This is my year to step up improvements to equipment. Most of my goals are centered on 20-30mi and shorter, fast, mostly hilly country rides. This year I'm starting with a Cannondale Criterium frame, a lightweight wheelset and better gearing.

I would ask for your experiences with gearing on steep hills. Here is the improvement:
Present gearing has a road double 53/39 with 14-28 freewheel that has been all but ok except for 3 major climbs, locally.

New: I'm going to go with a compact double 50/34 and 11-28 7sp cassette.

Have any of you switched between these two setups and please tell me your thoughts?

My Masi came with the standard 53/39 and 11-26 10sp cassette. At the end of 20012 I went to a 50/34 and 12-26 cassette and it has made a world of difference. It has allowed me to climb using higher cadence and that has kept me fresher longer.

A 12/13-28 seems more sensible to me.

My Klein road bike came with a 53/39 crankset. I think that the best equipment change that i ever made was converting it to a 50/34 compact crank. That change gave me a couple of hill climb gears that I desperately needed at the expense of a couple of go-fast gears that i never used.

Along the same lines, I have no use for 11 tooth cassette cogs.

Years back living near hilly places 52-36 doubles were OK.

Now the old road rig got the same drivetrain ratios as the touring bike .. 50.40.24
just 13-28 freewheel rather than the 13-34..

just dont ride the roadie bike much , any more .. IGH convert..

Rohloff is at its minimum , 16:38 in a 26" wheel..

20" wheel 16:53 is comfortably with in the min range , could be lower..

11th [1:1 in the hub] is about the same relative with the ratio/wheel size ..

The new set-up will help you climb, but the spacing between cogs will be pronounced.

Rohloff each lower gear is about 86% of the next higher one so closer together as it goes down..

same thing in the 24t chainring rather than a 50. the ratios are proportionally closer together.

Yeah, it will take me a month to get used to it. Always an adjustment. The nice part is the ease of switching between road and compact cranksets.

Yes, I had one bike set-up for easy changes between a compact and standard crankset. I used a 50 & 34 compact on hilly rides and a 50 & 39 standard for flatter rides close to home. I could change the cranks in about 30 minutes and never had to touch the derailleurs.

I agree that a 12-28 cassette makes more sense than 11-28. In fact, if you can find a 13-28 it will give you a very slightly higher gear than you had with the old setup. The 12 will be a significant increase and the 11 will be a huge jump. With only 7 cogs, it is especially important not to have unused gears.

Man I've never even stayed on a 52 x 13 for that long on my best younger days.

I'm going to compacts on both my bikes with 46/36 chainrings because I think it will keep me from cross-chaining using the gears I do most of my riding in. I will still use 7 speed freewheels on these two bikes rather than cassettes because I don't really want to get into any frame cold setting. I'm using Mike Sherman's gear calculator to determine my choices. (I like it a little better than Sheldon Browns.)

https://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

I'll probably do most of my distance rides on my Trek 500 so I'm going with a 14-28 freewheel on that one. I have gone to an older Shimano 600EX rear derailleur to handle the 28 tooth sprocket. My gear inches on this bike will range from 34.2 to only 87.4 and that's fine. This isn't my jammin' bike such as I actually ever do anymore. It will also be a moderate hilly riding bike.

My Trek 970 will have a 13-24 freewheel for gear inches of 39.9 to 94.2 which is pretty close to equal what I've been riding with for almost 2 active decades now (50-39 x 14-26). There have been times in the past when I've been dropped on the top gear but I just don't ride that fast much anymore anyway.

So how will I like my Trek 500 on the hills with the 36 x 28 ? I dunno yet. It's snowing now. We'll see. If I need to gear down even more I'll still have the spare 34 tooth ring if I want to give up my straighter chain-line optimum cruising gearing.

What's your favorite flat road gear?

On a dead flat road with no wind I want my favorite gear to fall right in the middle of the cassette (or frreewheel). That way I have a couple of trim ratios in each direction without having to shift front chainrings.

Remember, I'm switching from the road double to compact double. I dont recover-coast on the backside of the hills. With a 53 and 14 I'm spinning a bit fast at 37mph. So if I reduce the ratio to a 50 and add the 11 I can live with that. I would grab a shimano 12-28 if available. But my dilemma isnt the high end.....it's the low end. I need a lower bailout gear.

I'm on the 53 and doing about 20.5-21mph, though this rarely happens here. With a 6sp suntour 14-28 I have 2, sometimes 1 gear left.

Keep the same rear gearing that you have, just change the front.

You're talking about improving your climbing, but not changing the back. Changing to a compact will help your climbing. But there's no point in screwing up your rear gearing by adding huge gaps between the cogs if you're sticking with the 28 big cog anyway.

I just recently changed from 53x39 cranks to 50x34 and use an 11-28 cassette. The climbing is vastly improved. You won't miss the 53x39 unless you have major downhills as you will spin out before you reach 35-40mph. I am even considering getting a longer cage for my derailleur so I can use a 32 for long mountain climbs.

Well with the setup I've been using for 20 active years (50-39 x 14-26 six speed) but since I just came back after an 11 year layoff, I spent most of my time on the 39 x 18 and the 50 x 20 which is pretty much in the middle but different rings. And that's a jump from 57.7 to 66.5 gear inches. (I've never even used my very top gear since I came back yet.)

I'd kinda like something in between for distances and will be looking forward to using my 46 x 20 (61.2 gear inches) and hope to get my century time down w/o having to do too many intervals . I can also keep close to what I use now on either side of that, and on the same ring, w/o having to cross-chain any.

I'll also have more good grade options on my 36 ring that I'm looking forward to on both bikes. On the Trek 500 that would include the 36 x 18 (53.2) and I can still cruise on the 36 x 16 (59.9) stretching that chain line at my limit of an ultra narrow 7 freewheel on rolling terrain.

