Touring gearing?

harpo
harpo Posts: 173
edited May 2010 in Workshop
Hello,

I had a post along the lines of this in buying advice but think I can be more specific here to get better advice.

I need a cassette, chain, chainset to go on my new touring frame. I have bought 9 speed shimano ultegra sti levers so it needs to be a shimano 9 speed arrangement with triple up front.

So should I go for a standard triple up front with a wide range cassette and Deore derailieur ot Deore chainset and a standard rear 11-28 cassette with standard 9 speed derailieur?

Whats the difference between Deore and deore LX? And can anyone make the case for a full touring set up like deore or lx front and rear?

Cheers.

Comments

  • John.T
    John.T Posts: 3,698
    Difference between Deore and LX is basically price and materials.
    You would probably be better with a Deore (or LX) crankset 48/36/26 and a 12/27 cassette. You could use a GS road rear mech but any medium cage one will fit. The road front mech is not a perfect fit for this crankset but a Deore one would not work properly with the Ultegra shifter. The current Sora and Tiagra triple front mechs are aimed at a 50 tooth ring so should not be far off.
    My Fleet.
  • mercurykev
    mercurykev Posts: 264
    If you're going to tour fully loaded I'd go for a 11-32 cassette and a long cage rear mech as the extra gears can help getting up those hills. Get as good a mech as you can afford - I use a LX on one of my bikes - shimano HG50 cassettes can be picked up for about £20 if you shop around. Chain reaction cycles usually has decent offers.
  • huuregeil
    huuregeil Posts: 780
    Hi Harpo,

    Sorry, failed to respond to the original thread!

    I agree with john, use a sensibly ranged cassette and get something like a 28-38-48 crankset - greater flexibility and smaller jumps, thus better for your legs and shifting! About the front mech, I'm not sure about the ins and outs of shimano (i run campag) but I think that older shimano road front mechs had less profiling than the newer ones, and thus play better with non-standard cranksets. Worth checking out the details (e.g. curiosity and a quick search found this: http://tullios.blogspot.com/2007/04/tou ... pdate.html http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index ... 90856.html). Sugino and Stronglight make nice cranksets too, don't dismiss these because they haven't got shimano written on them!

    Check out the CTC website for some detailed info about mating various components, there's quite a lot of info there.
  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    It also depends where you plan to go, how much you are hauling and how fit you are.

    I have Deore LX 48-38?-22 and an 11-34 9 speed on the back. When I first started touring, I used the granny set-up on really long continental climbs when fully laden (e.g.4 panniers, bar bag and tent over 20km 1000m+ passes)

    These days I travel much lighter than that over less extreme terrain (and like to think I am a lot stronger as a rider) so I never use the small ring, but I was glad of it at the time!

    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)
  • huuregeil
    huuregeil Posts: 780
    That's what I meant by flexibility.

    Fitting a 28/38/48 with a vanilla cassette allows you to change both the chainrings and the cassette easily.

    If you pick a standard road triple and run a wide range cassette from the outset, you've run out of gearing options should you wish to go lower and are then forced to change the crankset.
  • John.T
    John.T Posts: 3,698
    The LX front mech is optimised for a 12 tooth gap between the 2 bigger rings and will work fine with the 48/36/26 crankset. The problem is the indexing is different (though there are ways round this) and if you are using a fairly standard road frame the seat tube angle is different to the slacker ones that the mech is designed to run on. This moves the bottom of the cage too far away from the rings.
    The Sora and Tiagra mechs have no trouble with index or seat tube angle. They are optimised for 50/39/30 which is 11 teeth so is less likely to hit the middle chain ring as on the Tulio blogspot.
    You can fit rings down to 26 on a road set with only a little loss in change performance from the granny ring.
    My Fleet.
  • harpo
    harpo Posts: 173
    Cheers for the replies guys.

    I think it is going to be down to what I think I need gearing wise and just watching out for getting the correct front derailleur to match.

    I did some touring with a tiagra 50-39-30 on a hybrid with a bit too heavy (for the bike) load on the rear and found it fine with a 11-28 on the rear but that was through the UK where there were not miles of climbing over thousands of meters! The bike will be a little heavier this time round with a bit more weight carried and a slightly heavier bike but the legs are quite strong.

    By the way the bike frame has a seat tube with an angle of 73 degrees.

    Think I'm leaning to a standard triple up front and a bigger range on the rear. I think that might be enough for my needs. But not sure!!!! decisions decisions.
  • blorg
    blorg Posts: 1,169
    It does depend on the rider and where you are going to ride the bike. I use 52/39/30 with 12-27 on the rear on my own tourer and find it fine, including fully loaded over the Pyrenees. I had a 10 speed group already though to be transferred from a road bike. 9 speed is nice as you can use the mountain bike stuff. If I was going 9 speed from scratch I think I'd be tempted by a MTB chainset. You don't lose much off the top end with 48T, certainly not if you have an 11T on the rear- 48x11 is actually a touch bigger gear than 52x12 which would be common on a road triple.
  • tenor
    tenor Posts: 278
    11-50 is totally useless on a touring bike (equivalent to 54 -12!) and a waste of a gear. You will never use it.
    Try 48-12 or 44/46-11 as a top ratio.
  • satanas
    satanas Posts: 1,303
    IMHO, there's absolutely no point asking anyone what gearing you should use. "Opinions are like ar5eholes, everybody has one." Whether anyone else's opinion will agree with yours is somewhat less likely.

    What gearing is appropriate will depend on what you consider to be touring, where you will be going, what riding style you have, and how much stuff you carry.

    For instance, aeons ago in the Alps I used 46x34 chain rings and a 13-30 cassette, but only because I could only have two chain rings with the then-new STI levers. I carried very little but still used the lowest gear on every climb, despite being fit. Last year in the Indian Himalayas I had 42x31x20 + 11-32 and was very glad of the low gear on unsealed roads at 5000m plus!

    People who don't spin would doubtless get along fine with higher gears than me, and those who never change gears would be fine with wider gaps. The point is that everyone is different, so take any advice with several large grains of salt. Be especially careful of advice from ex racers unless you are one yourself...

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