Is 8 (16) gears enough for a road bike?

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  • iron-clover
    iron-clover Posts: 737
    Yup, 16 speeds is fine.
    I spend my first 5 years on Shimano 2300 (the precursor to Claris) and only swapped it out a year ago for the 10spd 105. I had a compact chainset and a 12-25t cassette which got me up everything up to/ including Wrynose Pass- I couldn't keep the front wheel down on Hardknott though...

    I've done the majority of my races using that groupset and had some success in the local TTs as well- the only real advantage to the new 10 speed is having one lower gear that suits me for the steep hills I regularly encounter to save my knees. I can't really say I notice the smaller spacing between gears as it's not a major difference.

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