Carerra Virtuoso - Gear Ratio Change

lighty89

I currently have a Carrera Virtuoso, and am pretty impressed with how its ridden, will be looking to upgrade to a nice new Ribble at some point.

However, I will be participating in Mow Cop Killer Mile as part of Cheshire Cat sportive next month, and my current gear ratio is horrible when at the top!

What can I do to change it?
Do you have links to chainrings, casettes ect that may help?

ManOfKent

Have a look at the Road Beginners forum: there's a sticky thread at the top about changing gear ratios.

zx6man

I changed my crank on the TDF (which is same as the Virtuoso iirc) to a 2300 compact. You may be able to pick one of those up cheap.

chatlow

Also got a virtuso. Commute up a lot of hills so changed the 36 to 34:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/shi ... nt=Default

and got an 11-30 cassette with Sora 3500 9 speed RD:

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... himgrrr211



Much nicer now.

lighty89

chatlow wrote:

Also got a virtuso. Commute up a lot of hills so changed the 36 to 34:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/shi ... nt=Default

and got an 11-30 cassette with Sora 3500 9 speed RD:

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... himgrrr211



Much nicer now.

Smashing, thank you!
Did you get short cage or medium cage deraileuer?

Also my front shifters only do 8??

lighty89

Right, I have the following at the moment:

Chainset: FSA Tempo Compact chainset 50/34T
Front Mech: Shimano FD-2300
Rear Mech: Shimano Sora
Cassette: 12-26T
Number of Gears: 16

Can I change the casette to another 8 speed one? With lower teeth, like 11-28?
Would it be possible to change the front chainring down at all?

chatlow

lighty89 wrote:

chatlow wrote:

Also got a virtuso. Commute up a lot of hills so changed the 36 to 34:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/shi ... nt=Default

and got an 11-30 cassette with Sora 3500 9 speed RD:

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... himgrrr211



Much nicer now.

Smashing, thank you!
Did you get short cage or medium cage deraileuer?

Also my front shifters only do 8??

8 speed shifters won't be an issue as long as you get an 8 speed cassette. I was worried the 9 speed RD might cause a problem but was told by Ribble it will be fine due to 8/9 chain sizing - and it has been.

I went for the medium cage in case I decided to change to even lower gears in future.. but I won't be, so small or medium cage would have been fine.