rider can get close to 20 mph without needing to shift the front to the 50. Handy on rolling terrain.
Exactly... and thank you. Whichever number cog from the smallest your rig 'cross-chains'.. going from a 12-XX to an 11-XX doesn't only buy you faster absolute top end speed, but also more top end speed available staying in the small ring. Stepped climbs (ie. incline-flat-incline-flat, etc) can be a big benefit to a smaller cogged rear-cassette by avoiding lots of big/small FD shifts.