Gravel Bike Gearing
wilkij1975
Posts: 532
in Road general
So, not strictly a road question but just wondered what gravel bike gearing people were running?
I’ve just bought a gravel frame to transfer parts from my Cube Attain on to, so at the moment that’s 105 compact with 11-34 cassette. Most of my riding will be on the road, just wanted more tyre under me due to the horrendous state of the roads around here. Will do the odd bit of off road though in the summer.
Was thinking of getting a single ring chainset and using the 11-34 for a time until funds allow a new cassette but am a bit worried it won’t give me a low enough (high enough?) gear for getting up hills. I live in Northamptonshire so it’s not like I’m in the alps but there are some steep enough hills around.
Any thoughts or comments on what you’re riding to help out?
I’ve just bought a gravel frame to transfer parts from my Cube Attain on to, so at the moment that’s 105 compact with 11-34 cassette. Most of my riding will be on the road, just wanted more tyre under me due to the horrendous state of the roads around here. Will do the odd bit of off road though in the summer.
Was thinking of getting a single ring chainset and using the 11-34 for a time until funds allow a new cassette but am a bit worried it won’t give me a low enough (high enough?) gear for getting up hills. I live in Northamptonshire so it’s not like I’m in the alps but there are some steep enough hills around.
Any thoughts or comments on what you’re riding to help out?
0
Comments
-
Assuming unloaded and on tarmac, you'll probably only be one or two sprockets further up the cassette than whatever you use on your road bike, if not in the same ratio at a slightly lower cadence.
At slow speed tyre rolling resistance counts for a lot. In my case, going from GP4000s to Terra Speeds probably takes more effort to overcome than the extra few kilograms of the bike, but that's just a guess.0 -
Your existing setup should be fine if it's mostly road usage.
My first CX bike was a cube cross race which also had a 105 groupset, with a compact chainset and 11-32 cassette.
I've also ridden a 1x setup where I was using the bike for both on and off road usage. On road, the gearing was a 42 chainset with a 11-32 cassette and I found it just fine for where I live in Oxfordshire.
Why not put your 105 on and monitor to see how often you use the lowest and highest gears. That will then allow you to asses whether a 40t or a 42t chainset would work for you.
Also you can compare gear ratios using sites like this: https://gear-calculator.com0 -
As a fellow resident of Northants, the road surfaces as much of a problem as the hills!wilkij1975 said:. . . I live in Northamptonshire so it’s not like I’m in the alps but there are some steep enough hills around.
Any thoughts or comments on what you’re riding to help out?
Wilier Izoard XP0
