Specialized Allez Double Upgrade

Drax

I've have my Allez for a couple of years now and would like to change my cassette or chainrings just to make it easier on hill climbs . My bike has Shimano Tiagra, 9-speed, 11-25t cassette and 53 x 39t Sora chainrings. I was thinking of buying a Shimano Tiagra HG50 9 Cassette 12-27t (£18) or the Shimano Ultegra Cassette 9 Speed 6500 12-27t (£45) . Any advice would be much appreciated .

smidsy

Just get the tiagra one as the only real difference for the money is the weight and for those few grammes its not going to make a massive difference.

The 27 will make some difference to you but not a massive one (it's only 2 teeth extra).

Drax

Would it be worth changing the chainrings ?

smidsy

Well a compact set up (50 34) up front will certainly make it easier up hills but if you are going to do that you have to accept a trade off for the loss of outright speed elsewhere (assuming you can turn the 53 at a good cadence etc).

For £18 its worth trying the rear cassette and see what you get on like with that before anything else. You can even get a cassette wth a 30 on the rear if your rear mech can take that size difference (a med mech may do it but a long would deffo). Not worth changing the rear mech though so if you have a short one you will be unlikely to achieve that.