Originally Posted by
rosefarts
Can you test ride one of your friends bikes with the smaller ring? That way you don't have to decide blindly.
FWIW, I've got a 32x10-52 setup, pretty common. For the long uphill grind, I never have an issue. There are some occasions when I want to go up some steep rock ramp or other weird obstacles and run out of power.
The tricky part is, do I need a smaller chainring, or do I actually need a bigger one and stronger legs? At those low gears, I'm barely moving. It's slow enough that I end up doing track stands on obstacles and small bumps completely stop my progress and I tip over. An even lower gear would slow me down even more, it gets closer to the minimum allowed by physics, to stay moving.
If I'm on a steep non technical trail just grinding, I can go 3-4mph which is plenty. If you want a lower gear for that, do it. You almost certainly won't notice the loss on the high gears.
I took the slowest sections (climbs) of my last ride from Strava and calculated my cadence. My cadences range from 26 - 54. That's super slow. To the point where I could be hurting my knees from grinding. And I'm pretty sure I'm in the granny (51) for most of the slower sections.
I'm fairly lean - 5'9" 150lbs. I run 3 miles at an 8:00 pace. I think my legs are just not strong enough. Can I get them stronger - sure. But its not going to happen overnight. I'm also 51 years old so I'm battling father time. The last thing I want to do is hurt my knees from grinding up hill.
You make a good point about moving too slow - to the point where I'm going to tip over. The first two sections below (same trail section) I'm moving at 1.4 - 1.9 mph. That's slow. But I'm not tipping over. Would a smaller front ring help? I think so b/c I'd be able to spin at a higher (and safer) cadence which could translate to either the same speed or potentially even faster.
See cadences below:
