Advice on gears please.

keizer

I have a 13-23 campag mirage cassette on my bike. Was out training in the Wicklow mountains yesterday and I was really under pressure. Should I go for a cassette with a 26 or 28 for the hills? bearing in mind that I'm only average.

If so which would be better. I think the sooner I get this sorted out the better!

IM0

yes you should, because you wouldnt be asking if you didnt think so yourself

keizer

me@ucd wrote: »

yes you should, because you wouldnt be asking if you didnt think so yourself

Oh I know I should but a 26 or 28?

IM0

keizer wrote: »

Oh I know I should but a 28 or 28?

a 28 , but you already knew that subconsciously this is too easy.

keizer

me@ucd wrote: »

a 28 , this is too easy.

I just edited that!

IM0

keizer wrote: »

I just edited that!

ninja edit

IM0

this

keizer

me@ucd wrote: »

this

A 28 so it is. Will it be too easy then though?? ;-)

Muckers

12-25 is good enough for me and im no Sean kelly

uberwolf

it could be easier and cheaper to change your inner front ring. What are you running?

doozerie

keizer wrote: »

I have a 13-23 campag mirage cassette on my bike. Was out training in the Wicklow mountains yesterday and I was really under pressure. Should I go for a cassette with a 26 or 28 for the hills? bearing in mind that I'm only average.

If so which would be better. I think the sooner I get this sorted out the better!

To be honest, the only person who can really answer the question of whether you need a 26 or a 28 (or even a 32, etc.) is you, as no-one else knows your riding style. For example, some people find it easier to push hard in a higher gear than spin in a lower gear, and vice versa. Play around with your current gears to get a feel for what a jump of 3 or 5 teeth would feel like e.g. pick a hill that you can climb in an 18 rear sprocket and see how it feels to climb it in a 21 and then a 23 and try to imagine those same kind of jumps from your current 23 to a 26 or a 28.

You might just take the view that having a 28 is a safe option, that even if you never use it, it's not really costing you anything to have it there. However, to have a 28 means that you have opted for a cassette with bigger jumps between the other gears. You might find, for example, that you no longer have the right sized cogs to provide the exact gears that you like to use most often. Again, whether this will be an issue for you depends on how you ride, so only you can determine whether the trade-off is reasonable for your needs.

blorg

I would go with the 28. If you spin up hills you don't tire your muscles so much.

Liamo08

Go for the 28 - Better to be looking at it than to be looking for it!

doozerie

blorg wrote: »

I would go with the 28. If you spin up hills you don't tire your muscles so much.

Being able to spin up hills assumes that they are able to spin in the first place. When starting out with cycling, many people don't have the suppleness to do that and may find a much lower gear to be virtually unusable for that reason. Again, it really depends on the individual.

blorg

doozerie wrote: »

Being able to spin up hills assumes that they are able to spin in the first place. When starting out with cycling, many people don't have the suppleness to do that and may find a much lower gear to be virtually unusable for that reason. Again, it really depends on the individual.

So if they have the 28, they can work on using getting used to using it! For many people on many gradients 39-28 would not involve crazy cadences either. (I am presuming a 39 front.)

If they can't spin I wonder if things like a close ratio are important either so why not get the 28 and work at it.

I have done hilly spins on a lowest gear of 46-14, 46-17, 39-23, 39-27 and 34-27 and while speed was not affected my legs felt sore to fresh afterwards in that order.

doozerie

blorg wrote: »

So if they have the 28, they can work on using getting used to using it! For many people on many gradients 39-28 would not involve crazy cadences either. (I am presuming a 39 front.)

If they can't spin I wonder if things like a close ratio are important either so why not get the 28 and work at it.

I have done hilly spins on a lowest gear of 46-14, 46-17, 39-23, 39-27 and 34-27 and while speed was not affected my legs felt sore to fresh afterwards in that order.

The "they'll get used to it" argument can be applied to either approach of putting on a very low gear or sticking with existing gearing. It's not a good argument for either approach.

As regards the importance of close ratio, that depends entirely on the person themselves and only they can decide, which was the whole point of my original post above. If someone asks what gear they should use, my view is that it is better to give them some information/pointers to help them decide for themselves. As an example, personally I'd go for the 26 at most (to me, a 28 is a dinner plate on a road bike to be used for Dublin and Wicklow), but that is entirely based on how I ride making it a view which is entirely irrelevant to the person asking the question.