fishboat

I'm considering a Lemond Maillot Jaune or Zurich.

The Maillot Jaune is set up with a Dura Ace 53/39 crank and a 9 speed Dura Ace 12-23 cassette. Both derailleurs are Dura Ace.

The Zurich is set up with Ultegra 53/39 crank and a 9 speed Ultegra 12-25 cassette. Both derailleurs are Ultegra.


I'm of retirement age and looking into the future...what are my options, if any, of swapping out the cassette to something a little more hill..or me..friendly. 11-28 or 14-28?

Alternatively, are there options to swap out the chainrings from 53/39 to 50/34?

HillRider

The current Dura Ace and Ultegra cranks have bolt circle diameters (BCD) of 130 mm and cannot accept any chainring smaller than 38 teeth and 39T, as you have, is almost universal. If you want a 50/34 combination you will have to replace both cranks with "compact" (110 mm BCD) versions. This will not be particularly cheap.

Changing the cassettes to 12x27 9-speed will help a fair bit. The 11x28 will probably work but the 11T cog will likely be useless. A 14x28 will also be likely to work and give you more useful inner gears if a 53x14 top gear (102 gear-inches) is adequate as it probably will be.

fishboat

I've done the gear inch calcs and a 27 or 28t cog should be fine I think. I'm not so worried about the smaller(big gear inch) cog as 12 or 14 will work...I'm not racing. Sticking with 9-speed is fine too.

So you're saying 12x27(or in that range) 9-speed cassettes do exist and will function well with the existing crank and derailleurs?

Secret Squirrel

I replaced my straight block 9 speed Dura Ace with a 12-27 ultegra 9 speed cassette. Works fine and gives me a bailout gear.

bradtx

fishboat, There are still many good options still available for 9S. The HG 50 series looks to be where many non current cassettes have been moved to. I think you are formally limited to a 27t large cog, larger may, or may not, work.

Be sure the chain is long enough to not stress the RD.

Brad

Iride01 

How much money do you want to spend? I just put an 11 speed Shimano 105 5800 group on a 1991 Schwinn Paramount frame. Up until last week I rode a 2x7 setup (53/39 x 14-28). I'm very glad I resisted the temptation to cheap out and go for a 2x9 or 2x10 setup. And I'm not missing the down tube friction shifters at all.

My new setup is 2x11 (52/36 x 11-32). So far on my normal ride, I have not had to use the 32 gear. Now I am looking forward to trying it out on those other routes I did infrequently because of the steep grades.

The biggest benefit for me was that if I spin out my cadence while climbing, I can select the next gear and continue to accelerate while going uphill. On my old setup, the gear change was so drastic, that my cadence fell too much for me to continue accelerating.

If you are not into using your bike for an intense workout, then it may not make that much difference. But it's sure nice to have those options.

shelbyfv

As mentioned, 12-27 9 speed cassettes are still readily available. If you need easier, a complete 50-34 crankset would be my next choice. Then there are mtb cassettes and derailleurs. Neither of those frames would limit your component choices.

Dave Mayer

Lower gearing: yes, a good objective. Your derailleurs should be easily able to handle a 28 tooth cog in the rear. Unfortunately, most current cassettes come with useless 11- tooth starting cogs, but the upside is that 9-speed cassettes are plentiful and cheap; I see Chain Reaction has a 12-27 Alivio unit for under $25.

If it were me, I would find a single 27 or 28 tooth cog in the cog bin at my local bike Co-op, and a 9-speed spacer, and slap it on the back of your current cassette. You would have to remove one of your current smaller cogs of course. This is the $1.00 solution.

BTW : you probably need a longer chain; chains are 4 times per year disposables. Buy cheap and replace often. When you're retired, you'll be riding 10,000 or more miles per year.

More expensive and marginally useful solutions : a compact crankset. You get much more bang for the buck by going for a larger cassette. Need even lower gears (as in a 32 tooth cassette granny-gear)? Then replace your rear derailleur with a 9-speed MTB unit.

Worst possible solution: an 'upgrade' to 11-speeds or whatever. 11-speed chains, cassettes and rings are hideously expensive, and your current 9-speed STI shifters are crisper than the latest ones can ever be due to the extra friction/cable drag due to the under the bar cable routing.

9 gears in the back is more than enough, trust me.

Iride01 

Once back in the 70's I said five speeds was enough.

But it really does depend on your style of biking. Whether you have leg muscles like a sprinter or no leg muscle (like me) and a bunch of other things that may or may not be personal pref's.

11 speed groups are not that expensive anymore, unless you have to have the premier group set offered by a particular maker.

fishboat

Thanks folks! All this is music to my ears. Glad to hear there's plenty of options...and 9 gears is plenty. If I can't make 2x9 work, then I should stick to hiking.

Now I just have to find one of these models in a 55.

fishboat

Actually I started riding back then and I never seemed to need more than 5.

Dave Mayer

You can easily make 9-speed work brilliantly, despite what bike shops will tell you.

Doing a quick mental inventory of the approximate 8 road bikes I own, my conclusion is my 9-speed bike features the crispest most reliable shifting of the bunch.

BTW: Dura-Ace 7700 is a brilliant gruppo. Everything was good, partly the shifters and hubs. I don't know how the shifting performance on 7700 units could be improved on. Perhaps by replacing them with Campagnolo, but not any other Shimano units that I've ever used...

So...

While ignoring what your shop is telling you about "not being able to find these old parts" anymore, keep in mind that the sorry bike biz is on a 7-year cycle of planned obsolescence, which involves simply adding another cog to the cassette. This masks the lack of real innovation in the industry, and provides an excuse for shops to sell potential buyers on new bikes, despite their old stuff being perfectly good.