Turbo / Hill climb gearing

shinobishoryuken

I recently acquired a turbo and spare wheel so bought a new cassette (9 speed) for my bike. I thought I should also get a new chain, which I'll put on the bike when using the turbo and specific wheel and tyre.

Is this what you normal people do?

My bike is 2 years old, original parts and has received some hammer as I'm 127kg.

Am I right in thinking the old and very likely stretched chain would quickly knacker the new cassette?

I'm now debating whether to simply put the original/worn cassette on the turbo wheel and put the new cassette on the bike along with the new chain- but now I'm thinking should I upgrade the chain rings too?

Also, as I struggle (up Mow Cop's Killer mile at least) when climbing up tough hill I decided on the cassette with ratio of 11-32 but my original is 12-25.

My bike is TCR 2 (2012 model) Will this bike take the new cassette or am I going to need a new type of rear mech?

cycleclinic

A partly worn chain can be used on a new cassette if it not too worn. The ammount of wear has to measured. I have leartn on this forum not to recomend any chain measurement technique as it attracts negitive and often rude posts. I have my own prefered methods.

As for your chainrings there is no chainring that is an upgrade as such. Some are a bit better made than others and some shift slightly better than other. Some are lighter but unless the teeth are sharp it will work fine.

Your gearing will require a mech of increased capasity if you have a short cage and one that can take a 32T rear cassette. SRAM do a wifli mech for this, shimano 10 speed long cage mechs can take 32T cassette as can a 9 speed MTB mech (if you are running 10 speed shimano then do not use a 10 speed MTB mech).

You will not be going very quickly on a hill climb while on the inner and 32T at the back. I will get up 10% gradients with pace in a 39:21T gear which is the lowest I have on my my main bike or 44:18T on my old TT bike. A hill climb is a 1 minute burst of power so that my solution a burst of everything I have for as long as I can and for some of that climb at least my cadance is quite high. Don't know how steep the climb you mention is though it may be very steep.

islandman

yes to your sugestion, put the old chain and cassette on turbo, keep new chain with new cassette, gearing only important on the road bike. Buy a chain checker now rather than later and you'll find for a fiver outlay it will save you that many times over. To be honest I think most of us struggle up Mow Cop.