Gearing Advice

jonb_5

Hi,

I am going to be training all winter and am cycling JOGLE next may and I want to sort my gearing out in my Giant TCX to ensure its optimum for this type of ride.

I have a Trek Madone which rides superb and the gearing is perfect but the Giant just seems to close.

I believe the current setup is 12-28 on the rear and 36-46 on the front.

I am thinking a better option would be 11-32 rear and 34-50 front.

It's going to be fitted with either 28 or 32mm slicks soon too, the question I guess is would these fit or would other components need replacing to??

I'm not sure if it really matters but as a guide to my riding ability I recently completed Ride London at an average of 20.3 mph on the trek, if that would change the choice somewhat...??

Thanks

Jon

fenix

20mph is good going - alone or in a group though ?

LEJOG - how much stuff are you carrying ? Camping or B&Bs ? Support cars ? Daily mileage ?

I'd not change the gears until you've had a test run carrying the kit you need to carry. Presumably you'll be getting fitter with the training - so what's too hard for you now might be fine in the spring.

Not sure about your tyre widths - you've got the bike there so you're probably best placed to judge.

imposter2.0

32 slicks will easily fit on a TCX, which are generally designed to take 32-35mm cross tyres, but they are probably overkill for exclusively road usage. I'd go for 28s..

joe_totale-2

Given that the worst climbs on LEJOG are the ones in Devon and Cornwall and you'll be hitting them last, I'd probably look at a bigger cassette to make them a bit easier such as a 11-32. A new chainset seems a bit overkill though and would certainly cost a fair bit more.

I don't think you can really compare a flat sportive with an endurance ride with consecutive days of riding, some of them with far more climbing than on Ride London.

jonb_5

Hi,

Thanks for the fast replies.

It was a bit of both really in London but I'm from Devon so it felt very flat.

I normally on my own ride roughly 17 mph.

We have a support vehicle for the ride so it'll be carrying very little, plan is 100 miles a day roughly.

I've done several rides on the bike and the biggest difference I notice is climbing, the Trek flies up the hills and I rarely ever use the highest gears but in the Giant I'm right down and really plugging away so it feels like something needs to change, whether it be both or just front rings etc ...

Thanks

Jon

Regards

Jon

imposter2.0

Can you not just use the Trek instead?

Alejandrosdog

Just use the trek.

jonb_5

I don't find it comfortable enough.

The Giant is like sitting in an armchair, the Trek is too 'race' focused I think and I'm not sure I could live with with it for 9 days in a row.

Plus it's a very hard ride, so I wanted to go bigger tyres to try and soften it up a bit.

darkhairedlord

Sell them both and buy a super-six.

Mad_Malx

Going from 12-28 on the rear and 36-46 on the front to 11-32 rear and 34-50 front is almost like putting 2 more gears at either end - so the gaps in the middle are bound to be much bigger.
If you feel you need a bigger gear range I'd just do the cassette change, which will give you a bailout for the hills when tired and a bigger gear for long downhills. It'll also be cheaper and easier.

jonb_5

Ok perfect, plus changing the cassette is pretty cheap too.

It's currently 10 speed on the back and I believe a tiagra shifter, I'm tempted to go 11 speed and change the rear derailleur to. Is this possible??

Thanks

Jon

Mad_Malx

jonb_5 wrote:

Ok perfect, plus changing the cassette is pretty cheap too.

It's currently 10 speed on the back and I believe a tiagra shifter, I'm tempted to go 11 speed and change the rear derailleur to. Is this possible??

Thanks

Jon

You will need to buy a new RH shifter, and left too if you want them to match.

darkhairedlord

Just take the groupset off the madone, use it on the Giant.

joe_totale-2

jonb_5 wrote:

Ok perfect, plus changing the cassette is pretty cheap too.

It's currently 10 speed on the back and I believe a tiagra shifter, I'm tempted to go 11 speed and change the rear derailleur to. Is this possible??

Thanks

Jon

10 gears is fine. You're doing LEJOG, not racing so the ever so slightly bigger jumps between gears won't matter too much.
You'd basically be buying a new groupset which again would be spending money for the sake of it.

Just buy a Tiagra 11-32 cassette and a new chain as the existing one probably won't be long enough and it'd be a good idea to have a new chain fitted before doing something like LEJOG as it's one less thing to go wrong.

slowbike

jonb_5 wrote:

I don't find it comfortable enough.

My touring bike doesn't fly up the hills - never has done - but one thing I have done is made sure the fit is roughly the same as my road bike - just slightly more upright - saddle is the same - so it's comfortable on long days.

So if your trek flys up the hills and is generally a nicer bike - but not comfortable on a longer ride - then why not get that sorted so it is comfortable? If it's the saddle - just swap out for the Giant one. If it's the low position on the bars, then flip the stem - or get a different one.
IMHO it's worth making the changes on the fast bike for a long ride(s) - changes that can always be swapped back after the event.

If it were me, I'd certainly not be looking at taking my touring bike on a supported LeJog - I'd want my best bike - about the only change I'd make is a gearing change to make sure I've got something low enough - I'd only take my tourer on the ride if I was carrying a lot of kit...

StillGoing

Joe Totale wrote:

Given that the worst climbs on LEJOG are the ones in Devon and Cornwall and you'll be hitting them last, I'd probably look at a bigger cassette to make them a bit easier such as a 11-32.

Eh? LEJOG means they're doing it the correct way from south to north with the prevailing wind behind them.

joe_totale-2

philthy3 wrote:

Joe Totale wrote:

Given that the worst climbs on LEJOG are the ones in Devon and Cornwall and you'll be hitting them last, I'd probably look at a bigger cassette to make them a bit easier such as a 11-32.

Eh? LEJOG means they're doing it the correct way from south to north with the prevailing wind behind them.

My mistake, the OP stated JOGLE hence my response but still, I wrote LEJOG instead! :oops: