A few weeks ago I inquired about big cogs and road derailleurs. The best suggestion seemed to be get a mtb der. So I got this off the bay for proof of concept. RD-M750 good to a 34t. Which is what I had gotten off cl. This way zoot Sram thingie. Set-up actually works like a whiz ! Amazingly I can stay upright on the 39/34 gear. Haven't had a chance to try it on the local grunt (for me) grade yet but that is on the sched for tomorrow. With so many big cogs on the cassette I suspect that I'll be using the 50 rather more now. Update in a couple days.
It's on this https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/1290674-almost-done.html





Coming Soon ! ! The Adventure of the Big Pulleys ! !

The pulleys made it. Good to go

What have you been wrenching on lately?

Oh yes, the old 'Alpine' gearing setup - having a large cog in back for tough hills.

I'm at the point of using 'corpse' gears - 42/32/22 in front, and 12-32 in back. Feels like I can climb anything with that setup.

Cheers,
Greenman

This summer I put a 11-32 cassette wheel mated with a long cage Dura-ace 9 speed rear derailleur on my 79 Raleigh Professional so I could ride it in hill country and not just bike paths. Works perfectly, although I can see going to a new crank to get a 34t ring up front.

What's not to love about long cage RDs and compact or triple cranks?

There is only love for that kind of setup, especially with a triple crankset.

I'm still trying to figure out how a 1x setup is any kind of upgrade over a 3x.

I won't build a bike that I can't ride up 10% plus grades.

I'm gonna give that a hell yeah!

fify

I am running one of those XT rear derailleurs on my 71 Raleigh International* with an 11-40 cassette and it shifts it just fine. I am going to switch it to a 11-34 or 11-36, though. I had planned to run a double 48-38 in the front and then Sloar started his crazy sales and I ended up with an SR Suntour Superbe triple crank with a 24t small gear. I don't need the 40 with that.

*Based on the picture, I think the OP's derailleur hanger is not as long as the one on my International.

Having fallen into the Cult of Berto in high school, I had decent low gears before I had a driver's license, even though they were much less affordable when I was working for $2.65 per hour and the only convenient crank option with good available gearing then was spelled "TA".

And many decades later, I still run rather low gears on nearly all the bikes, especially given I have a 17% climb to deal with to get home from most destinations.

I will admit I finally traded in the 20 - 38 on the recumbent. Still more comfortable than walking.

Yeah, whoever designed the Allez Comp was probably not thinking about any kind of big cog cassettes.
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Great to see all the triples on this thread! I'm a huge fan of the triple setup. More gears, wider overall ratios, smaller jumps between gears, etc. It's hard to really see much downside. The main issue is that often the groups need to be cobbled together, which requires a bit of experience and some mechanical know-how. I suppose they are marginally more heavy, but is anyone really worried about that on these types of bikes? I also live at the top of a steep hill. At the end of a long ride, given the choice between a lower ratio or a few less ounces, I know what I would choose ten out of ten times.

Here's my entry into the low gears club (Red Clover Components Triplizer):

When I got into bikes, I was into ATBs- so triples were matter of course. As I got more into bikes, I fell into tourers- where triples are matter of course. So the whole concept of triples makes more sense to me than doubles (or even the thought of 1x). So much so, that I converted doubles to triples. Just because. When running a 5 or 6 speed cog, half-step makes sense- but I'm pretty happy with a 50-38-28-ish front end. I always end up on the middle ring and use the big for 'overdrive' and little for 'bailout.'

As a geezer myself, all my bikes have triple cranks. I always thought going ten teeth smaller in front made more sense than ten teeth bigger in back. And with a Red Clover triplizer, I can even keep my classic Campy crank.

I have a 14-28 freewheel for a 1-1 ratio on Fredo, but my brother's upright bike has a 26/32 low gear, very nice for steepness.

Mostly guessing so 39/36 low?

This is magic, I can ride it up hills that I can barely get up on my other bikes, I always suck at hills but on this it is way less, incredible.



Maybe same or 39/34?



24/32?



36/32 I think.


36/28?



26/30 maybe with custom drilled crank by Jim.

There are a lot of reasons this '84 Takara Challenge I picked up a week ago has quickly become one of my favorite bikes. But the 32 tooth freewheel and 28 tooth chainring is a big part of it. I like to ride the MUP downtown some Saturday mornings for coffee or some Sunday afternoons for a growler fill. Yesterday morning it climbed the only real hill on this path which is known and hated by nearly every runner and cyclist in town with ease.

Nay. That’s “but I’m not dead yet” gearing. 44/32/20 with an 11-36 cassette is a “corpse” gear. 44/32/20 with an 11-40 is a “walking dead” gear while a 44/32/20 with an 11-42 cassette is “been dead for years” gear.

My touring bike with the 11-36 gear range (740%). I’ve used that gearing extensively nearly everywhere in the US on my not quite vintage Cannondale.


I’ve used the 11-40 (800%) and 11-42 (840%) gearing on my bikepacking bike, although this picture is when it had a mere 11-36 on it.




I once read an article in Adventure Cycling from the guy who pushed 1x at SRAM. He was gushing about 1x and the simplicity. He said that changing the chainwheel on a 1x completely changes the character of the bicycle. I fully agree. What if you carried along the chainrings and had the is nifty little device that switches between those chainrings? It would completely change the character of the bike. Why has no one invented such a system?

I, too, fell under Berto’s spell long ago (but I was well out of high school).

It’s really not that hard to push the limits of gearing systems. The biggest impediment is often the idea is the “you can’t do that” mindset. My 20 tooth inner ring is easy on a crank with a 94/58 BCD like the Race Face on my YBB (above). I could even go to an 18 on that one, although those are exceedingly rare. Fitting a 20 tooth inner to the XT crank required some filing of the posts on the inner chainring mounts to get enough clearance but there’s plenty of material still there to handle the load.

The rear derailer on the Cannondale required a Wolf Tooth Road Link to get enough clearance but that hasn’t caused any problems after years of use. The 10 speed XO on the Moots can be pushed to make a 42 tooth cog on the cassette work by tinkering with the B screw. I could use a Road Link on it as well but I haven’t had to go that route.

Being a bit grouchy, I like the fact that I can get a wider range of gearing than most any 1x and still keep features I like about my old (and oldish) bikes. I could get a modern gravel bike with gears as low as my touring bike but those bikes are race bikes while my touring bike is built for carrying loads. My YBB has 26” tires which I will cling to to my last breath because 29ers are stupidity heavy and hard to move.

Long live the triple!

Zeus 36-48:

Triplized Stronglight 93 (28-42-48):

Fortunately my gearing needs are relatively meager

53/42/28 front




11/36 back.




Top

Built this up out of bits I had kicking about spare .
It lives in another town a couple of hours away and gets used on the odd occasion .
Quite like the gearing compared to my usual corncobs
The cat was not impressed at all

Something worth considering is that an 18 or 20 tooth jump will probably work on the FD, just need to set the vertical position correctly.

Some of us couldn't try a triple because stick shifts can't do that apparently, but they can do 18 or 20 tooth jump.
FD: Cyclo Benelux mark 7 with 50/32 Williams rings
RD: SunTour Cyclone mk1 GT with SunTour New Winner 13-32 Ultra 6
Gives 32/32 as my bottom gear and 50/13 as top, working nicely so far - should be good for 15% ish.