It sounds as if your son wants to keep you around - you are a truly lucky man! And congratulations to you for rising to the challenge. Keep up the great work!
One thing though - trainers don't give you the same kind of feedback that riding on terrain would - so don't be too eager to go to a larger chainring! You will find your engine may respond differently to foad conditions - especially hills.
You are four years my senior - if your knees and hips are in perfect shape, then higher gears are not too bad - but I think that once you get out on the road, you will get into a different training regimen in order to build up your stamina at different cadences and grades. I've been riding for 38 years, and for a long time used higher gears than I should have - now, I've got a bad knee that forces me to go more gently and that has taught me the benefit of dropping to a lower gear and spinning. Take it gradually and build up your strength and stamina as you learn the ropes. I hope you have many rewarding years of riding!

I emailed Sheldon Brown that "I have installed a new Shimano R600 compact crank (34-50). It has a CBD of 110mm. I would like to replace the 50T ring with a 52T or 53T. Will the TA 110 Outer Chainring in 52 Teeth (CRT052), or 53 Teeth (CRT053) work, and any potential shifting problems? Any thoughts?"
His reply, "Yes, the TA rings will work. Shifting crispness may suffer slightly depending upon the shifters used. But the shifting performance will still be perfectly acceptable unless you are in elite level competition."

Thanks for encouragement and advice. I'm looking foward to getting back outside, maybe with in the next month.

Another custom cassette question
 

Hello -

It sounds like there are a lot of folks on this thread with the expertise I am looking for so I hope you don't mind if I jump in with a similar question. I am an older Pennsylvania tandem touring rider looking for a custom 9-speed Shimano hyperglide cassette with much closer spacing in the range I ride in mostly. My "dream" cassette is a 15-17-19-21-23-25-27-30-34.

We ride heavily, but I never use anything above the 15 tooth ring, and if I did, my wife would be screaming to slow down so I may as well put the gears where I can use them. Also, on a tandem I can't hear anything way back there anyway, so a little clicking does not bother me at all as long as the shifting performance has a reasonably smooth feel.

I have the following questions:

(1) Any mechanical problem with a 15 tooth top end on a Shimano 9-speed cassette?

(2) If I get the parts, is this something anyone with reasonable mechanical skills (me) can put together without too much trouble?

(3) Are there multiple versions of some sprockets designed with different ramps for transition from different gears (17 to 19 vs, 17 to 20 for example) or are all hyperglide 20 tooth 9-speed sprockets the same?



Thank you all so much!

Don

Another Custom Cassette Question
 

Hello -

It sounds like there are a lot of folks on this thread with the expertise I am looking for so I hope you don't mind if I jump in with a similar question. I am an older Pennsylvania tandem touring rider looking for a custom 9-speed Shimano hyperglide cassette with much closer spacing in the range I ride in mostly. My "dream" cassette is a 15-17-19-21-23-25-27-30-34.

We ride heavily, but I never use anything above the 15 tooth ring, and if I did, my wife would be screaming to slow down so I may as well put the gears where I can use them. Also, on a tandem I can't hear anything way back there anyway, so a little clicking does not bother me at all as long as the shifting performance has a reasonably smooth feel.

I have the following questions:

(1) Any mechanical problem with a 15 tooth top end on a Shimano 9-speed cassette?

(2) If I get the parts, is this something anyone with reasonable mechanical skills (me) can put together without too much trouble?

(3) Are there multiple versions of some sprockets designed with different ramps for transition from different gears (17 to 19 vs, 17 to 20 for example) or are all hyperglide 20 tooth 9-speed sprockets the same?



Thank you all so much!

Don


PS - My apologies if I have double posted this...

1) Yes. Shimano cassettes always have a built-in spacer on the top cog and I don't think any of the Shimano 9-speed cassettes use a 15 that has built-in spacer. The reason a built-in spacer is required is so that the cog will engage enough of the freehub splines. This is especially true if the freehub is a "compact" type where the splines don't go all the way to the end. (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html#hyperdrivec). But even if your freehub is not compact, I don't think it'd be wise to put on a top cog that doesn't have a built-in spacer, especially on a tandem where there are two motors generating torque. I believe the largest top cog in Shimano 9sp cassettes is a 14. However, the two 9sp cassettes I could find on techdocs.shimano.com (Ultegra http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830611831.pdf and Tiagra
http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830608763.pdf) show that many of the cogs come on carriers and cogs on carriers must be added and removed as a unit - i.e. you are very limited in customizing. I thought that the 105 9sp cassette didn't use cog carriers but that's not on techdocs and I don't happen to own a 105 9sp cassette so I don't know for sure.

2) Yes. The difficult part will be finding cassettes and cogs that will work and give you what you want.

3) Yes. HyperGlide cassettes are designed to be used as a unit and the 15 that is part of a 12-23 is different than the 15 that is part of a 12-27. However, there's usually not a noticable difference when you mix and match between different range cassettes. I've done it plenty of time.

I've mixed Shimano Ultegra, D-A, and XTR cogs to build custom 9-speed cassettes with good results. The XTR that I used was a 12-34. 12, 14, 16, [18-20] [23-26] [30-34] The larger cogs are pinned together on common carriers and cannot be used separately. From this cassette and other parts I built a 13-26, my favorite 9-speed cassette. At one time I had my wife on a 14-28 9-speed.
I cannot detect any shifting degradation mixing Shimano cogs, but I always try to keep the ratios as close as possible and still get the job done.
I definitely would not try to run a crankset with anything bigger than a 50 with a 34 inner ring. That would be like shifting a car from 2nd gear to 6th gear, the engine would probably die. I hate big ratio jumps and corresponding cadence jumps. I run a 53-39 crankset but would rather have a 52-39 or 50-36.

Al

A 50x12 high gear is 112 gear-inches and 80 rpm will give you 27 mph and 90 rpm will give you 30 mph . Can you really ride that fast on anything but a downhill?

Years ago, the Tour de France was won on lower top gears. I remember reading Steven Roche's book where he said how happy he was to get a freewheel with a 13T small cog. Previously they only had a 14T available. That gave him a 52x13 or 108 gear-inch high gear and he won the '87 Tour using it.

There's nothing wrong with mix and matching cogs as needed. i've been doing this since cassettes became popular in the mid 80's and here's a few things i've learned.

1. If the lower cogs are riveted or screwed together the the rivets can grinded off and the screws can be removed with NO adverse consequences.

2. In many cases the first 2 high gear cogs can NOT be easily interchanged due the their built in spacers.

3. If NON matching cogs are swapped out i.e. a P for a Q or a Q for an R shifting quality will be diminished but is still going to be better than the old uniglide days.

Its easier and cheaper to start with a cassette that has the high gear cogs you need.