better gear ratios for climbing.
 

Lads is it possible to buy just the cluster 19 to 32 cassette instead of buying the whole 11 speed cassette.
i want a bigger gear ratio for climbing .running a 11 to 28 so a 32 is gonna make my life wonderfull .and what rear mech works best ultegra will only go to 28
i have the new 11 speed 105 on my bike works like magic but hey im an old dude need all the help i can get.
thanks lads all advice greatly appreciated.

anto.

I would just buy the whole cassette, an Ultegra 6800 11-32 is only $60 (us) so no big deal, but you would also need get sgs derailleur which is the medium/long cage derailleur to work with any cassette over 28 teeth. Another option would be to reduce the teeth up front depending on what you're running now, say you have a 53 tooth ring up front, dropping down to a 50 would help your climbing plus be cheaper than buying a derailleur and cassette.

Is there an 11 speed cassette that starts with a 12 tooth cog ?? Silly that so many start with 11, which is so rarely needed compared to the middle and low end.

Swapping to a compact crank (if not already) would help too, but costlier.

There are some companies that will split up a cassette, and sell you individual cogs, but they are far too expensive from my research. You would just be better off buying a sram 1050 for $50 or something.

Campy do a 12-29. Everybody seems to do a 12-25, which seems odd to me, as anyone who can do all the climbing they want to do in a 25, probably wants an 11, whereas somebody who rides 105 and feels they need a 32 at the back would probably not get much use out of an 11 (except maybe going back down the hill they just came up on the 32).

I have a 12-27 10sp, and would gladly sacrifice my 13t for an 18t (and sometimes for a 30).

As far as the cassette, as others have mentioned, just buy the whole cassette. Shimano does list part numbers for the individual sprockets, but undoubtedly if you buy 2 or 3 of them, you'll pay as much as the whole cassette.

Keep your old cassette. The 11-14 sprockets should be the same for the 11s 105 11-28 and 11-32, so if you wear them out, you can just re-use the old ones. Or... sell it on E-Bay.

I have heard that the Shimano derailleur ratings are a bit conservative. Just try out your current derailleur. You'll probably have to adjust the B-Screw a bit (all the way in).

If not, then perhaps a MTB derailleur. I've heard that the 11s shift ratios changed, at least with the road derailleurs, and apparently the M9000 derailleur isn't compatible with the road products.

I believe you can mix and match up past the largest 3 gears. I've installed and changed my cassettes out a few times and I try to keep them all fairly spaced out because of this.

Not enough info. If you are running 5800 you can also switch chain rings without buying a new crankset so moving from 53/39 to 50/34 might be the cheapest solution. I'm running 50/34 with 11-28 and I haven't found a hill I can't get up with that

Same here. My cranks are also 170mm with this setup, compared to 172.5mm on my other bike with 53/39.

That's what I'm using this year, too. 34-28 might be slow, but it seems to get me up double digit grades just fine. If anything I'm worried it might make me slow and weak over time. ;)

Thanks lads ,im on a compact 50x34 12 to 28 ok i know i could get up most hills with that combination but a 32 would be better:thumb: suppost i would be better off buying the whole cassette and rear mech but looking at 11 or 10 speed rear mechs in ultegra medium cage they say max cassette is 30 .

I've got an 50/34 with an 11-32. If I can't get up any hill with that I need to dismount and reflect on rule 5.

Hardly. If you're fit enough to not need more than 25, you should have a decent spin and not need a big gear larger than the 52x13 Eddy Merckx used to dominate the spring classics, and may care more about having a 18 cog than one smaller on the end.

I don't ride road cassettes which have any jumps bigger than one tooth through the 19 cog. In the 8 speed era that meant 50-40-30 x 13-21; with 10 cogs there's more latitude and I can run 13-26 for a better chainline on the larger cogs with the big ring or 12-23 to defer shifting up from the small ring; and with 11 cogs I'd take both with 12-25.

I'd tend to think the other way; someone who rides up 10% grades in a 39x25 is in a hurry to get up, and is probably in a hurry to get down the other side; as much as they can spin a 52x13, I'd say they'd be even happier for the higher terminal velocity of a 53x11.

By the time cadence becomes annoying using 50x13 (over 35 MPH) you go faster tucking than trying to pedal.

More importantly total time is lower and average speed higher when you exert yourself uphill (speed is almost proportional to power) but go easier on flat (approaching proportional to its cube root) and recover downhill (still approaching its cube, except that's with total power where most of it comes from gravity so your impact is less than on flat ground).