Should I change the Crank or the Cassette?

Blackfin31

I have a 11-25 cassette and a 53-39 Dura Ace Crank....I did a 75 mile race this weekend and climbed a total of 4,705 feet...at 55 miles I was grinding up a 6 mile 1,200 feet climb at 60 revolutions per min and was getting dropped by the lead pack...should I change the casstte to a 11-27, 12-28 or should I get a compact front crank?....What's the difference?

Any information would be helpful....

Paul

Gizmodo

Useful information here http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3521

Or try putting your options into this http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

turnerjohn

Blackfin31 wrote:

I have a 11-25 cassette and a 53-34 Dura Ace Crank....I did a 75 mile race this weekend and climbed a total of 4,705 feet...at 55 miles I was grinding up a 6 mile 1,200 feet climb at 60 revolutions per min and was getting dropped by the lead pack...should I change the casstte to a 11-27, 12-28 or should I get a compact front crank?....What's the difference?

Any information would be helpful....

Paul

34 Tooth front ?...that is compact !...you should be fine with what you got !

gezebo

Cassette, loads cheaper and you've already got a compact. Next step would be a triple!!

Blackfin31

Oops I meant 53-39. I have a standard crank...it was a torrid pace...we were averaing 20 plus mph on the flats and my energy was waning at the 55 mile mark with a good steep climb of 6 miles and 1200 feet...better greaing would have helped...

ShutUpLegs

11-27 should be more than adequate
Leave compacts to the noobs

Wirral_paul

One hill in one race is not exactly a good reason to change your gearing overall. Your 11-25 and 53/39 could be perfect for the next race that doesnt have a similar hill.

Maybe if you did the same course again then a compact or wider range cassette would be sensible, but really it is only you that can say what your ideal gearing is. You really need to consider what range of gears you actually use. If you never touch the 53-11 on a downhill then you could go compact and then fit keep the 11-25 for hilly races but an 11-21 or 11-23 for a flatter race. 2 or 3 different cassettes with matching chain )of the right length) gives you options depending on course profile.

Blackfin31

I was behind the lead pack about 50 yards at the summit...I did catch them on the descend using 53-11 and topped out at 45.3 mph...I never hit max heart rate on the hill...top heart rate was 93 percent of max....I held back on the hill because we had 15 miles of rollers to the finish line...we were averaging 24-25 mph the last stretch of seven rolling bumps....I could not sustain this and got dropped for good on the 5th bump with 4 miles left to go....I never know... if I had the right gearing on the hill....I could have finished with the lead pack....???...

Wirral_paul

Sounds more like you need to work on your own race craft as well as the gearing - to work out what is best for you. You chasing down the pack in the 53-11 while the pack was recovering from the climb could well be the difference, but then again if you had gone closer to your limit to stay in the group could have seen you dropped anyway. Getting the gearing right is always going to give you the best chance though - maybe an 11-28 would have seen you stay with the group without pushing your HR to the limit.

All you can do really is experiment to see what works for you

lakeland

If you can be bothered changing things over, is it worthwhile having a cassette for all flat rides, one for flats and hills and one for climbing cliff faces?

drlodge

Sounds overly complicated if you ask me. With modern day 10 and 11 speed cassettes, there is only 1 or 2 teeth max difference between cogs so why would you be wanting to change them over?

Monty Dog

I would say it's more down to training and strength rather than equipment equipment - you'll probably find that most of the riders at the front were on the same gears, but they were simply fitter and stronger.

drlodge

Blackfin31 wrote:

....I never know... if I had the right gearing on the hill....I could have finished with the lead pack....???...

Which begs the question, what gear were you in and what would you regard at the "right gearing"? If its a set of gentle rolling "bumps" then I doubt you were in the lowest gear and in need of something lower. A more compact cassette will give you only 1 tooth difference between cogs rather than 2 teeth difference on the lower gears, but then you'd sacrifice some of the lower gears.

I'm with Monty Dog on this, I think you simply ran out of steam.

lakeland

Sounds overly complicated if you ask me. With modern day 10 and 11 speed cassettes, there is only 1 or 2 teeth max difference between cogs so why would you be wanting to change them over?

I intend to use my bike for TT and road riding. TT in my area are completely flat, where as road riding invariably includes rather big hills (I live in the lakes). Three sets is probably ott but what about one for TT and one for road?

Monty Dog

I'll re-iterate my early answer, in my personal experience of getting blasted in races it was simply down to not being strong or fit enough - a lower gear would have just meant that I'd have been slower on the climb. I also find there's a huge difference between racing hills and riding them - the former being about lactate tolerance and ability to repeatedly recover from maximal efforts. FWIW I can usually get up hills at the front of the pack but sometimes you just run out of legs - if I start looking at my gears, then I'm usually in trouble.

thescouselander

I don't know about races but I do know a good bit about hills and I'd say if you cant maintain the cadence you prefer you should consider changing the gearing. 1200ft over 6 miles is only a 3.8% average gradient which is nothing really (barring localised steep bits) - it sounds like a compact chainset might do you if you don't expect to be going much faster than 45mph. You could always keep your current chainset and swap it over for the flatter routes.