Modified Gearing For Specialized Roubaix

Carbohydration

Yo guys I just got a used 2012 specialized roubaix comp from my brother who doesn't use it anymore. Flippin awesome bike, glides on the flats. Unfortunately it's gearing doesn't cut the mustard for many of the hills here. I took it for a spin the other day and I must have been at around 20 cadence on some of the steeper gradients. So I have done some research and I know what I want to do, I just need some guidance on how to do it i,e, compatability. On the back I want a 11-36t cassette, 40 would be nice but I appreciate that could be more difficult/expensive. On the front I want to use a 36/22 chainset. I would also need a new derailleur, probably an SGS, as my shimano ultegra is an SS model.

TL/DR: How can I get a 36/22 chainset, 11-36t cassette, and sgs derailleur on my specialize roubaix ?

Edit: I forgot to post spec page http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/archive/2012/roubaix/roubaixcompcompact#specs
I'm not too adamant on changing the crankset. It's just a possibility if a 36 tooth cassette isn't enough. I
understand some people think my fitness isn't good and it isn't. All I know is the gearing I have on this bike isn't enough for me to cycle at a comfortable cadence up steep hills... Maybe for some other people the gears I have are fine for them... but not for me.

I'm thinking about trying something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCY-Fi93EAo

ayjaycee

What sort of hills are you trying to climb and what's the current gearing on the bike? Unless it's the north face of the Eiger, I would respectfully suggest that it's either you that's not 'cutting the mustard' rather than the bike or those hills just ain't meant to be climbed on a road bike (but Chapeau for even trying). To answer your original question, don't think it can be done (but there are others on BR who know a lot more than and might correct me).

arlowood

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19775170#p19775170]Carbohydration[/url] wrote:

Yo guys I just got a used 2012 specialized roubaix comp from my brother who doesn't use it anymore. Flippin awesome bike, glides on the flats. Unfortunately it's gearing doesn't cut the mustard for many of the hills here. I took it for a spin the other day and I must have been at around 20 cadence on some of the steeper gradients. So I have done some research and I know what I want to do, I just need some guidance on how to do it i,e, compatability. On the back I want a 11-36t cassette, 40 would be nice but I appreciate that could be more difficult/expensive. On the front I want to use a 36/22 chainset. I would also need a new derailleur, probably an SGS, as my shimano ultegra is an SS model.

TL/DR: How can I get a 36/22 chainset, 11-36t cassette, and sgs derailleur on my specialize roubaix ?

IIRC from other posts on this topic, I think 34 tooth is the smallest chainring you can have on a road double chainset. If you opt for a triple chainset then you can go smaller on the inner ring - down to 30 or maybe even 26- but I think 22 is way out of the question.

On a normal road set-up with a long cage road rear derailleur you will probably get away with an 11-36 cassette matched to a compact (50/34) chainset. However I think a 40 tooth lowest gear will require a MTB type derailleur like the SGS you suggest, which I think is going to be incompatible with the road shifters you already have (Ultegra I'm assuming and also 10 speed I'm thinking from the 2012 vintage of the bike). The pull ratios will be wrong for compatibility with the SGS rear derailleur.

As ayjaycee queries - what type of hills do you need a 22/40 lowest ratio for.

I think your best bet is to get a compact chainset (50/34) and match this to a 10 speed 11-32 cassette (Shimano SLX HG81-10) and a medium or long cage rear derailleur.

Then work on your fitness levels.

simon_masterson

This has to be a wind up, surely?

Bobbinogs

Yeah, much as I would usually say that gearing is very much a personal thing, I did wonder if someone asking asking for a bottom gear of 22f & 36r was planning on driving a tank up vertical climbing walls rather than cycling on roads

keef66

Assuming this is a serious post, that's extremely low gearing you're suggesting! Where in the world are you? What's your age / cycling fitness like?

I returned to road cycling at the age of 50 and following knee surgery. I'd been riding a mountain bike with a very wide range of gears, so I specified a triple chainset on the new road bike.

My smallest chainring is 30t and largest cassette sprocket 27t, and that will see me up just about anything. OK, I'll be climbing out of the saddle on anything really steep, but I don't need anything lower. I'm now 58 and cycle a couple of times a week at a modest pace just to keep fit, but I'm no athlete. The vast majority of the time I stay in the 39t middle chainring and just go up and down the cassette.

I think if you manage to fit the gears you're proposing to the Roubaix, your fitness will quickly improve to the point where you're wanting a more typical road bike setup again, and you'll have wasted your money.

markhewitt1978

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19775170#p19775170]Carbohydration[/url] wrote:

Yo guys I just got a used 2012 specialized roubaix comp from my brother who doesn't use it anymore. Flippin awesome bike, glides on the flats. Unfortunately it's gearing doesn't cut the mustard for many of the hills here. I took it for a spin the other day and I must have been at around 20 cadence on some of the steeper gradients. So I have done some research and I know what I want to do, I just need some guidance on how to do it i,e, compatability. On the back I want a 11-36t cassette, 40 would be nice but I appreciate that could be more difficult/expensive. On the front I want to use a 36/22 chainset. I would also need a new derailleur, probably an SGS, as my shimano ultegra is an SS model.

