Coming from Hybrid to Road - worrying about gears

akc42

Im in my sixties and was rather overweight and unfit. Last September I bought a Specialized Crosstrial (hybrid) to see if I could do something about the weight. I didn't really get out much until April this year, but since then I have been out two or three times a week and starting to really enjoy it. Last weekend did a 50 mile ride including Leith Hill in Surrey.

I have come down from 102kg to 88kg, and am promising myself that if I can get to 80kg (still too heavy, but no longer in the overweight category) I will buy myself a good road bike.

But one thing worries me. Where I live its quite hilly, so to go anywhere I end up doing a hill climb (which I love doing - I was a long distance runner in my youth, so seem to have the endurance). I have several I do regularly that take between 7 and 12 minutes of climbing - with gradients that might average 5-7% but which peak at 10-13%. There is one small spot on one of the hills where it reaches 15%. When I first starting going out I couldn't get up any hill without stopping taking a drink and trying again (several times). But by the end of May I could climb the hill's in one go. However, even now, I need to do the majority of my climbing in bottom gear, and I can feel at the peak gradients I am almost at the limit of how hard I can push sitting down. (I do stand up, but its tiring for more than a few moments).

Reading the specs on my hybrid, it has a triple chain ring at the front 48/36/26 and 11-32 cassette at the rear. That means that in bottom gear I am 26 on the chain ring -32 on the sprocket. Road bikes seem to have nothing like that capability. 34 chain ring, 28 sprocket seems about the lowest that is commonly available.

Does it get that much easier because of lightness of bike, easier running tyres that I shouldn't worry, or is this a thing that I still have a lot of muscle strength to add - and perhaps should postpone the road bike purchase?

djm501

You can get roadbikes with triple chainrings and the cassettes will go up to 30. Also nothing to stop you buying a MTB cassette provided you have a long cage derailleur.

As you say though, the light weight of roadbikes does make a big difference. I find climbing just as easy, if not easier on my 50-28 road bikes lowest gear than my hybrid's 34-34 simply because of its much lighter build.

djm501

Those sound like decent hills by the way, good work 8)

diamonddog

Welcome to the forum.
Well done with the weight loss.
Go and look at some triples, I think it would be silly to put off buying something that would help with your fitness and enjoyment. Age is not a limiter go for it.:) If you're like me as you get fitter you just push harder so it never really gets easier.

TakeTurns

Good work and keep up the progress. I'm sure you'll hit your targeted weight and get a road bike which'll be loads of fun. Don't worry too much about the road bike's gearing, that can always be altered at a minor cost.

You never know, you might not even need a triple once you've lost all that weight and start riding a lighter bike.

keef66

I returned to road cycling at the age of 50 and following knee surgery. I chose a triple because it gave me a fairly low bottom gear and no big jumps between gears, so I could keep spinning at a comfortable cadence whatever the terrain.

The other benefit I have subsequently found is that for 90% of my riding I stay in the middle 39 chainring and use the full range of sprockets at the back.

A triple with a 12-27 or 28 should get you up most things on a road bike, but you may need to practice climbing while standing to get up the really steep stuff.

markhewitt1978

Look at Trek bikes (although there are others). These will give a triple crankset with a 30T small ring and a 30T cassette on the back. This will get you up almost anything.

e.g. Trek 1.5 http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/ro ... series/1_5 has 30/30

Daz555

Sensa Romagna Custom can be had with Tiagra triple for under 700 notes. Worth considering. Excellent bike.

ajayuk

Have a look at the Boardman Comp with SRAM Apex gearing. 50/34 compact with 11-32 cassette, which gives you almost 1:1 gearing to get up the steepest climbs.

littledove44

I am in a similar situation to you. Late 50's, and using riding to get fitter. I just promised myself the road bike a bit earlier and got one a month or so ago having got from 107kg to 93kg.

My Dawes hybrid, which I have been riding this summer has an identical 48/36/26 with an 11-32.
The road bike I chose a Specialized Roubaix Compact Sport. It has a 50/34 and the shop changed the standard supplied rear cassette for me to an 11-34.

On a pure numbers basis you would think that the hybrid was easier to pedal uphill, but actually, with the lightess of the road bike and skinny tyres mean I find the road bike easier.

So don't worry.

FYI, I use Strava and regularly ride the same segments on both bikes. With the same amount of effort (knackered at the end) my road bike times are consistently 20% less than the hybrid.

akc42

I though I would follow up on this thread I started over a month ago.

I just took delivery of my new bike on Tuesday, and this morning I had the first opportunity for a 30 minute workout up a couple of local hills.

After some debate with myself I chose NOT to do anything fancy with the gears and I have a compact 50/34 on the front and standard 11-28 cassette on the rear.

The first of the hills is about a mile long which starts at 5% then increases to 7% and then at about 2/3 through peaks at 12% before flattening out again. My PB was prior to this morning 6mins 20 secs. I went up this hill in 5mins 19 secs. The second of the hills is the run up to my house of about 1/2 mile. In roughly equal proportions it is 3%, 5% and 10%. My previous best time was 4:24 - this morning it took me 2:55

I still have to have to go on my normal training route - which adds a hill that peaks at 16% and a climb that is about 10% all the way up - but from this mornings evidence I should be alright.

diamonddog

Well done, which bike did you get in the end?

kajjal

For someone of reasonable or better fitness you have made the right choice. A compact road bike with 11-28 or 12-30 will go up most hills with no problems. Added to that the reduced weight and faster speed of a road bike they go noticeably faster up and downhills than other bikes. My mountain bike feels like it is being dragged up hill compared to my road bike which flies up hills.

Have fun on your new bike

akc42

diamonddog wrote:

Well done, which bike did you get in the end?

Van Nicholas, Yukon

diamonddog

Very nice.

Pepperoni Man

I too had the same mental torture when moving from a hybrid with a triple. I went for a compact double in the end on my Trek Domane 2.3 and so far have no regrets on the admittedly not too challenging hills of the Somerset Levels :?

markiegrim

I'm 45 and replaced my 19 year old Hybrid with a Trek 1.5 compact 4 weeks ago. Completely recognise how much easier you are finding the road bike - I was amazed too. I do a lot hill riding in the Chilterns and now ride all the way up the one hill on which I used to have to do the walk of shame and go up the shallower hills a good way in 2nd and 3rd before shifting down into lowest gear. I went for the compact, because when I tried a triple, I didn't notice it to be much easier in the lowest gear and found the whole set up a bit of a faff.

I hope I'm as fit as you in 15-20 y
Best wishes

the_cyclist_of_catan

FWVLIW, when I swapped from a MTB-geared hybrid to a road bike 18 months ago, I was regularly grinding up a short (1/2 mile tops) but steep slope near where I live. I could get up it on the hybrid, but only in the smallest chainring. I didn't realise what all the different chainset options were, and bought my first road bike off eBay; it was a standard double (53/39, with the largest sprocket at the back being a 25). And getting up that hill was probably easier on that road bike than the hybrid!

Of course, I eventually saw the light and ditched that bike in favour of one that fitted - with a 50/34 and a 12-29 cassette. Cycling is supposed to be fun, not purgatory, after all.

dai_t75

keef66 wrote:

I returned to road cycling at the age of 50 and following knee surgery. I chose a triple because it gave me a fairly low bottom gear and no big jumps between gears, so I could keep spinning at a comfortable cadence whatever the terrain.

The other benefit I have subsequently found is that for 90% of my riding I stay in the middle 39 chainring and use the full range of sprockets at the back.

A triple with a 12-27 or 28 should get you up most things on a road bike, but you may need to practice climbing while standing to get up the really steep stuff.

Sorry to go slightly off topic - can I ask what groupset you have and how you set it up?

I've got a Triban 3 that comes with shimano 2300. No matter how much messing about I do with the FD I cannot get the full range of gears at the back without the chain rubbing when in the middle ring. For example I can only go down to the 4th sprocket at the moment without any rubbing. As soon as I drop to the 5th it starts hitting the outer plate of the FD. It's annoying that there is no trim option when going from middle to big front ring (it is there going from small to middle).

Runtothehills

djm501 wrote:

You can get roadbikes with triple chainrings and the cassettes will go up to 30. Also nothing to stop you buying a MTB cassette provided you have a long cage derailleur.

As you say though, the light weight of roadbikes does make a big difference. I find climbing just as easy, if not easier on my 50-28 road bikes lowest gear than my hybrid's 34-34 simply because of its much lighter build.

Is this down to lighter weight or greater stiffness? If I compare my hybrid with my road bike although the hybrid is probably twice the weight I still reckon the biggest difference is stiffness - when I push down hard while stationary (brakes on) on the pedal for my hybrid I can see the bottom bracket move sideways, on the road bike it doesn't move a millimeter. I feel that probably makes more difference than the extra weight. Both help though - as the OP has found!

Runtothehills

Runtothehills wrote:

djm501 wrote:

You can get roadbikes with triple chainrings and the cassettes will go up to 30. Also nothing to stop you buying a MTB cassette provided you have a long cage derailleur.

As you say though, the light weight of roadbikes does make a big difference. I find climbing just as easy, if not easier on my 50-28 road bikes lowest gear than my hybrid's 34-34 simply because of its much lighter build.

Is this down to lighter weight or greater stiffness? If I compare my hybrid with my road bike although the hybrid is probably twice the weight I still reckon the biggest difference in climbing is stiffness - when I push down hard while stationary (brakes on) on the pedal for my hybrid I can see the bottom bracket move sideways, on the road bike it doesn't move a millimeter. I feel that probably makes more difference than the extra weight. Both help though - as the OP has found!

markhewitt1978

Both indeed. I went from an aluminium frame to a carbon frame - exactly the same components, the carbon frame was exactly the same weight as the outgoing aluminium. However I climbed faster, accelerated faster, just everything faster, because of the stiffness (presumably).