Which rear cassette should I get

Mickyg88

Sorry to be a pain in the backside, decided on a Ribble Sportive with either veloce or 105 groupset but unsure of the size of rear cassette I should order. I'm new to road bikes and at 64 years old need all the help I can get climbing hills.

Flamez

Go for a compact chainset (50-34) and a rear 12-28 plenty fast enough on the flat and youll be able to spin up mos hills..

exlaser

+1. that should be fine unless your are thinking of doing alpine climbs. in which case it might be worth thinking about a triple chainset.

JamesFree

exlaser wrote:

+1. that should be fine unless your are thinking of doing alpine climbs. in which case it might be worth thinking about a triple chainset.

34 x 28 would be fine for even the toughest climbs

Mickyg88

Looks like I will have to go with shimano 105 then, Campag only do 12-25, 13-26, 13-29 in the veloce, thanks guys for the replies.

careful

Campag only do 12-25, 13-26, 13-29 in the veloce

Im a bit puzzled MickyG88. Im the same age as you and a 50 x 13 would give a high enough gear for me (though you may be a lot faster than me). The 29t would be useful for those hills. Not that Im knocking the excellent 105 kit, but I reckon the veloce ratios are better if you are worried by hills.

Wirral_paul

+1 above on the Option of Veloce. A compact 50-34 with 13-29 would also give you an extra useable gear in the real world, at the expense of losing the 12 for the really fast descents. Still gotta be a big hill / pretty strong to get into a 50/12 anyway so I doubt you'd miss it.

ALaPlage

Wirral_Paul wrote:

+1 above on the Option of Veloce. A compact 50-34 with 13-29 would also give you an extra useable gear in the real world, at the expense of losing the 12 for the really fast descents. Still gotta be a big hill / pretty strong to get into a 50/12 anyway so I doubt you'd miss it.

Sensible advice if you like the Campag. My wife has Shimano 105 compact with a 11-28 cassette on the back and it suits her fine for climbing hills and she never gets to use the 50/11 even downhill.

holker

if it was me, I'd go for shiman 105 triple with 12-28 cassette. This would give you all the gears you require

rc856

Have you tried both shifters? Depending on the size of your hands, you might prefer one over the other.

ratsbeyfus

Triple (50, 39, 30) with 12-25 cassette. Close ratio cassette, no big changes from the 50-39, and the granny gear to climb alpine hills / get you over lumpy bits when you're knackered.

John.T

ratsbeyfus wrote:

Triple (50, 39, 30) with 12-25 cassette. Close ratio cassette, no big changes from the 50-39, and the granny gear to climb alpine hills / get you over lumpy bits when you're knackered.

Not true. 34/28 is actually a little lower than 30/25. The cassette is only closer on the 2 biggest sprockets. A triple only makes sense if you fit a smaller granny ring such as a 26. The only advantage over a compact is a rather better spread of gears on the 39 ring.
Check the options here. http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Kirky

+1 to the Veloce 13-29 option. I rode the etape a few years back on a compact with a 13-29 and didn't miss the 12 tooth (or 11 tooth) on the way down - I was doing over 40mph so free wheeled and enjoyed it!!

That said, the shifting of Shimano, SRAM and Campag are all very different - so you'd do better to try and ride each one and decide which system suits you best and go for that. Any reason why SRAM isn't on your list (either Apex or Rival) as they've got an 11-32 cassette for super low gearing!!

KIRKY

rolf_f

And another plus 1 for the 13-29 Veloce.

I have one of these as a backup for my Centaur equiped Ribble. It can really make a difference on a long and hilly Pennine route. My posh bike is 11:25 and even the two tooth difference at the top end isn't that noticeable. Don't really have any problem with the gaps either.

Ultimately, it doesn't take long to swap cassette and chain and if you do end up with more than one cassette, you can (I think) make up a 12:29 Campag cassette up though really it probably isn't worth the bother!

beatts

So am I right in thinking for climbing hills a compact 34/28 is better than a triple 30/25?

rolf_f

No - the gear ratios are much the same but you have a faffier front mech and a little more weight to carry around. On the climbs it will be much the same; the gain of the compact is a nicer/simpler front mech setup when you are in the bigger rings.

DesB3rd

"34/28 is better than a triple 30/25"

Almost exactly the same 1.214 vs. 1.200, ~1" in old money.

Coming from a triple I went for an 11-28 105 compact. The 28 has done all I've required but I've got over 30 years on the OP. 50/11 is a waste of time, on a couple of very long, smooth, tail-winded descents I've tapped the up lever with no response, but that's it.

13-29 sounds a nice option.

Living in a flat are I might in retrospect give up a tooth at each in to have the 14-17 spread with no 2 tooth shifts, but then I'd worry about going to hillier places where the extra 4% that the 28 brings might help out. :roll:

Teach

Sorry to take this thread in a slightly different direction, but can you change just 1 cog or do you have to buy a whole cassette. I would like to change my largest cog to a larger one, just for the odd ride in the Lake district.

rolf_f

The Campag cassettes are made of indivdual sprockets which can be swapped round but individually purchased cassettes are pricey.

However, if you buy a second cassette (which isn't much more than the individual sprocket), in theory you can swap teeth around though you need to think about where the bigger gap ends up. It all depends on your existing gearing but, if you have say a 12-25 and want a 12-26 for the Lakes, I wouldn't bother. Easier just to go for the 13-29. For the Lakes, the loss of the 12 makes little difference as the descents are steep and you'd want more than one extra big cog to help. Similarly, the wide range isn't an issue as gear changes tend to need to be bigger than a single tooth anyway.