Gears Question
 

I have my two week old Giant and I'm very happy with it. My fitness levels have started to improve noticeably. I'm working my way through the gears and even get to 21st going downhill. From being able to ride for only a few minutes, I can now ride for about 25 minutes.

I'm actually now finding that I don't use the small front cog at all. My concern now is that as I get fitter, I may want a higher gear set. Is my bike already decked out with the best gears or can I whack on a different cassette?? is it? or am I peeing into the wind and looking at another bike altogether?

Most MTB's come standard with an 11/32 cassette which should be fine for even the most advanced riders. If you do most of your rides on pavement you may wan to consider tighter gearing though. Something like 12/25 like you'd find on a road bike would do the job.

I have an MTB that never sees trails. It's just an exercise bike similar to yours. This Spring I'm going to put on one of the 12/25 cassettes that came off of one of my road bikes on it. For my road bikes I like even tighter gearing - something like 12/21 or 12/23. I live in a fairly flat part of the midwest. If I need smaller gearing I will use the small chainring in front. All of my bikes have tripple cranks.

I ran into the same problem man...my bike has a 24-44 up front and an 11-32 in the back. Eventually I want to go to a more road oriented gearing. for example 30-52 up front and 12-25 out back..or even 11-23 out back. It all depends how fast you spin and where you live. I hit right under 30mph @ 93rpm in my top gear. In TN it's not uncommon to reach 25+ frequently. Tons of gentle rolling hills.

So what's the likely cost for this upgrade should I decide to go ahead with it eventually?

ehh...it all depends, based on your bike, you can probably fit a 48T crank upfront without going to a road oriented bike. I've seen them as cheap as 150 on ebay and various other places. a new cassette. my friend paid 40 for his SRAM 12-25 cassette. A new chain will be needed, 35 bucks maybe, add 5 get a power link from SRAM, so say 40...so 230 bucks? roughly? give or take, there are MANY factors that can go into this. So 230 is the middle of the road I'm sure used would be much cheaper, and you might actually be able to just change the top chainring on your current crankset. As far as speed goes, the rear cassette allows you to have a tighter cluster, but will not actually give you a better/higher ratio for speed.

Well HaagenDas, will we ever see you in the tour?Sounds like your turning into quite a rider.

You'll see me on tour alright. You'll see me riding between the local vineyards.. in camo of course. Those vignerons can't be trusted so you have to keep a low profile. Now I have to ask why these bastards are all putting their vineyards on top of hills :mad: :mad: :mad:

No need to get all excited and go the full gamut here. For starters, Haagen, you could just swap out the rear cassette. If that does the trick then you're done. No need to spend big buckage up front upgrading the entire drivetrain for that particular bike. We are after all talking about a Giant Upland here, not an NRS. :D

Here in the States I recently purchased several Shimano HG-70/105 grade 9-speed rear cassettes for $17 after a coupon and on sale at Nashbar. I don't know what kind of deals you can procure in Ozzie Land but I doubt they are that inexpensive.

Cool thanks

I beg to differ, HD. You DO need a new bike. In fact, you need several new bikes. You need a rain bike, a touring bike, a road bike, a second road bike in case the first one is in the shop, a trekking bike, a commuting bike, and a vintage three speed. Of course, you also need all-campy racing bike, a full suspension mountain bike, a folding bike and a one-speed cruiser. I'm guesing you also need a red bike, because, well, everyone should have a red bike. Don't forget a garage full of old parts and tools, stacks of bicycling magazines cluttering up the house, and a boatload of spandex (and not for that softcore movie you're making).

You've gone this far. You might as well be like the rest of us crazy fools on this board.

Ahhh my nemisis BB is back from vacance.

You may well laugh but I trimmed off a full minute on trip home today. All on my Giant Upland. She may not be the best or fastest MTB around but she's wheeling me back to health.

Therefore, I scoff at your suggestions.

Take that sir.

Gentle Haagen Das,

You misread my intent, kind sir. I would not scoff at the Giant Upland, or any bike really. I myself have a Giant Boulder, one of the cheapest, mountain bikes this side of the Big Rock.

I'm merely suggesting that, when it comes to bicycles, the more the merrier. Before the year is out, I predict you'll be hankering for another bike, and then another, and then another as bike lust spins its silken fetters around your wallet.

Fer sure Das,you'll never see it coming.

Haagen Das: You are quickly being sucked into the vortex that is going to improve you health and emtpy your wallet. There is NO way out.

