New Cassette?

gaffmaster

Bon Jour (etc)

I ride a Giant Defy 4 compact.
It has a Shimano Hg-50 8 speed cassette (12-25) and a 39/53 crankset.

I was wondering, is it worth my while upgrading the range of gears on the cassette. To be honest I think I would ride more hills if I had a lighter lowest gear. Similarly, I sometimes (rarely) find myself spinning out on the highest gear.

I was looking at this 11-30 or this 11-32?

I have a few questions:
1. Would my chain be long enough?
2. Would I notice much difference in this 'upgrade'?
3. Should I just man up and stop procrastinating?
4. Am I missing anything I should be considering?

Merci (etc)

lennymc

if its a compact then it should be a 50/34 up front. IM not sure if the 30 would be compatible with your rear derailer tho. I suspect you would probably also need to change that.

Raam

11-32 on an 8 speed cassette would be annoyingly gappy, but I'm just guessing since I've never used 8 speed in that configuration.

coastwatch

gaffmaster wrote: »

Bon Jour (etc)

I was looking at this 11-30 or this 11-32?

I have a few questions:
1. Would my chain be long enough?
2. Would I notice much difference in this 'upgrade'?
3. Should I just man up and stop procrastinating?
4. Am I missing anything I should be considering?

Merci (etc)

Those are MTB cassettes and maybe a lot easier than you need. Maybe try an 11-28 , which would be 12% easier in the low gear, and not as gappy as the 11-30. If thats still not easy enough, you should probably be looking at getting a compact chainset, but after a quick search, I cant seem to find an 8 speed compact chainset.

Chain length should be ok with just chaining to 11-28.

gaffmaster

Thanks for the replies.

It looks like the specs on the Giant website were wrong. I counted teeth and it looks like a 50/36 (so most likely a 50/34 and I counted wrong)

First step is to attempt manning up. After that I'll look at a cassette change. I'm fine on drags, but it's the short sharp ones that get me.

I had feared the 11-30 might be gappy but from photos, it looks like the granny ring is out on its own. Either way the rear derailleur might not fit it.

11-28 sounds like the best option.

Cheers all.

kuro_man

you could splash out on sram apex groupset, that goes up too 11-32 10-speed natively.

JRant

gaffmaster wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

It looks like the specs on the Giant website were wrong. I counted teeth and it looks like a 50/36 (so most likely a 50/34 and I counted wrong)

First step is to attempt manning up. After that I'll look at a cassette change. I'm fine on drags, but it's the short sharp ones that get me.

I had feared the 11-30 might be gappy but from photos, it looks like the granny ring is out on its own. Either way the rear derailleur might not fit it.

11-28 sounds like the best option.

Cheers all.

With the compact and an 11-28 on the back you'll get a much better spread of gears and should have enough of a ratio for the steeper stuff. To be honest the granny ring will not give you a smooth range of gears and on all but the really steep stuff you will be fine with that setup

NeedMoreGears

I changed the rear cassette on a giant scr 4 (which i think the defy replaced). The bike had a 50/34 compact and if memory serves a 12-26 cassette. I replaced that with an 11-30 HG50 8 speed and found it great.
The rear derailleur seemed to have enough reach to accomodate the bigger cassette. It was a bit gappy but only in the 1,2,3 gears, which I didn't mind too much. I currently have a 12-28 on my current bike and it seems plenty for the hills.
Maybe something like this? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5212

You would want to consider replacing the chain at the same time