briandelmo

The max you should be running with a SS RD is 28. Long cage works well with a 30/32 in the rear and I have set it up on a few racers with a 53/39. The goat link is a nightmare. I have a customer who runs a mountain cassette with a 40t and 53/39 SS RD. It's terrible. Accidently cross chain and you bend your hanger/suck the RD into your wheel. I have also seen the same setup with Etap and a 50/34 in the front and it still sucks. As for the 52/34 combo, it's going to shift real bad and you will constantly drop the chain

superdex

took how many posts to point this out? y'all are slipping...

gsteinb

I regularly hit just under 220 in cadence drills. AND I use my 11 pretty frequently in both races and training. In training for specific power drills, and in races dependent upon course and conditions. I am not sprinting at 45 mph or at 188 rpm because I'm using the best gear the situation and my body calls for. I don't use it all the time, and perhaps only a few times a year at the end of a race. But I'm not giving it up. I'm also generally not winding up to 180 rpms at the end of a 55 minute crit. Do you need an 11? Probably not. Does anyone need it? Yeah.

That said I fail to understand why one needs the kind of gear combo you're talking about unless it's some specific race, or you live in a wildly bumpy area. So, this is either going to come around to racing in the next few posts, or it's going to get moved to the mechanics forum.

tetonrider

one important thing to consider here, that i've found at least:
some of the people who report sub-standard shifting are not experienced with mountain bikes. IOW, sometimes what they think is an incompatibility is really just what shifting is like with a long-cage derailleur + big cog with more teeth (and associated great b-tension adjustment) + greater difference between small and large cogs. the clunkiness is especially evident at slower speeds, which is exactly the scenario when roadies think about slapping on a cassette with a big cog & a MTB RD.

at speed on a MTB, shifting is super quick. even with di2 on a MTB, shifting is slower than on the road.

just pointing this out because some folks co-mingle the issues.

ypsetihw

I guess the point about racing is that I'm a new Cat 5 racer, and I don't have the money to roll around with a different bike or gear setup for every race. My season will include a couple hillier road races, a couple flat races, and a couple crits. I need to ride the same bike for everything and I would like to avoid any major gear changes between training and racing except regular maintenance.

I fully understand the posted capacities of the RD, but I also understand the engineering behind that, and I understand that with proper operation the RD can easily handle it. I don't see why the FD will "shift like garbage", and so far it seems fine, although I haven't tried to shift the front under high load (which i try to avoid anyway).

my broader point is that the technology fully exists today to offer VERY wide ranges tight spacing, and I don't know why more companies don't offer more optimized ratios, and furthermore I don't understand why more people don't customize their own setups or are so afraid to experiment outside the "published" specs of the equipment.

grolby

Forget about the "sprinter" business. Like, are you a sprinter or are you just heavy? There's a big difference, and if you're a Cat 5 who's started 2 races, you're not really going to know which one you are. But really it doesn't matter. The question is what are you trying to do? Why do you need these gears?

My reading of what you're asking is that you want a set up that will help you survive the climbs but still allow you to sprint competitively (which isn't really determined by your gearing, but moving on...). And also that works well for training. Honestly, this isn't complicated to achieve with standard gearing and I'm not sure why you're making such a big deal about a "custom" combination. It sounds like you started with exactly the gearing I would recommend for you, which is a 50/34 compact and an 11-28 cassette. A 52x12 is lower than a 50x11, as already noted. I guess you get an ever-so-slightly tighter range with a 12-28, but so what? You're making your situation a lot more complicated by pushing the limits on the capacity of your derailleurs, and you're gaining nothing by it.

I wouldn't want to go off-standard for the sort of race program you're talking about. I have a 53-39 with 11-28 11-speed cassette that I use for every single race I enter, and it's fine. Incidentally, regarding the 11T: no, I'm not doing level sprints in 53x11. I'm not really a sprinter, myself, my jump is in the average-to-good range on W/kg, but raw power is low because I'm ~125 lbs and it's not really my thing. And yet, I do use that 11T from time to time. I didn't used to have one, and it wasn't the end of the world, but when you're rolling a paceline downhill or trying to bridge to a break on the backstretch at Fitchburg, it can feel nice to have a bit more resistance on the pedals and just roll that big gear.

TheKillerPenguin

Dang bro.

grolby

As per usual, harsher than I really meant it to be. Sorry OP.

YMCA

You'll never know what gearing "you" need until you ride enough to feel it out for your area.
I ride a 46x39 w/ an 11-x23; never lacking for top end and prefer tighter blocks.
BTW - I'm a weathered cat1 (on good days )

When I started, the fastest guys were using 52x42, with 12-19 or 13-21, even in hilly areas. And sprinting much smaller gears. Not saying it's right or wrong, just sayin. YMMV

gsteinb

I really don't know how I rode whiteface in a 42x21.

dz_nuzz

Obviously we have all just gotten weaker from those days. I am trying to figure out how I did App Gap with a standard, even more surprising I won App Gap with a standard twice then the next two years I did it with a semi-compact and did piss poor.

himespau 

Hills didn't used to be so tall.

gsteinb

I won my age group at app gap with a 39x28 this year.

tetonrider

seems obvious what it takes to win app gap.

;-)

dz_nuzz

I have decided that next year I will do App Gap with a 55/42 combo. Then I will win my field by 10 minutes.

YMCA

Racing in Belgie 1995, decided to do a training camp in French Alps, the Belgies say I'll be fine with a 42x23, I decide to put on 26 just in case. They laughed at my weak will. Never left that gear for 3 days. 65rpms forever. Ha, old-school didn't always know.