Another pain in the *ss question about gearing.

kernel_gadaffi

Hi all, my apologies for being AWOL for so long, several medical issues had taken their toll on me again, neurology problems, 2 seizures, a bleed on the brain, chronic back problems, trying to get my prosthetic leg sorted, a foray into the realms of fibromyagia and the best one, finding out at the age of 59 that I have autism, no wonder I'm in a state.

Anyway, not for the first time, my doctor has given me the go ahead to start excercising again, with the gyms being closed and not having any form of two wheeled transport, I'm back at the beginning of my journey again.

I've spoken to my prothetist about going back on the bike, she's a triathlete and was very encouraging and offered me plenty of advice, whie being careful and considering my options. I'd like to return to 2 wheels via drop barred road bike and given that the issues I have have left me weakened and more so on one side, I know that I cannot manage with standard gearing, (I've tried on friends bikes).

There are plenty of places near me, that would offer a gravel bike or adapted road bike many miles of fun, but I cannot find a bike with gearing I could cope with. A 2X MTB gearing might possibly work, with something like a 24/36 chainring and an 11/42 on the rear, does any of the manufacturers make a bike with this configuration or would it be an overtly expensive exercise to do a conversion if possible?

My budget is £1300 to 1500 all in, but I'm willing to go down the secondhand bike route and ask my local bike shop to do the necessary.

Many thanks.

shirley_basso

Hi kernal, welcome back and sorry to hear about all your medical issues.

In short, in the time you have been away, most MTB and some road gearing has now gone 1x at the front, with a wider range rear cassette, especially for off road riding, which may suit your purposes.

GRX is Shimano's new gravel specific groupset which allows for the type of gearing you are talking about. As a double it comes as 30/46 or 31/48. If you go single chainring, I guess you can choose whatever chainring you want and combine with 11/42 at the back and still have drop bar shifters.

SRam also have a 1x groupset which is another consideration for more options.

joe_totale-2

How about an e bike? That may be easier to find than trying to put together a road bike with MTB gearing.

kernel_gadaffi

Thank you for the prompt replies, I like the sound of the 30/46, which is in my mind, the best option, since I added my post, I've been beasting the net for choices and noticed the single option with a 11/42, but as I couldn't manage a 1 in 10 hill pushing the 43/32 with the 11/32 on a friends road bike with an 50/34 chainring, it's not the choice for me. The 3x7 MTB I had in 1992 ago offered 42/32/22 and 11/27, I managed with this and went anywhere and everywhere on it and 50 mile rides were not a problem, mind you, the next three days left me walking like John Wayne trying to pass a mile of chilli coated barbed wire. But time takes it's toll, so my age and physical restrictions are against me.

An e-bike sounds great in the grand scheme of things, but it's a far from financial option for me at the moment, as I cannot work, my income is lower than a whales bum, it's out of my league, plus, the spec on these bikes are not exactly setting the world on fire, but I know it's something I can upgrade later, but why start with a poor frame and build on it?

I've had a look for some used bikes within 75 miles of me and there's very little options of a bike/decent frame I can use as a base to work with.

I'll continue to search and await your suggestions/advice.

Thank you.

mercia_man

You can get super compact double chainsets with smaller rings than 46/30. For example, touring specialist Spa Cycles offer their own high quality chainset with rings as small as 40/24.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p3383/SPA-CYCLES-Super-Compact-Chainset-with-Zicral-Rings

Plus you can still get triple chainsets suitable for road and gravel bikes. They haven’t died out completely. Spa Cycles have a big range of complete touring and gravel bikes within your budget in the range of £850 to £1,500. Many come with triples offering very low gears but I expect you could ask for a super compact as they offer a lot of customisation on spec.

kernel_gadaffi

Thank you Mercia_man, I'll have a look and as soon as the Covid **cks off, they're not more than an hour from me, so I wonder if it's possible to have a trip to see them.

joe_totale-2

kernel_gadaffi said:

Thank you for the prompt replies, I like the sound of the 30/46, which is in my mind, the best option, since I added my post, I've been beasting the net for choices and noticed the single option with a 11/42, but as I couldn't manage a 1 in 10 hill pushing the 43/32 with the 11/32 on a friends road bike with an 50/34 chainring, it's not the choice for me. The 3x7 MTB I had in 1992 ago offered 42/32/22 and 11/27, I managed with this and went anywhere and everywhere on it and 50 mile rides were not a problem, mind you, the next three days left me walking like John Wayne trying to pass a mile of chilli coated barbed wire. But time takes it's toll, so my age and physical restrictions are against me.