Follow me. :)

Were you afraid that you would scare HD if you listed a few more ?? A valid concern, however some day he'll find out on his own anyway. :)

in addition you need a:

tandem
trike
track bike
ice and snow bike
Vintage Balloon tire
loaner
ladies loaner
vintage lightweight
hard tail mtb
cheap ugly bike for the city

this is even scaring me!

What about a fixie, and a bent? He'll need those too.

Never.

Famous last words, uttered once more. You'll find yourself in clipless pedals, soon. Go ahead and get SPD-SL's or the like, to go with the road bike in your future. The comes spandex........ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahaha!! You're hopelessly trapped!

Noted as such, and recorded today for all the world to see. I accept your statement, however I reserve the right to say " I told you so" after the purchase of the second bike. :) :)

Never!!! listen to me :D Next you'll accuse me of being seen in lime green shirts and the rest...

I would, might, maybe consider a road bike for trundling the longer trips but they're ages away. Even then I'm not sure.

Even with my improvement, I still had to kids walk their BMX bikes passed me whilst I was struggling up the last hill to my house. Even some sheila had the audacity to walk passed. I realise I was in underdrive and that I deserved to be passed but in a few weeks I'll be able to go up that hill in second. It'll be a long way away that I get something else. By then the Giant will be busted and I'll have a legitimate excuse :D :D :D

I've been toying with the idea of going to the next Police auction. Apparently they have bazillions of bikes over there now. I wouldn't mind fixing one up Lauren but I'm mechanically, totally inept. The best thing I ever made was a wine press and even it gets people laughing. The most I'd consider doing is putting air in my tyres. That puts you way ahead Lauren. Besides, all this talk of cassettes and stuff, it's still mumbo jumbo to me.

There's an old Ray Bradbury story about where bicycles come from. Paperclips are the larva, clothes hangers are the pupa and bicycles are the adult stage. At any given time you might have lots of paperclips, then none, and lots of hangers, then none and then bicycles. I can't find a single spare hanger in my house but my garage is just full of bikes. :rolleyes: Maybe it's true.

Yeah, I might be able to do a few things but I'd be more likely to respray the bike or whatever. Mechanical stuff where you get your hands dirty... that stuff takes me days. I figure I can take the Giant to the LBS to get the brakes adjusted or I could totally bugger then and then take them to the LBS - or I could do the job but take the weekend to do it.

Last time I tried adjusting anything on my Speargun Blue Malvern Star Boys Bike it took a sheila to point out something very obvious. Luckily I'd only wasted several hours on it :D

When I first herd of talk about cassettes at the bike shop I thought they were talking about my Barry Manilow collection!! :eek:

Seriously, if you're a computer geek you shouldn't have any problem servicing your steed and wheels. And yes, I am talking about your bike! :D After all, this is a family forum. All it takes is a modicum of mechanical ability combined with a few reading skills and you can do 90% of the routine maintenance that goes with.

This winter I've stripped down 3 road bikes to the frame, cleaned and regreased them, repacked every bearing with fresh new grease, and put them back together with all of the ginger and care of a proud father. Two years ago I would never have attempted any of that but I got bit by the bug and that's all it took. The obsessive compulsive disorder took over from there. Besides, it would have cost me a fortune to have had all of that done at the local bike shoppe.

There are still a few things I'm not quite ready to attempt, but fortunately haven't had a need. They are building a wheel from scratch, servicing STI levers, and servicing derailleurs. Perhaps in time I will have a need to do these things but for now they are still fairly new and working well.

You give me too much credit. I'm no slouch with computers, after all, most of that stuff is just routing, IPs, lat tables, networking, IIS blah, blah http://www.cripplefight.com/smileys/blah.gif I don't mind reading instructions either, all that routing and IP stuff, I taught myself. Just hands on thingos get me flustered. The first time I took my airbrush apart it took me three hours to repair.

This cassette stuff and deraileurs and stuff, look more complicated than I can manhandle. It's not the reading or complexity, I understand quite well how a jet engine works. When it comes to a pile of parts though.... utterly useless.

I will try to change though. Next copper's auction I'll buy something and look at it a long time.

At least they will have already cleaned it for you. Don't you suppose they'd dust it for prints? :D

On the other hand the dust might have set, making it look as though mum had to shift the bike out of the kitchen whilst she was whipping up some scones.

I'll go to the auction but I'm afraid I'll get a lemon. So many bikes in town and I can't even figure where they're coming from. All sorts of brands and models and only one LBS.