I've Been Over-Ambitious

stephenballantyne

Hi,

I've now done a couple of decent runs on my new bike and it's becoming apparent that I've been slightly over-ambitious in the gearing department. The bike has 39/53 chainrings compared to the 34/50 on my old bike. On the flat this is perfect as I get good use out of the whole cassette range (11-25) on both rings. However, on the hills things get a little tricky and I find myself grinding up in a rather painful and un-dignified fashion :oops:

So my question is how simple is it to swap out the inner chainring for a 34, and how much tweaking of set-up does this require (I'd like to keep the larger outer chainring to increase the range of gears available to me)? Alternatively I could persevere and develop an out-of-the-saddle climbing technique that'll give me thighs of steel.

What do you reckon?

Steve

rjsmith

Don't think you'll get a 34 on a double chainset. Much better to get a bigger cassette - 12-27 or a 12-28 in your case. It's the cheapest option and easiest.

k-dog

Yeah, you can't just change the inner ring - you'd need to get a whole new chainset (which isn't actually too expensive as you could sell the old one to put against it).

Other than that as rj said you could change the cassette - you can have a slightly bigger range but at the expense of bigger gaps.

Monty Dog

FWIW the smallest chainring you can fit on a 130mm spider (Shimano-pattern) is 38T and 39T for a Campagnolo. Most front mechs can only handle a range of 16T, hence 34/50 chainring combinations - a 50/11 chainring/sprocket combination is still good enough for all but the fastest downhills unless you're Tom Boonen

Anonymous

Get a 12-27 cassette...
A 39-27 is not too much longer than a 34-25.
I run this set up on my training bike, the temptation to not go compact has helped increase my strength quite a bit.

markos1963

NapoleonD wrote:

Get a 12-27 cassette...
A 39-27 is not too much longer than a 34-25.
I run this set up on my training bike, the temptation to not go compact has helped increase my strength quite a bit.

Have to agree, my winter bike runs a 53/39 and 14/28 compared to my summer racer with a 50/34 and 12/25 and I find the winter bikes gearing is just about spot on. I have to work on the hils and not having a bailout gear means my fitness is getting better. Last summer on my compact setup I did a hilly(for Norfolk) 45mile loop in 2h40min, I did the same loop on friday with a fresh headwind on my winter bike in 2hrs 30 mins.

disgruntledgoat

I don't hold with compacts as they're for girls. As Markos said... i run 53/39 all year with 11-23 or 12-25 on the back through the season and a 13-26 in the winter. 26 is a great splatter gear.