9 speed casette - 11 -25?

Tino4444

Hi,

I am currently thinking of purchasing a Speciailzed Allez road bike and the spec includes a 9 speed cassette 11-25?

What does this mean? Can anyone help?

Is this a good setup for a road bike?

Your help would be greatly recieved.

Tino

whyamihere

The smallest cog has 11 teeth, and the largest has 25 teeth, with the ones between increasing by a tooth or two. The cassette on a whole is most likely to go 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25.

It's a great setup for a road bike, one of the most common cassette sizes.

Tino4444

Thanks, so how many gears would the bike have in total? surely not just 9?

pbracing

Done a lot of research into buying a bike have you?

18 speed if it's a double chainset (the gears at the front).
27 speed if it's a triple. (like most mountain bikes- for easier climbing)

Tino4444

pbracing wrote:

Done a lot of research into buying a bike have you?

18 speed if it's a double chainset (the gears at the front).
27 speed if it's a triple. (like most mountain bikes- for easier climbing)

Well I am trying to do some research yes but you I find if you dont know the answer to somthing ask.

pbracing

Just joking. No offence meant. If you want to know something, that's what the forum is good for.

toslow

I picked my allez sport up yesterday , it is just a great bike end of story . Okay i'm still very much in the honeymoon stage but it is just lovely . The only thing i can say about the gearing is 25 tooth bottom gear along with a 34 tooth front chain ring can still feel abit tall on steep climbs . If you live in a real hilly area maybe changing to a 27tooth bottom gear cassette may be an option , not sure if its totally possible with a short cage mech , ask shop they will know , failing that the allez 27 still has the same frame an fork but has sora gearing instead of tiagra . What ever you choose you will love it. Im off now to go stare at it some more in the garage with a cup of tea.

chrisw12

Who makes a 9 speed 11-25 block?

I cant find one, so are the details correct?

whyamihere

chrisw12 wrote:

Who makes a 9 speed 11-25 block?

I cant find one, so are the details correct?

Shimano Tiagra is offered in 11/25.

Tino4444

toslow wrote:

I picked my allez sport up yesterday , it is just a great bike end of story . Okay i'm still very much in the honeymoon stage but it is just lovely . The only thing i can say about the gearing is 25 tooth bottom gear along with a 34 tooth front chain ring can still feel abit tall on steep climbs . If you live in a real hilly area maybe changing to a 27tooth bottom gear cassette may be an option , not sure if its totally possible with a short cage mech , ask shop they will know , failing that the allez 27 still has the same frame an fork but has sora gearing instead of tiagra . What ever you choose you will love it. Im off now to go stare at it some more in the garage with a cup of tea.

Thanks for the post. Where I live is quite hilly and I am currently using a Hybrid. Now when I am climbing steep hills I never use the lowest gear, and tend to be in around 9th or 10th gear out of the 16 that it comes with.

This 25 tooth bottom gear along with the 34 tooth front chain ring, I am concerned that I may have to get off my bike and walk up hills if it can feel a bit steep!! Should this be the case ever?

sorry for these questions which you all probably cant understand why I am asking but having never had a road bike I just want to be certain I am buying the correct one for me.

Tino

meagain

34x25 is approx a 36" gear (front no. of teeth divided by rear no. of teeth times approx 27 (for 700c wheels) or 26 (for 26" mtb wheels). (The 27 or 26 element in fact represents wheel diameter and thus varies with tyre size but is a reasonable rule of thumb!).
"9th or 10th" on an 18 speed hybrid is PROBABLY (I don't know what front/rear combination you have) higher than 36".

edindevon

Tino4444 wrote:

This 25 tooth bottom gear along with the 34 tooth front chain ring, I am concerned that I may have to get off my bike and walk up hills if it can feel a bit steep!! Should this be the case ever?

This would depend on your fitness and the steepness of the hills. In my experience, if you are a reasonably fit and experienced rider, 34 x 25 should be fine to get you up hills of up to 20% gradient no problem.