I like to stay two sprockets away from the edge of an ultra 7 freewheel on the big ring and one away on the small ring.

As for my '83 Trek 970 here's the modest range for that one which pretty much fits both my limitations and the NOS freewheel that I have sitting around. Not planning on doing that much climbing on it. It's for shorter blasts mostly unless I show it off in a relatively flat century. I gotta be sub 6 hours (including stops) before I show my face in a century in tight shorts on my 970.

Skip the super high gears, and you can have decent low gears with reasonably tight spacing. I find 50/14 (96") high enough on the road bike, 48/12 (104") on the mountain bike. Low gear is up to you -- I generally use 42/23 on the road, but I do have a 42/26 granny that I want (need?) on steep hills or end-of-ride climbs. On the mountain bike I use a 1:1 (26", 28/28) ratio, but something a bit lower would occasionally be useful.

One of the more interesting gearing systems is the double reduction jackshaft system Dan Gutierrez built for his assault on Fargo Street (34% grade, the steepest in Los Angeles). He was able to remain seated and spin his way up the hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgIL6eHHgZU

With a 7 speed freewheel, a 11-28 will have pretty big gaps in the 15-20 mph range on the 50 chainring, and at 10-15 mph on the 34 chainring.

Speeds for an rpm range charts:

50-34 chainrings and 13-28 7 speed freewheel. The 50 chainring is black, 34 is red.



50-34 chainrings and 11-28 7 speed freewheel:



These charts are clipped from Mike Sherman's Gear Calculator. All the charts update on the fly if you change any of the settings.
Here's a link for 50-34 chainrings, 13-28 7-speed freewheel, 700c wheels with 25c tires. It'll pop up a notice that you can save this setup by bookmarking the page.

I did 80-97 rpm for the 11-28 chart so the highest speed on the chart is 35 mph, the same as the 13-28 chart. Otherwise the 11-28 shows 36 mph as the top speed, and resizes the chart, making it harder to compare.

The 13-28 is 13-15-17-19-21-24-28
The 11-28 is 11-13-15-18-21-24-28, so it has bigger jumps in the middle to add the extra 11 cog.

I'd much rather have the closer gears in the 14 mph to 22 mph range on the 50 chainring, instead of the faster top end of the 50-11.

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I have a Campagnolo 13-29 10 speed cassette for hills. On downhills, I'll effectively spin out at about 32-33 mph on the 50-13, instead of reaching 34-36 mph on a 50-12. I don't miss the 50-12.

My 34-29 is great on steeper hills. I can even sit down on 8% grades, at a slow speed, and use fairly light pedal pressure, no mashing needed.

I have a compact double with 50-36 rings and an 11-26 cassette on my CAAD 10, works quite well for me. After all the years with road doubles in the 53-39 or 42 range I am not having any problems with top or bottom end gearing. I have absolutely no problem with having a triple, either. We just don't need gearing very low in our flat coastal area, my R500T had an RSX triple until I swapped it out for a 105 road double, as I wasn't using the small ring any.

With the steps on my cassette, and the top end that the 11-T cog allows everything I could want is there. I understand that you can have a bail out gear with the triple and closer steps, with my simple, non-racing or hill climbing needs the low or big top isn't an issue. I have considered the 52-36, mid-compact set up that is being offered for a little more top and that may get a try as I am fortunately becoming a bit more fit and could use the higher ranges it would offer and still have enough lower gearing available. That is my take and experience with the current offerings.

Bill

I'm a little longer in the chain ring (52), but similar configuration. I had the exact configuration on another bike a couple of years ago and it worked out well all-around. In fact, I've noticed that a lot of road bikes are now configured similarly. People are trading a larger chain ring for a smaller one and going longer in the rear cluster (refering to the ground-inches of travel per crank of the pedal). For hilly rides, it makes sense. For me, I prefer a fifty-two on the largest chain ring and eleven on the rear as a good combo. I don't have as many hills outside my door, but, there is always a prevailing wind and the direction always seems to be in my face, no matter what direction I am traveling (how does that happen :O( or is it my imagination).

Headwinds will also shift sometimes abruptly when it's time to come back.

I've used the road double all my life and with a 14-28 gear. I do my own wrenching and will be swapping parts if needed. One thing I've noticed....it never gets easier, you only go faster. Time for a change. I'm 56yrs old and that is too old to keep doing things the same way.

Thanx rm -rf! I will enjoy the pondering over the next month or so!

I had the 53/39 and 12/27 but it was 9 speed. I converted it to a 50/34 and 11/32. Again it was 9 speed but in my case I never really noticed the gaps in gears......I just adjusted my cadence to work around the issue. The terrain I was using it on was pretty varied...from rolling hills to long steep climbs. I could see with your terrain going with a 13-28 cassette...or a cassette that gave you tighter gearing. I like the 50/11 for longer downhills where I can still spin at 32-35 mph. However I never use the 50/11 on flats. I know some folks that have stayed with the 53/39 and put on MTB rear derailleurs and gone with an easier cassette just for those step climbs. Some have found a 30 tooth gear that would work with their mid cage RD. The RD specs were conservative and indicated that a 30 would not work but in their case it still shifted okay.

I know all about having the easier gears for the steep stuff. I wouldn't be riding if I didn't have the easier gears!!

You and I think alike. 50/13 on a road bike is the same (104") as 48/12 on a mountain bike, and that is tall enough for me. The nice thing about the 13-28 (or my mountain bike's 12-28 8-speed, which is the same thing with a 12 added to the top end) is that an 8-tooth drop in front gives one a great 1.5-step "Alpine" gearing pattern. Being old school from the days of 2x5 geartrains, I do not mind needing a double shift to make a fine-grained change in gear ratio.