TL/DR: How can I get a 36/22 chainset, 11-36t cassette, and sgs derailleur on my specialize roubaix ?

What spec of Specialised Roubaix is it? As they come with a variety of different groupsets, from Tiagra all the way up to Dura Ace. So we really need to know what setup you already have - most importantly how many gears you have on the back and the teeth numbers of the chainrings on the front.

If we know what setup exactly you have now we can all advise on what parts exactly you need to purchase.

I echo the comments here that having 22/36 as your lowest gear, a ratio of 0.61 is exceptionally low. As an example the lowest gear on my hybrid was 0.8 ratio and that could toddle up 20% slopes like they weren't there. My lowest gear on my road bike is 34/30 (ratio of 1.13) and that's still considered very low by many.

So we first have to ensure that you really do *need* what you're asking for, when quite possibly a compact 50/34 chainset and 11-32 (or even 12-30) cassette will likely give you what you need.

(My betting, if it isn't a windup, is that OP has a 52/39 with 12-25 and has decided to take it to extremes)

marcusjb

Another comment on that being very, very low for a road bike and quite possibly near impossible to actually ride.

It's a 16 inch gear, which I think is lower than most mountain bikes and is certainly lower than on our touring tandem (and tandems need lowwww gears) which has a 19 inch bottom gear (equivalent to 24*34). It's incredibly low and even loaded down we rarely need it. I don't think I could keep a road bike with a 16 inch gear balanced and if I were riding up stuff steep enough to warrant such a low gear (I don't think there are roads that are steep enough need a 16 inch gear in the UK), I am fairly sure you'd be quicker and use less energy to push the bike up it! The bike would be very hard to ride and keep in a straight line etc.

By all means, look at a compact with a 32 on the cassette (about a 28 inch gear) and if that still doesn't work for you, then keep on working on fitness. If you're new to cycling/physical exercise it is easy to think that you can throw money at a problem and it will go away, sadly it doesn't.

Getting the gearing that low will be possible, but will need some good money and it will make a bike that is difficult to ride.

Electric assist would be the option to explore more than putting gearing lower than a touring bike's on a road bike.

Carbohydration

Haha I'm not trolling. Myabe I shouldn't have posted about the cranks... I am more curious if that is possible if anything i.e. 22-32-42 mtb cranks on a road bike. I know that people sometimes have a 12-36/22-32-42 setup on touring bikes... So yeah. I need to work on my fitness, that's why I'm cycling (have been for bit over a year now) and it's really enjoyable. I think I would be able to boost my fitness even more by doing hills. And if I have better gearing I would be able to do hills without grinding and mashing and riding out of the saddle which means they would be more enjoyable for me and I would want to do it more and boost my fitness. Having extra gears that I don't often use for me is not a problem. Not having the proper gearing on a hill for me is a problem.

dj58

Do post back when you have made the modifications and tell us what you did and how you are getting on with it.

Monty Dog

I've fitted an MTB double chainset (22x36) Shimano XC to my CX bike for some serious offroading. You may need to fit a 2.5mm spacer to either side of the BB shell to make it work with a 73mm BB. The other option would be to fit a triple. There are 11-40 10 speed MTB cassettes now available and would work with a long-cage, 9-speed Shimano MTB mech but expect the gear would be impossibly low to get going - I have 26x40 on my fatbike and I have to push-start to get it moving.

ForumNewbie

I had a 50/34 compact and 11-28 cassette on my Cube road bike and I found it tough on steep hills, so I changed the cassette to an 12-30 to give me a lower gear. I also had to change the rear derailleur. That was enough for me and I'm in my late 50s and not that fit. You could probably do something like that or go to a 11-32 cassette if possible.

The gearing you are suggesting is just not right or necessary a bike like a Specialized Roubaix, even if you are not that fit. You are talking about even lower gears than you would get on touring bikes to enable hills to be climbed fully laden. It would probably cost quite a lot to change to a triple and change cassette, derailleurs but if you feel you have to, a 50/39/30 chainset and 11-32 cassette will get you up just about any hill on a light road bike like the Roubaix.

Guernsey Donkey

I suggest that you leave the 50/34 on the front for now and concentrate on the rear end first.

10 speed road shifters will work with a 9 speed MTB rear derailleur to give 10 gears and a wider range on the rear.

try the following:-

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-xt-m771-9-speed-rear-derailleur/
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-dyna-sys-slx-10-speed-cassette/ in 11-36T

and a new chain eg http://www.wiggle.co.uk/kmc-x10-73-10-speed-chain-114-links/

That will get you 34 on the front and 36 on the back. If you go any lower than that you risk loosing your balance as MJB pointed out. If you can't get up with this then get off and walk and try again on the next hill.

edit to add that if the hill seems far harder than you thought it ought to be, do please look down and check that you really are in the small ring. (don't ask how I know!)

t4tomo

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19776483#p19776483]Guernsey Donkey[/url] wrote:

I

edit to add that if the hill seems far harder than you thought it ought to be, do please look down and check that you really are in the small ring. (don't ask how I know!)

You're not the only one to have done that. I did a local 20% hill in 50-28 by accident the other week, wondering why I was struggling so much, mercifully it wasn't a very long hill.