Originally Posted by
LibertyFLS
You sir have a good eye! I had assumed it was 11-32 (remember, my first "modern bike") because that's what is spec'd on Fairdale's website, and it looks huge to me, but this bike is an individual build not a Fairdale complete and it actually has 11-28 like you guessed on the Specialized wheels it came with. I counted the teeth today, and I noticed on my ride yesterday, it was easier on the climbs but not what I was expecting, my Falcon is 39/24 and this is 39/28 currently so it's a difference, but not a major one. I definitely want to get a 30/32 out back. I'm looking for wheel sets to replace these, used or new, and either way I'll be changing the cassette.
...or a more common approach is to just get a compact crankset. That reduces the size of both rings and makes more gear ratios usable. I mean, 53/11 can be used, but is it really useful?...the correct answer for most is 'no'.
50/34 with the 11-28 cassette will be significantly different compared to the gearing you are used to. And you wont need a huge cassette(not sure if your RD can handle 53/39 with 11-32).