Originally Posted by
Buk72
Wow, thanks for all your input everyone! So far it sounds like the wheel and tires are at the top of the list as lightening my load in my pack isn't possible as I ride to work with breakfast and lunch and "in-betweeners". Yeah, I have a healthy appetite. I do a lot of cross fit training and I need to eat! lol
As for the gears, I need to look into that. I'm new to the bike world so I'm kind of lost with all the lingo. STAPFAM is right about the crank being 52/42/30 but I think my cassette is 11/28 and I don't know what that means. Is that the number of teeth?
11/28 cassette is the number of teeth on the cassette. An 11/28 was normally fitted to a mountain bike so it will have a lower gear than if it was with Road bike gearing. I can assure you that 30/28 is good enough for ALL hills up to 15% gradient. Perhaps superfluous for flatlands but you do not have to use all the rings on the front. It sounds as though you have an 8 speed set up (Or 24 with a triple up front) not a problem though as it still has the range of gears required.
The original tyres would have been a Kenda Kontendor in 700 x26 sizing. Not a great tyre and heavy. I changed to 700x23 and went for a Favourite road tyre in Michelin Pro Race 2's (Now superceded to 3's) Another good tyre is the Continental 4000s and the "s" is important. Both tyres are lightweight at 200grammes or so and roll a lot better than the Kenda's.