New Chainring?

Thargor

Id like the hardest gear to be a little bit harder on my hybrid for more speed on good roads, is it possible to just buy a new chainring and install it or will all the gears and the chain and the cog need to be swapped out aswell? Is this the best way to go about upgrading the speed a bit? Is it something you could ask a bikeshop to do for you or would it be easy to do myself?

I have one of these, Carrera Subway 1:

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_551221_langId_-1_categoryId_212377

cdaly_

The link doesn't say what the cassette range is but, if it's a 12-28 or 13-28 or similar, you will get a higher gearing by moving to a 11-28 cassette. One tooth smaller on the sprocket is equivalent to about 4 or 5 teeth on the chainring.

Interestingly, I asked this same question here a few months ago and the answer was to work on my cadence rather than using higher gears. These days I'm spinning 80-90 rpm in a much lower gear...

Thargor

I had seen cadence reccomendations alright after a bit of googling but I still think my hardest gear feels a bit too easy, like if I could just change it down once more it would be perfect, I like hard gears, sorry about my poor terminology by the way but you know what I mean.

Also I dont want to be arriving into college dripping with sweat if I can avoid it.

IM0

yes you can just change out the chainring with something which is compatible but a larger size.

Lumen

What is your largest gear currently? (i.e. how many teeth on the largest front chainring and smallest rear cog).

Thargor

There are 42 teeth on the front and 12 on the back, there are 21 gears if that makes a difference.

Lumen

Thargor wrote: »

There are 42 teeth on the front and 12 on the back, there are 21 gears if that makes a difference.

Ah OK. So with 26 inch wheels you would be doing about 40kph@90rpm.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I would be happy enough with that on a hybrid. You might reasonably want more if doing a lot of big fast descents on a road bike. If you are not comfortable spinning at 90-100rpm, it's not the bike that's the problem.

Still, in theory any bike shop should be able to put a larger chainring on, although there might be some messing around with front derailleur height. I don't own a Subway so can't really say.

IM0

Thargor wrote: »

Id like the hardest gear to be a little bit harder on my hybrid for more speed on good roads,

gears dont make you faster - legs do. Like Lumen said @90rpm your going 40km/hr with the gears you already have.

Thargor

Yeah I suppose I didnt really mean faster, I just wanted more resistance. It gives you better acceleration if you're braking a lot doesnt it? Galway City is very annoying to cycle in a lot of places, you're always braking and avoiding stuff. It just doesnt feel right anyway, its nearly perfect but not quite there.

Nate--IRL--

I changed the Chainset & Crank on my Subway 1, just this week. I got this from CRC.

One or two things to note, the Front Dérailleur (sp?) will have to be readjusted. Depending on which subway you have, you may find the bottle holder socket in the frame prevent optimum positioning of the dérailleur. Also note the chain may be too small to use on the largest cogs at the same time.

There is quite a difference in top speed now using the 48t Chainring, especially downhill. But for the fact that I can't quite get the Dérailleur adjusted properly, I am very happy with the result.

Nate

Thargor

Excellent, thanks Nate, its a Subway 1 22" frame. Can you tell me more about the problems you had before I order it please, I have about 1cm of space to raise it before it hits the bottom bottle holder screw, is that enough? I dont have a bottle holder fitted there. How exactly does it affect you? Did you need a new chain? I only use the smallest cog on the rear anyway and only switch to 2 to the second gear on the chainring if Im going up a huge hill, other than that I dont really touch the gears.

What do you think of the performance now? Does it make a big difference to you on the flat?

Nate--IRL--

I have the 20" frame IIRC. The dérailleur height, for me, needs to be adjusted slightly off where the Socket for the screw is. I can fit it above, below or right over the socket, but not where it needs to be it seems.

This prevents me from using the smallest ring of the chainset. I never use the front dérailleur anyway so it's of no consequence to me. In order to use the Largest cog on the back cassette with the 48t ring, I will need a new chain. However, again I rarely use this, and have set the limiters so it doesn't engage.

