Newby needing help with chainset

khare

Hi guys,

I have a question regarding the number of teeth on the chainset. I've just bought a Viking Giro D'Italia 2011 road bike and this is my first road bike I've owned. Been riding it over the last few days and it's been great, however as soon as my father found out I bought it he's started bombarding me with bits to buy for it to upgrade it. One of the things he's going to buy me as a present are some Q-rings, which he distributes in Brazil so he can get them a very low prices. He needs to know which ones to get, so I've measured up and counted and I have 52 teeth on the big chainring and 42 on the smaller chainring, along with a 14-28 freewheel at the back.

The BCD is 130mm (shimano gears, unbranded chainring and cranks).

I had a look at the Q-rotor catalogue and I have various choices to choose from. My question is, how many teeth should I buy? At the moment on the larger chainset and highest gear I can ride comfortably and at speed (34kph thereabouts) if the road is smooth and there's no wind. However on the downhills I feel like I could do with longer gears. I was a reasonably strong cyclist a few years ago, but then stopped and now getting back into it, to do triathlons and some local competitions hopefully.

Do you guys recommend getting a 53/39, or keep it almost the same at 52/39?

Kind Regards

Andres

mcp73

I think that having a 14 as your highest gear on the cassette is the biggest issue for your downhill speed. The low 28 will be great for hill climbing, but you'll get a much more noticeable higher gear from using a different cassette with perhaps a 12 or 11 as the top gear. Clearly a 53 will give you bigger top gears than a 52, but changing the rear sprocket would help much more.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm incorrect.

rick_chasey

Moved to road beginners.

t4tomo

52 vs 53 = 2% difference - you'll hardly notice it buy which ever he can gte easiest / cheapest.

a 12-28 vs 14-28 (well the 12 vs 14) = 14% difference. The best present your dad can get you is a new cassette.

I guarantee you'll have the only viking with Q rings, but if your dad ges them cheap then why not. Keep the old chainset, as when you inevitably upgrade the bike for a better one, you may be able to switch the Q's to the new bike and put the old stuff back on the viking as the Qrings are probably worth as much as the rest of the bike.

khare

Cheers guys. It's a freewheel, not cassette. But it's something in the future I'd like to replace, with something like this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=47930 and http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=17902 12-23. Will definetly keep the old chainrings so I can keep the Q rings when I upgrade.

mcp73

Apologies, I hadn't noticed that you'd said freewheel. Certainly, a new freehub and cassette (many options available) would give you higher gearing.