What chainset / cassette?

5milestogo

I headed out on the TCR Sportive weekend just gone towards the Surrey Hills. The route took us up over a few climbs and the killer is known as 'Whitedown' I believe. Its the hardest hill I ever tackled and beyond the pain only remember the sign at the start saying 18%! I didn't get off but might do faced with it again.
Beyond training and fitness I have been thinking that a new cassette / chainset would help especially as I intend to do alot more like this through the forthcoming season.
I have a 53 / 39 on the front (is that a compact?) and a 12 - 23 on the back.
I'm considering moving to a 25 or higher on the rear but should I think about the front aswell? If so what sort of thing should I consider?
I am hoping that the 18% was one of the toughest out there but have no idea but am also aware that I need some speed on the 'flats'.
What do you ride with? Any thoughts welcome.
Cheers

Wappygixer

Your cheapest option is a new cassette, maybe a 12-25 or a 12-27 depending on your brand of gearing.
You could go to a compact 34/50 chainset but this would be a much more expensive option but would offer a much lower gear ratio

blackhands

What make / model of chainset do you have at the moment?

You can get a cheap (old model) 48/34 plus a bottom bracket (if you need one) for less than £40.

http://www.gbcycles.co.uk/eshop.asp?wci ... T+CRANKSET

rickhotrod

So you managed an 18% hill using a 39/23 bottom gear. You must be fit.

Try a 12-25. You can really notice the difference between a 39/23 and 39/25.

5milestogo

Thanks for the responses. The group is a Dura Ace (7700 I think). The big ring chainset has SG - B 53 on it. I got the bike 2nd hand last summer and have a feeling that for its age (circe 9 years) its hardly been used. I think its good kit but not totaly suited to what I am able to do as a novice. I'm also aware that its costly so have thought about keeping it in the shed until winter has passed but obviously not this year.
Looks like first stop will be to get a bigger cassette - are the ultegra's / DA interchangeable - which will help on cost then possibly look to either change the smaller ring (if thats possible) or the chainset to a compact.
Regards Fitness - I worked out traversing the road was the best option - possibly not the safest one but it made life a little easier. I was at 3 mph going up and knew if I stopped that would be it!

bikergirl17

I put together a gearing chart, and there isn't much difference between a 53/39 (big chain rings, front, with smaller the easier) 12-27 (cassette, in back, with bigger easier) set up and a compact 50/34 11-23 on 700 wheels ... you only get a benefit with the compact in the easier gears when you go beyond 25.

So the cheapest option is changing your cassette to the 12-27 at this point. See Sheldon Brown's web site and check out the gear inch calculator. I can also send you the chart I did.

You can swap levels of components for most parts, so you could put on an Ultegra cassette even with the rest of the bike being Durace. Typically a mechanic will want to change your chain, as it and the cassette tend to "wear" together.

The hardest hill in Surrey is Winterfold, which is 21% ... Whitedown only has the 18% for a small bit of it ... Winterfold is much longer and the steep bit is right at the top, when there always seems to be car traffic so serpentine-ing is not a great idea. The other killer, in my view, is Boar Hill when done on the way back from Box Hill. I believe it only hits about 15% but usually this is about 60+ miles into a LONG ride and my legs are beyond shot at that point.

If you want to get in some good hill practice in the Surrey area, check out the Guildford Challenge route on bikely. We actually had a thread on the steepest hills in Surrey in the Sportive section about a month ago.

bobtbuilder

rickhotrod wrote:

So you managed an 18% hill using a 39/23 bottom gear. You must be fit.

+1. Chapeau - that's a tough climb with that gearing.

5milestogo

Thanks Bikergirl. I've ordered up a 12/27 so lets see how that eases things up. I'll take note of Winterfold and avoid it until the spinning gets easier and see what Bikely can offer. Would be good to take a look at the chart if you can send through aswell. Thanks for your help.

bice

White Down is a killer - makes Ditchling Beacon seem a breeze - but it is quite short. If you got up it - I did on a triple - is there much need to do anything at all?

5milestogo

I've no desire to get up that hill again on the current steed. The velo is in need of a cash injection so may aswell get something to suit my locality.

bikergirl17

The first set is 53/39 with 12-27; the second is a compact (50/34 with 11-26); the third is my set up, which is 650 wheels and 165 mm cranks (proving that the smaller, WSD bikes rock!). The numbers at the top of each are wheel size/crank length/cranks/cassette; the table, from left to right, is (a) cassette teeth (b) gear inches for the big chain ring and (c) gear inches for the small chain ring.

The "smaller" the gear inches on the small ring the better for hills; the reverse holds on the big ring (in the sense that if you are going *down* a hill, you would prefer to have more gear inches so you can actually pedal or on the flats in a tri, and want to pound away for speed--the one area in which my set up is slight disadvantage).

The take away -- which I noted in my original post -- is that with a 12-27 you have comparable gear inches to a compact with 11-23 on the easy gears; to get any advantage on a compact you need at least an 11-26. Note that I am showing more than 10 speeds: a typical 12-27 would not have 23, 26 but I put that in for comparison purposes; likewise a 11-26 doesn't have 16 on it.

This also illustrates that there is a cross over point between the big and little chain rings -- e.g, 53-19 is pretty similar to 39-14. So now I just smile when guys boast how they did a hill in their big ring

As for the climbs, white down really isn't that bad when one is in summer shape. BUT if you got up it on that sunday, when the weather was seriously miserable, on your current gearing, you are in great shape!

700
170
53/39
12-27

53 39
11
12 116.1 85.4
13 107.1 78.8
14 99.5 73.2
15 92.9 68.3
16 87.1 64.1
17 81.9 60.3
19 73.3 53.9
21 66.3 48.8
23 60.6 44.6
24 58 42.7
26 53.6 39.4
27 51.6 38


700
170
50/34
11-26

50 34
11 119.5 81.2
12 109.5 74.5
13 101.1 68.7
14 93.9 63.8
15 87.6 59.6
16 82.1 55.8
17 77.3 52.6
19 69.2 47
21 62.6 42.5
23 57.1 38.8
24
26 50.5 34.4
27


650
165
53/39
12-27

53 39
11
12 107.4 79
13 99.1 72.9
14 92 67.7
15 85.9 63.2
16 80.5 59.3
17 75.8 55.8
19 67.8 49.9
21 61.4 45.1
23 56 41.2
24 53.7 39.5
26 49.6 36.5
27 47.7 35.1