Granny gear

majster

Hi all

I’ve picked up a new road bike with 8 speed Claris with FSA tempo 50/34 crank and 11-34 rear cassette

It’s really hilly where I live and I wish to lower the gearing as I have knee problems. Ideally want to get a 40 t granny gear

What is the best way to do this. Struggling to find any 40 tooth cassettes in 8 speed.

Could I change the 34 chain ring to a smaller one and would this work with the existing 11-34 cassette?

Many thanks

StillGoing

You would need to change the 50 and 34 as you already have the maximum 16 tooth drop between chain rings. An alternative is to switch the crankset for a triple and the left shifter for a Claris or equivalent triple shifter.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-Clar ... SwR7xcaHjr

arlowood

You could look at a super compact chainset. Several options available from Spa Cycles - 46/30, 44/28, 42/26 and 40/24.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s109p33 ... cral-Rings

These come with a couple of caveats. The Spa examples are all square taper so you may need a new bottom bracket. Secondly there may be issues with getting the front mech low enough to get smooth changes with the smaller chainrings.

majster

arlowood wrote:

You could look at a super compact chainset. Several options available from Spa Cycles - 46/30, 44/28, 42/26 and 40/24.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s109p33 ... cral-Rings

These come with a couple of caveats. The Spa examples are all square taper so you may need a new bottom bracket. Secondly there may be issues with getting the front mech low enough to get smooth changes with the smaller chainrings.

This looks really tempting. I have a FSA Tempo Crank which is already external square BB. Will these SPA cranks go straight onto the existing BB do you know?

Thanks

figbat

Yep, should do. You’ll need a crank extractor to pull the current ones off; then it’s a 5 minute job. You will probably need to adjust your chain length too, depending on what gear and chainring selection you end up with.

cycleclinic

5 minutes job - there no such thing. Many a 5 minute job tkaes 30 minutes or more. Asumme a new BB as square tapers come in various lengths unless you know what each chainset needs...

There no such thing as a extrenal square taper BB. That a merging of two tyres of bottom bracket.

i.bhamra

Also as mentioned by arlowood, if you go with a new chainset with smaller rings you need to make sure you can get your front mech down low enough...

keef66

thecycleclinic wrote:

5 minutes job - there no such thing. Many a 5 minute job tkaes 30 minutes or more.

This is true. Beyond lubing the chain or pumping up tyres, I can't think of a bike related job I can do properly in 5 minutes.

Whenever my wife asks me how long a DIY job on the house or car will take I always double my first estimate, and it invariably turns out to be about right. On the rare occasions everything happens as I first thought, I get an extra helping of smugness...

N0bodyOfTheGoat

There are Sunrace 11-40 8speed cassettes on EBay, but as you can imagine, the sprocket tooth jumps are big.

However, you would probably need a different rear derailleur, such as the Altus M310... Which has apparently got a huge capacity.