As others have mentioned cadence will determine your top speed on the flat, but for me, it doesn't feel like I'm topping out speed wise any more. I'm no longer pedalling furiously and going no faster. With the wind behind you or downhill is the real major difference.

If you are prepared to lose some gears for the 48t ring go ahead, I'm happy with the result, and it was cheap enough. I should mention that you'll need a crank puller too, I got this one

Nate

Edit:- The gearing of the subway 1 is a common complaint of an otherwise excellent bike. Even the older versions I had suffered from this.

Thargor

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

As others have mentioned cadence will determine your top speed on the flat, but for me, it doesn't feel like I'm topping out speed wise any more. I'm no longer pedalling furiously and going no faster. With the wind behind you or downhill is the real major difference.

Nate

Edit:- The gearing of the subway 1 is a common complaint of an otherwise excellent bike. Even the older versions I had suffered from this.

Thats exactly what I feel, Im going to get it so and get a bikeshop to fit it for me, thanks a million.

cdaly_

Thargor wrote: »

Yeah I suppose I didnt really mean faster, I just wanted more resistance. It gives you better acceleration if you're braking a lot doesnt it?

I find a lower gear is better for the in-traffic stuff. Trying to increase speed in a higher gear is much harder than in a lower one. In traffic, I'll be changing up and down about 2 or 3 gears frequently. Change down as I have to slow/stop, change up again as I pick up speed in each gear.

Your 42x12 gives you a gear ratio of 3.5:1. Changing to a 48 chainring will give you a ratio of 4:1 (an increase of 14%). OTOH, changing your cassette to an 11-26 will give you a ratio of about 3.8:1 (an increase of 9%). Changing both will give you a ratio of 4.36:1 (an increase of 24%).

Thargor

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

I changed the Chainset & Crank on my Subway 1, just this week. I got this from CRC.

One or two things to note, the Front Dérailleur (sp?) will have to be readjusted. Depending on which subway you have, you may find the bottle holder socket in the frame prevent optimum positioning of the dérailleur. Also note the chain may be too small to use on the largest cogs at the same time.

There is quite a difference in top speed now using the 48t Chainring, especially downhill. But for the fact that I can't quite get the Dérailleur adjusted properly, I am very happy with the result.

Nate

Just got that installed and finally got the gears and limiters set up aswell, couldnt be happier with the result, its a perfect upgrade apart from losing the smallest of the chainrings on the front which I would never have used anyway, it feels like a different bike now the way you can push it as much as you want without hitting top speed. I dont have a cycling computer at the minute so I cant check the change in speed but its a major difference. I cycled to a driving lesson on the other side of Galway today and I did it in 15 minutes instead of 20-25, and it took way less energy to do it, Carerra really need to take a look at the gears on the next Subway because this is an awesome bike now.

I did it just at the right time aswell because I got into a Summer bursary program in the Marine Institute so that will be 10km each way every day for me in the Summer.

Anyway thanks a million Nate, could not be happier with it as I said, cant believe it only cost €18 to do it.

Nate--IRL--

I'm glad you are happy with the result, as you said it's a big difference for just a few euro. Did you have the problem I had repositioning the dérailleur, was the bottle holder screw socket in the way?

Nate

Thargor

Nope, no problems, well the derailleur had to sit practically right on the bottom screw so I just took the screw out and it had a small kind of lip sticking up around the screwhole, I just gave that a little rub from a file until it was smooth then shoved the derailleur into place and it was rock solid and perfectly placed, I sealed the hole before I put the derailleur in front of it aswell to keep it watertight.

By the way another thing you said on the previous page was that you couldnt get into the largest cog on the rear casette without a bigger chain? Well I had no trouble with that, I have all the gears apart from the 7 I lost when I set the limiter so it couldnt go into the smallest one on front, Ill never use them anyway but they're nice to have and they feel way nicer to switch now aswell. Maybe its a slightly different chain on the 22" one or something. I got really lucky setting the gears though, Id never done it before but it only took 15 minutes with various online tutorials, they just slotted into place perfectly for me.