Lower gears - sram
HI i have a sram rival equipped bike with 50/34 on front and 11/28 on rear , and i have booked in for a couple of sportives next year and am going to need lower gears .
as i understand it to change the rear cass to 11-32 requires med cage road rear mech , but someone said i could go even lower using an MTB mech to go to 11-36 with sram
does anyone know if this is true ?
also would i even need a 36 bailout gear ?
i am 16.5 st and when hills get above 8-10% sustained boy do i struggle - grunting sweating cursing its not pretty , would like to be able to spin up rather than grind slowly
as i understand it to change the rear cass to 11-32 requires med cage road rear mech , but someone said i could go even lower using an MTB mech to go to 11-36 with sram
does anyone know if this is true ?
also would i even need a 36 bailout gear ?
i am 16.5 st and when hills get above 8-10% sustained boy do i struggle - grunting sweating cursing its not pretty , would like to be able to spin up rather than grind slowly
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HI i have a sram rival equipped bike with 50/34 on front and 11/28 on rear , and i have booked in for a couple of sportives next year and am going to need lower gears .
as i understand it to change the rear cass to 11-32 requires med cage road rear mech , but someone said i could go even lower using an MTB mech to go to 11-36 with sram
does anyone know if this is true ?
also would i even need a 36 bailout gear ?
i am 16.5 st and when hills get above 8-10% sustained boy do i struggle - grunting sweating cursing its not pretty , would like to be able to spin up rather than grind slowly
Whether or not your mech will cope with a 36 is not down to the cage length, this is purely to accommodate chain takeup, generally a long cage would be for a triple chainset.
Check the spec of your rear mech, it will tell you the maximum range but they can be conservative and you may get a slightly lower gear to work. The (only in my opinion) good thing about SRAM gearing is that the MTB and Road shifters have the same pull ratio so you can mix and match gear.
Edit
Be prepared for helpful advice about getting fitter.0 -
thanks arthur ,
i am happy to change rear mech to accomodate new cass . as current rear mech will only go up to 28 .
I know a med cage will go to 32 , its whether the option of a mtb rear mech and 12-36 cass is possible .
I am expecting the get fitter comments, and to be fair they are right , thats what i am trying to do but 15%+ is no joke ,0 -
thanks arthur ,
i am happy to change rear mech to accomodate new cass . as current rear mech will only go up to 28 .
I know a med cage will go to 32 , its whether the option of a mtb rear mech and 12-36 cass is possible .
I am expecting the get fitter comments, and to be fair they are right , thats what i am trying to do but 15%+ is no joke ,
Well a SRAM mtb rear mech will work with your shifters, so as long as you choose one with the capacity to deal with a 36 cassette and can cope with the difference of the chainset you should be fine.0 -
To put your mind at ease a little, A comoact running a 32t low gear would get you up nost climbs you would encounter. It does sound like a good idea to put as big a cog on your rear to spin up steep climbs but in doing so you compromise on the rest of your gearing. On a road bike rwar cage you would need to fit a long to accommodate the axtra chain length fromyour highest to your lowest. Even the lowest road cassette is going to be 13t top gear.
Another thing is that even with a really low gear you are not going to make 10%+ climbs much easier. Its actually quite hard to spin fast on a bike going next to no speed up a hill in a mega low ratio. Your balance has to be good. They are fine for a short punchy climb over a ridge but not a constant climb of a over a few metres.
As I said as the start. A 34f to 31r will get you up nearly anything.0
