Bike Forums - Cassette advice needed.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Al1943

On another forum I've heard people say that they have run a 13-29 with a short cage Campy RD and with a 53/39 ring set (plus evoracer above). You could always try it, just be careful. If we assume that the short cage RD can handle the size of the 29t then, as you know, the issues are chain wrap, and chain length. If your chain is at the normal ideal length and if you accidentally shift into the 39-13 combination the chain will probably go slack and you'll have chain on chain in the rear derailleur area, not good. If you shorten the chain and accidentally shift into the 53-29 the rear derailleur may reach its forward limit and destroy itself and possibly damage the frame. If the chain is long enough to handle the 53-29 and if you stay out of the small ring small cogs combinations you should be OK.
I guess you could try it very carefully on the workstand and then decide about a medium cage.
Personally I would buy the medium cage or go with a 50/36 Campy compact. I've got Record carbon 53/39, 13-26 and in the future may need to make the same expensive decision. That 26 isn't low enough for some of these 15% hills around here.

Yeah I heard the same thing too. Official campy stance is go with med rd for a 29t...
I'm running a Chorus 50/36 compact with a 12-25 right now...so a new cassette AND rd would be pretty expensive for me...and hence hoping for cheaper alternatives. But I guess you're right.
My shopping spree never ends...

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbossman

Yeah - the compact with a 13/29 would make the most sense and difference in your case, if you're looking for more climbing gears.

Or, you could go whole hog and get a standard triple crank with the 13/29 cassette - but you'd also need a long cage RD.

I think a triple makes a lot of sense....but considerig I just bought the 50/36 crankset and a 102mm Record BB, that's the one thing I can't do right now. Whole hog solution for me would be:
New med cage RD
New 13-29 Cassette
New Chain
:eek:

Was hoping to just slip on a new cog, maybe a new cassette and leaving everything else alone...and yet get significant gearing benefits to haul my ass up the hills. Too greedy :D :p

I went over to http://www.billronbikes.com/billronbikes.htm and got the low down. He says the short cage rd will have no problem sweeping a 13-29.

So now I gotta decide:

IRD 12-28 or Veloce 13-29

I don't want to lose the 12T, but not sure 28t would be low enough.
(there's a minor 20$ price diff and a whopping 50 gram weight difference)

Hmmm...if the small cogs on your current cassette are not excessively worn, couldn't you buy a 13-29 and then swap the 12 onto the new cassette? A few years back I wanted some really low gears for some mountain riding and was running a 9-spd Veloce triple setup with long cage rd and 13-26 cassette. I swapped the stock 30t granny ring for a 26t and added a 30t Marchisio sprocket to the cassette by removing the 16t for 13-30 9-spd. It worked reasonably well inspite of being well outside of Campy recommendations although it was best to avoid the granny ring/small cog combinations but it wouldn't break anything if I accidentally shifted there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kommisar89

Exactly what I was considering today. Basically buy the 13-29 veloce and use the 12 cog from my current veloce 12-25. But after considering the the resulting 12-29 and the frankenstine left over cassette, I decided to just get the IRD COMP 12-28 instead. This way I'll have a second working cassette for another wheelset.

Going from 12 to 13 loses 8.4 gear inches
Going from 28 to 29 loses about 1.2 gear inches

I'll ride it tomorrow and see if I mae the right call!

Thanks for your input.

PS Bill says I can even sweep the 12-29 with the short cage RD and ven use the stock chain, provided it was cut to spec and everything gets adjusted right.

Conclusion:
Real happy with the IRD Comp 12-28!
Short cage rd no problem, shifts perfectly.
Thanks again for your inputs!