Gear Ratios Wheel sizes - New Bike - up to £1000 - Advice please

Jaller79

All,

I'm 50 this year and would like a new bike up to £1000I see there's been a lot of development of late on gears and wheel sizes.
I have a trek 3900 and ride mainly flat trails and have been Llandegla a few times.

I'm interested upgrading to 650b wheels but what gears...
Going from an old 3 rings on front.
Does 1 x11 offer a low enough ratio for me, I'd still like to climb hills, I'm not 25 anymore so the minimum effort with less speed may be better.

Is a 1 x 11 or 2 x 10 better for me.

So recap what gears, I'd like non hydraulic brakes tbh as easier to maintain. and 650b wheels probably.

Looked locally so far at diamond back heist and ghost kato or second hand Specialised.

Thanks

John A

cooldad

Depends on the actual ratios.

The Rookie

Hard to say what gears will be suitable without knowing how fit you are!

I'm also 50, I've just upgraded the gears on my MTB, was riding 1x9 (32f 34R lowest) for 3 years and it was only on longer (more than 25mile) rides did it create an issue with going up hills fast enough for that gear, I'm now on a 34F and 40R which seems to have sorted that.

If you know what gears you used on the trek its easy to calculate the ratios versus a 1x11 set up, but personally I'd say with a 1x11 with a 32t front and at least a 42R and 650B you'd be fine.

Hydraulic brakes are easier to maintain than cable, most the maintenance is the occasional pad change, you won't find many (if any) £1K bikes on cable discs, that's a sub £300 bike feature (when you can now buy a full hydraulic setup for £35).

What sort of bike? FS or hardtail, what sort of riding?

Two to look at - FS
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-74 ... 77641.html
or HT
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-92 ... 66869.html

Hinaultscrapcousin

Hydraulic brakes are very little maintenance and the improved modulation over cable brakes is well worth it, I would seriously reconsider that option.

On the gearing, the easiest way to work it out is to look at the gear inches on your old bike and compare it to any new bike. You can then see what gears you use where. To calculate it:

(Front chainring teeth/rear sprocket teeth) * 27 = gear inches.

27 is 27" inches, a nominal wheel size. Just use that as it's easier.

If your old bike had a 22/34 low gear and the new bike has a 30/42 low gear you are looking at 17" Vs. 19". Basically you lose your lowest gear.


What gears you actually need is difficult to say. For places like Llandegla I would think 17" is more than enough low gear to be honest. You'd be surprised how quickly you adapt to bigger gears, especially when the change is only losing 1 or 2.

Bear in mind you will also lose out on the high end and this will be the biggest difference. If you use your biggest gears regularly you may find 1x too limiting and want to go for 2x, this can be particularly important on flat trails or if you plan to mix cycle paths and road riding in. If you do I would recommend 2x.

robertpb

Gear ratios are not cast in stone, I have 1x11 on my CX with a 38t chainring, I ride it only where I would ride my MTB.

Most 1x11 come with a 32t chainring, if you find this is not low enough for steep rides swap it out for a 28t and another chain, so when you are only riding the flats you can swap back to the 32t.

I had the same thoughts when I bought the CX which came with a 44t, which was far too high for what I was going to use it for.

Also remember age is only what you want it to be I'm 66 but my body tells me I'm 44.

Hinaultscrapcousin

Pretty sure 30T is the minimum you can go on the vast majority of 1x crank sets these days (104 BCD). I think even the asymmetric Shimano spider can't take less than a 30.

I would say that if you need less than a 30T on a 1x set-up, you shouldn't be riding 1x.

robertpb

Yes 30t is as low as you can go on a 104BDC, I was thinking direct mount where you can go even lower.

The Rookie

robertpb wrote:

Yes 30t is as low as you can go on a 104BDC, I was thinking direct mount where you can go even lower.

Noting that not all 104mm cranksets work with a 30T

supersonic

More and more bikes are using 1x systems from new anyway, especially when you get up to the £1000 price bracket with a hardtail which may limit choice. Not all frames can easily be converted either as may not have stops for a conventional front mech, but are ways around this.

Those aforementioned Rockriders are excellent value - the hardtail is a racy xc number which sounds like it may suit your riding nicely (and a very light frame for this cash). And with the SRAM XD cassette, you get a 420% gear range which roughly the same range as a double system with 11-32 cassette and 32-22 chainrings. Though you might want to consider something a little less xc focused should you want to tackle harder terrain.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Is it time to suggest the great spec 1x11 with Raidon fork, Laura Trott MTB again for £430?

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... utain-bike

E-mail I got earlier suggests this current price ends tonight for following bikes.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... rendstoday

LimitedGarry

Do NOT get cable actuated disk brakes. Aside from the fact you most likely won't be able to get a bike with cable disc brakes at this price, they're not actually easier to maintain. Bleeding hydraulic brakes has to be done once every few seasons and if you don't want to invest into kit and do it yourself, you can have it done in a shop. Adjusting cable has to be done quite often and you'll need to change at least as often as you'd have to bleed hydraulic brakes. And I'd argue that changing cable isn't easier than bleeding hydraulics.

If you really want to analyse your gear ratios, google up MTB gear calculator. Fill in what you have and then compare it to a 1x system. You'll clearly see which ratios you'll lose or gain by going to a 1x and changing wheel size.

I wanted to go the 2x route, but the selection blows pecker. The spread will often be something like 38 24. My idea was to have something like 34 22, the 22 being there as a measure of last resort, not meant to be used regularly. Then I had some damage to my chainrings and though "I'd like some ice cream right now". And while eating that ice cream I decided to convert to 1x because I liked the idea of the simplicity and right now, I still appreciate the simplicity. It's great. Go 1x.

Jaller79

Excellent advise here -

In answer to the questions I know I an probably get a half reasonable full suspension bike but a decent hardtail with good forks and 650b with wider tyres will be good for my needs.

The situation of gears is ive never tried a 1 x 11 as a comparrison - or a 2x20 im reasonably fit bust will keep bike for a few years yet so in view of this want the easiest lowest gear ratio.

Thanks

John Allerton.