Hi guys, new to the forum. I have a Giant Defy adv with shimano 105. 50/34 crankset and 28-11 in the rear casette. I have been riding this bike for over 2 years now. I am 40 years old and 165 pounds and climbing is my strength and i have difficulty pedaling on the flats.

Here is what i dont like about my current gearing. I can not pedal anything over 3.33 gearing with a decent cadence on the flat lands. I know i can always strengthen my legs which i am always working on them. I can pedal 34/11 (3.09) easily to 100 rpm but as you know thats the smallest cog when i am on the small front sprocket.

So when i shift to big ring in the front 50/15 (3.33) way to hard for me to pedal. a 50/16 (3.14) would be perfect but i dont have it. I need range of gear(s) between 3.09-3.33 basically. I am not sure what my options are if there are any.

Any advice is highly appreciated.

Thank you!!

12-25 or 12-23 cassette would be a good choice, along with swapping the 34T inner chainring for a 36T. This is assuming you never need lower gears because you only ride flatland.

How many speeds do you have? 9, 10, 11?

There is a group of cassettes called "Junior Cassettes" with a rather large first sprocket.

Another option to consider is to change your big ring. 46T or 48T might be a viable option.

If riding mostly flat, do you need anything past the 23 ?, I.E the 25 & 28 ?

I live on Long Island and am happy with an 11 spd. 11-23, gets me up the short steep stuff we have, yet gives me straight gearing in the 11-12-13 on the 34 ring and the 17-18-19 on the 50 big ring.

I HATE 2 tooth or more jumps when I'm with other riders or in the wind.

I run a 45/48 front rind combo on my road bike, and it works just fine. Nobody I know ever uses the extreme gears, except maybe on a downhill.

Where i ride has hills. Although climbing is my strength i can not do climb with 23. I can get away without a 28 but i need a 25 for sure.

12-25 alternative looks the best due to the hills around me.

Let me make sure i understood you right. So you have 45 as a small ring and 48 as a big ring in the front?

Yes, it's called a "half step" setup.

This is the first I've heard of people intentionally using small ring with their 11 cog....is this normal?

Some people must really hate shifting the front.

I dislike doing fully cross chained. So, in general, I'll avoid the small front with the smallest 1 or 2 sprockets on the rear, or visa versa, large front, and largest 1 or 2 on the rear.

Obvious solution would be to switch to a 48-tooth big ring. Obvious question is how can he develop sufficient power to climb but not to pedal on the flats?

Solution is important, question is not.

This is why I ride mostly triples or 11 speed doubles with either a 48t chainring or a close spaced cassette and try to get some overlap of the 1t zone.

If you have 10 speed, Shimano makes 12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-24-27

If you have 11 speed, SRAM makes 11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-22-25-28

Depending on the location, climbing an be slogging up a 20 mile hill, or those short and sweet 1/4 mile power climbs to the top. The two types of hills take very different types of effort. A hill can also be perhaps a 4% slope, or a 20% slope, again, both also taking different efforts and perhaps different gearing.

Nonetheless, spin fast enough with a low enough gear, and it may not really make much difference.

For me, I usually have just a little extra in the reserve tank for hills that I don't reach with ordinary flatland riding.

No real advice available if you don't specify the number of speeds on your bike...

A 12-25 cassette has that 16t you're looking for. A strong climber shouldn't have any issues with a 34-25 lowest gear.

Good point.

Campy offers a 12-27 or 12-29 cassette, though not sure compatible with everything else you have, including rear wheel.

2014 Giant Defy Advanced had 10 Speed 105 with a 50/34 chainset and 11-28 cassette (11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,24,28)

The 50x15 gives a ratio of 3.33 and the 50x17 gives 2.94.

You can get a Tiagra 10 speed 12-28 cassette from here:
Shimano Tiagra HG500 10 Speed Road Cassette | Chain Reaction Cycles

which will give you that 50x16 with a 3.13 ratio.

This website gives you the full list of ratios for the 50x34 and 12-28:
HTML5 Gear Calculator

According the Giant website the Defy Advanced 2 for 2015 has 11 speed and disk brakes while the 2014 has 10 speed and rim brakes.

Now, if you have the 2015 and 11 speed 105 by some chance then things become trickier as there is no real easy way to get a 12-28 11 speed cassette. However, it does have the Shimano RS500, 34/50 crankset which will be easier to fit on a smaller big chainring as they are a standard 5 bolt design rather than the specific Shimano 4 bolt design.

A 48T big ring by 15 at the back will give a ratio of 3.20. Thing is, 48T 110BCD chainrings are not common. In fact they are bloody rare. I don't think Shimano actually makes one but I could be mistaken on that.

A 46T big ring would be no help to you as the 46x15 is 3.07 and then 46x14 is 3.29 which are both close enough to the 50x17 (2.94) and 50x15 (3.33) as to make no difference.

If you do have an 11 speed bike I'd be tempted to get a 12-25 cassette and take the bottom half and stick it onto your 11-28 cassette. That would give you the golden 50x16 but it does mean needing to buy two cassettes.

I hope for your sake you have 10 speed as the Tiagra 12-28 10 speed would be the cheapest option.

EDIT: It appears the Tiagra 10 speed does not have a 16T. So you would probably be better off with the 105 12-27 or taking the 105 12-27 and mixing it with your existing 11-28 if you need the 28T.

Combine a 12-25 with your 11-28 to get a 12-28. Then you can get your 16t and still have the 28t.

I run an 11-25 with a 50/34 and find it a good mix.

You just buy a SRAM 11-28.

Because SRAM 11-28 11 speed goes 11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-22-25-28. While shimano goes 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25-28.

Also the Tiagra 12-28 is not the same cassette as the 105 12-27. It is missing the 16t. This seems to be intentional, the message Shimano is sending is if you want high performance gearing, you have to pay for it and upgrade.

12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25-28
12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-24-27

As has already been noted, not sure how you can be a strong climber yet not be able to pedal on the flats.
Something must be lost in translation and therein lies the answer.
And I am guessing the answer has nothing to do with gearing or cassettes

That sounds wacky; I just can't imagine the conditions for which that makes sense!

But what do you mean by "extreme gears"?