Help with gearing choice.

graemevet

I'm building a do-it-all fast tourer (i.e. Mason Definition type bike) for bikepacking / touring and general club runs / sportives. I tend to do very hilly rides and am planning rides like the Fred Whitton and Bealach sportive. I currently run a 50-34 chainset and 11-32 cassette.

I'd like something with a little more range - especially for climbs when fully laden. I'm not a big power house but I'm happy to sit and spin up climbs.

Options I've come up with are:

50-34 chainset and 11-36 cassette with Wolflink type adapter
32-48 micro compact chainset (i.e. Praxisworks) and 11-32 cassette
38t 1x chainset and 11-36 cassette

I'm not great at estimating the tangible differences between these set ups using a gear calculator. Does anyone have any experiences of the set-ups or something I've not thought of (No triple chainsets as I really don't like triples!)

Thanks,

Graeme

mercia_man

I would rule out the 38 single ring chainset as your top gear would be only 91in (much lower than you have now) and your bottom gear would be the same as now at 28in. I've done a lot of light and heavily laden touring and 28in is too high for comfortable laden riding in hilly or mountainous terrain.

Keeping a 50/34 chainset and using an 11-36 cassette with a Wolflink would give a noticeably lower bottom gear of 25in. I find that gear is good for riding up Alpine passes mostly seated with a lightish load, but involves a lot of honking with camping gear. However, the racing-style 120in top gear on that set-up would only be useful if you like pedalling downhill.

I would personally go for the super compact option which would give you closer gear ratios and a wider range and greater choice of gears at the bottom end, losing that superfluous overdrive top gear. A 48/32 chainset with an 11-32 cassette would give you a range of 115-26in. Top gear on that is still pretty high for a fast tourer. A 46/30 chainset with an 11-32 cassette would be my choice, giving a range of 110-25in - enough to bomb along at high 20s to 30mph on the flat and downhill but with a bottom gear capable of getting you up pretty well any hill, even with luggage.

Gear shifting may be slightly compromised using a Wolflink or a super compact chainset - the curve of road front mechs is optimised for "normal" big rings of 50 or 53. However, my Campag Centaur road front mech works fine with a 46 big ring. I've read a review of the Wolflink which said shifting was fine as well.

You can get super compact square taper chainsets with choice of rings from Spa Cycles for £60. If you want modern oversized axle with external bearings, Sugino do super compacts with a choice of rings. Hubjub are selling them for £210.

graemevet

Thanks Mercia Man, that is really really useful advice and I think makes my decision easier. I'm keen to keen a double up front for the small jumps across the cassette so I'mm look at the cranksets from Sugino and Praxis. I'm tied to external bearings as the frame I'm looking at is likely to come with a PF30 bottom bracket.

Thanks again.

Graeme