Sram Climbing Kit WIFI advice.

bgfalll123

Hi all !

I currently have a sram rival groupset on my bike with a shimano 10 speed Cassette .... ( Didn't look quite hard enough when buying the bike to notice !!)

I am going to the alps in July and whilst cycling my usual Sunday 70 odd Kms today i realised that the hills in my local area is going to be a billion times harder than the mountains i am going to be tackling.

Does anybody have any experience with these climbing kits ? Is there a better or cheaper alternative for me to get a bigger gear range ? Do i just need to keep cycling and getting fitter ?

So many questions

I am really counting on some help here. My LBS is CACKKKK and couldn't help when asked.

Any help would be appreiciated

sungod

shimano/sram casettes are compatible (some shimano 10-speed ones need a spacer that sram ones don't, no big deal)

what gearing have you got now?

wifli will give you the option of big sprockets for really low gearing, but whether you need it depends both on fitness and the climbs you'll be doing

bgfalll123

Right going to sound horribly bad now but how do i know what gearing i have?

I have a 10 speed cassette and my crankset has 2 chain rings instead of three.

I am going to be tackling some tour climbs i hope.

sungod

it depends on how many teeth on the chainrings...

is it 50/34 (aka compact) which gives you lower gears, or 53/39 (aka standard)?

ditto for the cassette, what's the number of teeth on the biggest sprocket?

if you know which climbs, then you can check the gradient, alpine climbs are often long but not really steep

you should aim for gearing low enough that you can maintain a comfortable cadence, say 70-80

there're some other threads on the subject, for instance...

viewtopic.php?f=40020&t=12556578

bgfalll123

Thank you for your replies they are really helping me ! I suspect my crankset is compact and the cassette would be the issue.

I never knew that more teeth in a cassette would help !

I will go look now.

Thank you for your help so far

bgfalll123

50 - 34 compact

25 is the amount of teeth on the biggest sprocket of my cassette !

:shock: any more clues from anybody ?

Cheers

arthur_scrimshaw

I've got Apex wifli on my boardman CX, 50/34 compact chainset and 32-11 (at least I think it's 11) on the cassette. Not sure about your current RD but my RD is a long cage version to cope with the range. Yes it gives a very low gear but the tradeoff is big gear jumps as you go to lower gears. I find I climb better on my road bike which is compact but 28/11 cassette. However wifli gearing on a proper road bike may be great.

bgfalll123

If my cassette has 10 cogs and the largest of which has 25 teeth ... what does that make it with regards to sizing ? I think i just have the standard rear cage ! The wifi gives the range it seems.

Thanks for the help though !!

arthur_scrimshaw

I wouldn't be at all surprised if your current setup could cope with a 28/11 cassette. This could make all the difference depending on your fitness? However you would need a new longer chain. My 105 RD is a short cage and copes with a 28 cassette.

neilrobins

I have the WiFli on my winter/touring bike, it's basically a Mtb cassette 32-11 but the rear mech is the long version. It was here to help out on a LEJoG last year which was done solo without any back up so carried everything. It's clunky when moving from the 32 down towards the middle but you just need to time your changes and not try to power any big jumps in cog size (my first one blew on a hill but replaced under warranty). I could have lost a bit of weight and gone with a standard but the 32 is a safety net when the hills get over 15%!. Oh it's a real spinner, your cadence goes through the roof and I found I could only actually use it for short periods reverting back to grinding smaller cogs. With hindsight I would have lost weight, got fitter.
One last point, it seemed to need indexing more than any of my other bikes which maybe down to the longer reach, it feels like it is more susceptible to knocks etc

sungod

i looked up the rival rear mech...

The SRAM Rival Rear Derailleur is available with two cage length options -- Medium and Short. The Medium has a maximum 37t chain wrap capacity and can handle up to a 32t cog. The Short cage version has a 33t chain wrap capacity and can handle a 28t cog.

'capacity' is the sum of the differences between highest/lowest front and rear, assuming 50/34 and 11-25, gives 30

so the short cage would allow you to fit a sram pg1050 12-28 cassette, which is a pretty low gear

the rival wifli rear mech is the 'medium' cage one, it would allow you to put a sram pg1050 12-32 on, very low gear indeed

bgfalll123

I have ordered a Shimano 105 28-11 cassette which i think will give me more from my gears.

Chanced my LBS one more time this morning and they were slightly more helpful identifying that my chain had enough give that it didn't need to be changed.

Fingers Crossed All ! Thanks for the help

robbo2011

I use a Sram Rival medium cage mech with a 11-32 PG1070 WiFli with Red Shifters on my road bike. This setup shifts better than the all Sram red kit it replaced and never needs adjusting.

I do use the 32 in the mountains, it is useful at the end of long rides when energy levels are low. Yes I probably could do without it, but it's a useful bail out gear.

StillGoing

My main bike has SRAM Red shifters with Force Wifli RD and an 11-32 rear cassette. I can honestly say that I've yet to use the two lowest sprockets on the cassette preferring to continue struggling on in the 25 tooth as the cadence with the lowest gears is ridiculous for the forward momentum achieved. For me, they are just bail out gears should I need them.

Nickysixx

I got the Sram rival climber kit on my Scott speedster.
Upgraded from shimano sora, I despised those thumb levers. I put 2nd hand rival shifters on
It is really awesome, shifts like silk.
I do some big hills here near my house. Running a Sram rival compact chainset also