Giant defy 1 cassette change for hills

Standry

Hi
New to the forum and loving it. Apologies if this is an old topic but looking for some advice on how to optimise my hill climbing. Whilst I continue my quest to loose weight and build leg strength I struggle with hills and wondered if changing the cassette on my stock defy 1 2015 with 12-30 would be worthwhile?. Can it go to a 34 and if so will I notice any decent gain.
Thanks for any advice

imposter2.0

Larger cassette may also require longer cage mech and or/longer chain - so if that potential expenditure is worthwhile in order to gain a few more bailout gears in the short term, then go for it. The other alternative is to keep chugging away on the 30t and accept that your fitness will improve in due course...

arlowood

You'll need to check if you're rear derailleur is a short or medium cage. If it's a medium cage you could swap your 12-30 for an 11-32 11-speed cassette. That will at least give you a bit more of a bail out gear.

If the mech is short cage then you'll need to swap it for a medium cage to accommodate anything larger than the 30t bottom gear.

Shimano do an 11-40 MTB cassette but I'm not sure if that would be compatible with a set of road shifters or if a medium cage RD would cope

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-deore-x ... 60710271uk

roger_merriman

The difference between 34t and 30t on the cassette is liable to feeling like one more gear down (ish)

But that could be enough?

ForumNewbie

Standry wrote:

Hi
New to the forum and loving it. Apologies if this is an old topic but looking for some advice on how to optimise my hill climbing. Whilst I continue my quest to loose weight and build leg strength I struggle with hills and wondered if changing the cassette on my stock defy 1 2015 with 12-30 would be worthwhile?. Can it go to a 34 and if so will I notice any decent gain.
Thanks for any advice

I think you could swap to an 11-32 cassette, but you don't normally see any lower gears on a road bike. A 34*32 smallest gear should be small enough on a light road bike for just about any hill.

I recently swapped my 11-28 cassette for a 12-30 to give me a 34*30 smallest gear for steep inclines. With a 10 speed I don't think an 11-32 cassette was an option for me, but if you have an 11 speed cassette I think you should be able to swap for an 11-32. It looks like the Defy 1 has a Medium Cage derailleur, so that should be okay for an 11-32, but you might need a slightly longer chain.

arlowood

ForumNewbie wrote:

With a 10 speed I don't think an 11-32 cassette was an option for me, .

It is possible if you look at the Shimano MTB type cassettes. I built up a flat bar bike for my grandson with a 46/36 CX50 crankset and a 10 speed Shimano SLX HG81-10 11-32 cassette and it worked fine with the 10-speed flat bar shifters and the 105 5700 rear derailleur. Would also be fine with normal road shifters as the flat bar ones I used were designed to be used with road front and rear mechs.

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/shimano-1 ... lsrc=aw.ds

They also do an 11-36 but not sure of the 5700 medium cage rear derailleur would cope wit a 36t bottom gear

defycomp2

Currently have a 11-34 running on my winter bike with a standard medium cage SRAM Apex and no alteration to chain length.
Why an 11-34? Anything down here gentler than 1:10 is regarded as pan flat and I can no longer push 80+ Kg of me and 11Kg of steel up a 1:5 on a 52/42 13-21 like I used to in the 80's!

dj58

The 2015 Defy 1 is Shimano 5800 11 speed, I think you will find that you have either a 11-28T or 11-32T cassette fitted, should be a 11-32T. Count the teeth on the sprockets, Shimano do not make a 12-30T 11 speed cassette, that was 10 speed Ultegra and Tiagra only. The spec on the Giant website says 12-30T, however I think that is a typographical error on the UK version of their website.

Standry

All thanks very much for the advice. I must admit I took the online spec and didn't look at the actual cassette and count it. I will do that. If it's a simple cassette change I might look at that but if it gets more complicated (costly) then I need to work out the benefits against cost. Cheaper to plug on with getting my strength up. Easier said than done!
Thanks again

Standry

Turns out it's an 11-32t so pretty much at the max and going to 34 won't make a difference. That just means the hard truth that the engine ain't powerful enough and he just needs to man up !