Gearing

Fatlad71

Forgive my stupidness !

I am finding hills quite tough at the moment and it's quite clear if I shifted some timber they would be much easier but can gearing help me ? I currently have a 20 speed 12/27. I am seeing a lot of 21 speed 11/32 on newer bikes and I am wondering would this set up make much of a difference ?

trek_dan

Yes absolutely, use the appropriate gearing for your fitness/ability. Although ultimately if your going to be in such a low gear your travelling at walking pace then maybe its time to get off and push. Depends on what you mean by hill.

slowbike

What's at the front? If it's a "standard" 53/39 then your best port of call would be to swap that for a compact - 50/34.
You may have a mid-sized one - 36 being the smaller cog.

On the back...
You can get wider range 10 speed cassettes - 30-12's are available - just need to check that your mech can accomodate it - otherwise a 28-11 is pretty standard.

Now - if you're just after a new bike - then yes - a 21speed 32-11 will make a big difference ....

andcp

Fatlad71 wrote:

Forgive my stupidness !

I am finding hills quite tough at the moment and it's quite clear if I shifted some timber they would be much easier but can gearing help me ? I currently have a 20 speed 12/27. I am seeing a lot of 21 speed 11/32 on newer bikes and I am wondering would this set up make much of a difference ?

It depends on what's on the front!

If you're using 50/34 chainrings on the front with a 27 rear, and you swap to a 52/36 front and 32 rear there be some difference, but not as much as if you'd still got a 34 on the front.
Have a play here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

or here:
http://www.ritzelrechner.de/

eta - shifting the 'timber' is, of course, the solution to which diet is the key (but I suspect I'm telling you nothing new)

dj58

If you can locate one, you can possibly use an Ultegra 6700 10sp 12-30T cassette, the Tiagra 4600 12-30T cassette has been deleted. New Tiagra 4700 10sp cassettes are available in 12-28T, 11-32T and 11-34T, though as already mentioned you would need a long cage GS RD to use the two bigger cassettes. Annoyingly the 4600 STI's are not compatible with the 4700 derailleurs.

ravey1981

DJ58 wrote:

If you can locate one, you can possibly use an Ultegra 6700 10sp 12-30T cassette, the Tiagra 4600 12-30T cassette has been deleted. New Tiagra 4700 10sp cassettes are available in 12-28T, 11-32T and 11-34T, though as already mentioned you would need a long cage GS RD to use the two bigger cassettes. Annoyingly the 4600 STI's are not compatible with the 4700 derailleurs.

Plenty of 4600 cassettes still available, get a 32t cassette and a 4600 GS derailleur (and a new chain). Should be able to get the lot for £50 or so and you'll climb up a wall with that gear.

Fatlad71

Thanks for the replys so far I have 50/34 on the front.

slowbike

your options for climbing then are a smaller front chainring - which will probably mean swapping to a triple - or larger cassette - which may involve swapping the rear mech ..

dj58

Assuming your transmission components are Shimano 10sp, either 4600/5700/6700 series, the easiest solution is as ravey1981 suggests, is to use a RD 4601 or RD 5701 GS rear derailleur with the CS-HG500-10 11-32T cassette and new appropriately sized chain.

simon_masterson

Gearing down is no bad idea, but 34x27 is a low gear and 34x32 is a very low gear. It's important to have some perspective on this - for most healthy people, 34x28 should be ample for most of what the UK has to offer, and usable for the most challenging gradients - but you can't go very much smaller on standard road equipment anyway. As well as fitness, there's a strong mental component to climbing tough hills on a bike, too.

In other words, by all means gear down, but what you really need to do is ride a lot more, and ride up a lot more hills.

slowbike

Simon Masterson wrote:

Gearing down is no bad idea, but 34x27 is a low gear and 34x32 is a very low gear. It's important to have some perspective on this - for most healthy people, 34x28 should be ample for most of what the UK has to offer, and usable for the most challenging gradients - but you can't go very much smaller on standard road equipment anyway. As well as fitness, there's a strong mental component to climbing tough hills on a bike, too.

In other words, by all means gear down, but what you really need to do is ride a lot more, and ride up a lot more hills.

The OP's handle is "Fatlad71" ...
it doesn't matter if he's fit - if he's heavy it's going to be hard work to get up the hills - so 34x28 being "Ample" isn't ...

it is perfectly possible to go smaller - however it does mean you'll end up going slower (unless you spin quickly)- and there's a limit to that whilst staying upright!
You're right though - there's a strong mental component to climbing [tough] hills ...

simon_masterson

Slowbike wrote:

Simon Masterson wrote:

Gearing down is no bad idea, but 34x27 is a low gear and 34x32 is a very low gear. It's important to have some perspective on this - for most healthy people, 34x28 should be ample for most of what the UK has to offer, and usable for the most challenging gradients - but you can't go very much smaller on standard road equipment anyway. As well as fitness, there's a strong mental component to climbing tough hills on a bike, too.

In other words, by all means gear down, but what you really need to do is ride a lot more, and ride up a lot more hills.

The OP's handle is "Fatlad71" ...
it doesn't matter if he's fit - if he's heavy it's going to be hard work to get up the hills - so 34x28 being "Ample" isn't ...

And if he gets fit, chances are he won't be fat anymore. I can't imagine that he's too heavy for standard gearing, though.