Cassettes and chainsets

smaidment

In the process of buying a new road bike for training, sportives and some road racing.

Any advice on cassettes and chainsets?

Do I want a double or triple (for tackling steep climbs and riding on the continent)?

Cassette-wise: 11-28 or 12-25 (or anything in between)?

Chainset-wise: 50/34 or 53/39... Is a triple chainset a really silly idea if I want to race?

Smokin Joe

Only you can answer those questions. When you say you are buying a new road bike, I presume you have one already and have an opinion on how suitable your present setup is and whether you need to change it or not.

smaidment

I guess so... I have a triple chainset (Sora!!) and a 12-25 (I think) Tiagra cassette on the back.

Things have moved on a bit since then...

Questions are really...

Will a 53-39 chainset give me enough gears for climbing steep alpine passes?
Will a 50-34 give me enough gears for racing?
Will I look really stupid racing with a triple chainset?!

softlad

smaidment wrote:

Will a 53-39 chainset give me enough gears for climbing steep alpine passes?
Will a 50-34 give me enough gears for racing?
Will I look really stupid racing with a triple chainset?!

like Joe says - the first one depends entirely on your fitness. A compact 50/34 is usually fine for racing, although I did find myself close to spinning out in 50/12 a couple of times last sunday. Finally, you won't look 'stupid' racing on a triple, but it's not really necessary..

markos1963

If you're unsure get the compact you can always fit larger chainrings but you can't fit smaller rings on a standard.

rake

unless you top 45 mph a compact 25-12 should do.