An e-bike sounds great in the grand scheme of things, but it's a far from financial option for me at the moment, as I cannot work, my income is lower than a whales bum, it's out of my league, plus, the spec on these bikes are not exactly setting the world on fire, but I know it's something I can upgrade later, but why start with a poor frame and build on it?

I've had a look for some used bikes within 75 miles of me and there's very little options of a bike/decent frame I can use as a base to work with.

I'll continue to search and await your suggestions/advice.

Thank you.

The GRX 2x rear derailleur can be tweaked and work with an 11-40 cassette.
Combined with 46-30 chainrings, that may be enough for yourself.
This article may be of help:

https://road.cc/content/feature/how-get-ultra-low-gearing-gravel-bike-adventures-246424

On my gravel bike I've got a Ultegra RX rear mech working fine with a 11-36 cassette and 50/34 chainrings. It's great as it gives me all the range I need for on and off road.

kernel_gadaffi

I like that option too, a 40 on the rear with a 30 on the front will give me a 3:4 ratio, less than 1:1 and sounds like it could be on the way forward.

Is there any manufacturers offering this as standard?

Thank you.

pinno

As Shirley Basso said - a triple would give you say 22-32-42 and reasonably inexpensive.
With say 12-32 at the rear and you have a huge range of gears.

kernel_gadaffi

As Shirley Basso said - a triple would give you say 22-32-42 and reasonably inexpensive.
With say 12-32 at the rear and you have a huge range of gears.

No it wouldn't, as I mentioned, some 30 years ago, I could manage with the triple and an 11-27, those days are long behind me, hence the idea behind something up to 40 tooth on the back and 24/38 or the like on the chainrings.

I've tried riding bikes with the standard set up and the weakness in my body just cannot and will not allow me to play ball.

kernel_gadaffi

I had a light bulb moment earlier, instead of spending money on a new bike, my Cube Peloton Pro is just sat in the corner gathering dust. When I bought it, it was and still is a triple, running 50/39/30. To help me, I had a switcheroo done on the rear, I had a 11/36 10 speed cassette installed along with a Deore LX mech. Tonight, I got to wondering, if I added a Wolftooth/Roadlink, would a Shimano Deore M4100 11/42 or 11/46 fit, using the current mech? Giving me the 30/46 that might just be the knees of the bee. If not, change to a different mech that would work. Even if ia change of mech is all it takes, it'll give me the option I was hoping for.

Then, if in the future, I had to do another bit of modification, the front mech is clamp on and not braze on, so could it be lowered to allow the installation of a groupset with less teeth? By then, it might be a case of me getting an e-Road bike, at least I'll still be able to get out there and enjoy myself.

By doing the above, I could sell the Genesis MTB and invest the money in an e-MTB for offroad fun.

My brain hurts.

mercia_man

If you have a regular five arm road triple chainset with a 74 BCD 30-tooth little ring, it is a simple and cheap job to replace it with a 24 tooth ring. Just bolts straight on after removing the crank. It’s what I have done on my tourer. Works fine with existing gear mechs and much less hassle than fitting extra large cogs at the rear. As you have 11-36 already at the rear, a 24 tooth ring would give a similar gear to the Wolftooth solutions.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s210p3056/SPA-CYCLES-74-BCD-Zicral-Inner

drummer_boy

For a wider spread of rear gears I fitted my wife's 105 triple equipped road bike with a Wolf Tooth road link, which gives her a bottom gear of 30 on the front and 42 on the rear.
Katie Kookaburra on YouTube uses this type of gearing, and had a good video on it.

mercia_man

It would appear OP has a standard road triple five arm chainset with 50/39/30 rings. Taking off the little ring and replacing it with a 24 tooth ring is a simple bolt-on job. Cost £12. No need to change anything else as OP already has 11-36 cassette. Same bottom gear as Wolf Tooth solution above.

Cost of a Wolf Tooth road link, new 11-42 cassette and almost certainly a new longer chain would be around £100.