Edindevon

chrisw12

whyamihere wrote:

chrisw12 wrote:

Who makes a 9 speed 11-25 block?

I cant find one, so are the details correct?

Shimano Tiagra is offered in 11/25.

Many thanks. I'm an idiot. I'd bastered two cassettes to get the ratio's I wanted. I'd never thought of looking at tiagra, I'd only looked at 105 up. That'll teach me to be a bike snob.

John C.

My answer to nearly all the gear questions on this site is:
If in doubt buy a tripple, you are not forced to use the bottom gear but I'd rather ride a steep hill on a bike with a tripple chainset than push one with a double.
If you are new to cycling and are going to ride any hills at all, then spec your new bike with a tripple.
The bike shops seem hell bent on getting us to ride doubles and compacts. I can ride Boltby and Rosedale on the 42 middle ring and Wrynose East but that is with about 5 miles in just to get nicley warmed up, on the 100 mile mark on The Fred and The Rydale Rumble I was in bottom gear in the Granny ring and I kept flicking the right hand lever praying there was another one to go down.

NaB

pbracing:

Nice pie plate on your trek...get that thing off lol!

pbracing

NaB wrote:

pbracing:

Nice pie plate on your trek...get that thing off lol!

That'll be for the humble pie I was eating yesterday then

Never even noticed it - now where's my hammer and chisel. Keep an eye out for the new photo.

NaB

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/04/pie-in-sky-world-without-spoke.html

I remember getting mine off my childhood mtb with a pair of scissors

My personal pet hates are ....up-angled stems, excessive use of spacers, bikes with enormous head tubes....so many bikes on here that might as well be flat bar hybrids or spec'd with a front basket (carbon aero versoion of course)

Rant over I'm sure my bike will come in for some p*** taking if I ever get round to posting it on here tho....

toslow

John c is quite right, if your that worried get a triple . To be honest though there are a lot of pretty steep hills down here in cornwall and i still get by with a compact , at worst i have to get out the saddle and winch myself up in first .
It sounds to me, it may be best to go to your LBS and tell them of your concerns . They may let you have a spin on a couple of road bikes to see how you feel about the gearing .

on-yer-bike

toslow wrote:

I picked my allez sport up yesterday , it is just a great bike end of story . Okay i'm still very much in the honeymoon stage but it is just lovely . The only thing i can say about the gearing is 25 tooth bottom gear along with a 34 tooth front chain ring can still feel abit tall on steep climbs . If you live in a real hilly area maybe changing to a 27tooth bottom gear cassette may be an option , not sure if its totally possible with a short cage mech , ask shop they will know , failing that the allez 27 still has the same frame an fork but has sora gearing instead of tiagra . What ever you choose you will love it. Im off now to go stare at it some more in the garage with a cup of tea.

Persevere you will get used to it. Unless you are going up mountains. I started cycling in May with the same gearing and now I can climb any hill round here and there are quite a few and I'm an old man.

chrisw12

John C. wrote:

My answer to nearly all the gear questions on this site is:
If in doubt buy a tripple, you are not forced to use the bottom gear but I'd rather ride a steep hill on a bike with a tripple chainset than push one with a double.
If you are new to cycling and are going to ride any hills at all, then spec your new bike with a tripple.
The bike shops seem hell bent on getting us to ride doubles and compacts. I can ride Boltby and Rosedale on the 42 middle ring and Wrynose East but that is with about 5 miles in just to get nicley warmed up, on the 100 mile mark on The Fred and The Rydale Rumble I was in bottom gear in the Granny ring and I kept flicking the right hand lever praying there was another one to go down.

'If in doubt buy a tripple,'

Would better advice be get fitter or failing that learn to walk.

alfablue

Better advice is to buy a triple IMHO. I have plenty of power to tackle any hill (I am as yet uindefeated), however my tendons are not as strong as my muscles and I have had two episodes of achiles tendinitis from overdoing things in Dartmoor and Wales - this can be a precursor to full rupture. I now use the lower gears and have quit with the macho act!

NaB

alfablue wrote:

Better advice is to buy a triple IMHO. I have plenty of power to tackle any hill (I am as yet uindefeated), however my tendons are not as strong as my muscles and I have had two episodes of achiles tendinitis from overdoing things in Dartmoor and Wales - this can be a precursor to full rupture. I now use the lower gears and have quit with the macho act!

I think it depends on your personal preference to a certain extent not everyone likes to twiddle really small gears..some people find it easier to push and get out of the saddle more often.

alfablue

NaB wrote:

alfablue wrote:

Better advice is to buy a triple IMHO. I have plenty of power to tackle any hill (I am as yet uindefeated), however my tendons are not as strong as my muscles and I have had two episodes of achiles tendinitis from overdoing things in Dartmoor and Wales - this can be a precursor to full rupture. I now use the lower gears and have quit with the macho act!

I think it depends on your personal preference to a certain extent not everyone likes to twiddle really small gears..some people find it easier to push and get out of the saddle more often.

Yes, I would agree with that, I would prefer bigger gears, but I thought I should point out that it is not just about strength/power, there is damage you can do to yourself if your body lets you down. The tendinitis has scared me, a rupture would wreck my cycling for weeks or months (or for ever), might require surgery and / or plaster cast and would be extremely unpleasant. Obviously most people won't have such a problem, but there is more to it than just toughing it out.

eh

34x25 is a really low gear and you should be able to get up crazy steep stuff on that, 15% gradients will be possible.

ride_whenever

You only need gears for very long distance or alpine riding - get a fixed gear bike :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:.

I'd say get a triple, it's your first proper bike, so the triple will be a good starting point as you build your fitness up and improve your technique. When you start drooling over getting a carbon fibre speed machine then you'll know if you really need the extra ring

chrisw12

alfablue wrote:

NaB wrote:

alfablue wrote:

Better advice is to buy a triple IMHO. I have plenty of power to tackle any hill (I am as yet uindefeated), however my tendons are not as strong as my muscles and I have had two episodes of achiles tendinitis from overdoing things in Dartmoor and Wales - this can be a precursor to full rupture. I now use the lower gears and have quit with the macho act!

I think it depends on your personal preference to a certain extent not everyone likes to twiddle really small gears..some people find it easier to push and get out of the saddle more often.

Yes, I would agree with that, I would prefer bigger gears, but I thought I should point out that it is not just about strength/power, there is damage you can do to yourself if your body lets you down. The tendinitis has scared me, a rupture would wreck my cycling for weeks or months (or for ever), might require surgery and / or plaster cast and would be extremely unpleasant. Obviously most people won't have such a problem, but there is more to it than just toughing it out.

Which is why I also gave the option of learn to walk.

John.T

eh. You consider 15% to be crazy steep. You dont live near me then. Up here that is a norm, 20% regular and 25% is common. We can find you several 30% if you want. I use 34/27 and have had to walk on some of them.
John C's advice is good. As someone once said 'If you have to ask then you can't afford it'. The same advice applies here.

eh

Nah I don't think 15% is crazy steep. My point was that on 34x25 even a relatively unift person should be able to ride up 15% gradients without stopping.

John. T. I dunno where you live in Yorkshire, but I'll give you that the area around Hawes is fairly hard work

John.T

Coal Rd and Park Rash are a bit steep but the real killers are in the North York Moors. Rosedale Chimney, Boltby Bank, one near Egton Bridge (bit overstated that one) and several near Hawnby. All rated at 30%.

John.T

Coal Rd and Park Rash are a bit steep but the real killers are in the North York Moors. Rosedale Chimney, Boltby Bank, one near Egton Bridge (bit overstated that one) and several near Hawnby. All rated at 30%.

John.T

Coal Rd and Park Rash are a bit steep but the real killers are in the North York Moors. Rosedale Chimney, Boltby Bank, one near Egton Bridge (bit overstated that one) and several near Hawnby. All rated at 30%.