Originally Posted by
choddo
But you said you were struggling to grind up hills on the current lowest ratio? You’d get up them in less time with a more natural cadence in a 1:1
I just installed a 52/36 x 11-34 because some of the hills around here hit 20% and it’s just ugly with a 28 max which is what I had before. I don’t know what your terrain is like though.
It took me a long time to get one of my mates to realise this. He kept saying that a 34/34 gear would just make him slower. So I had a look at his data and he was struggling to maintain a 40 rpm cadence on steeper climbs. He now has a 34/36 lowest gear and is much more comfortable and faster on the climbs. That could be overkill on easy climbs, but I often spin a 35/33 ratio on long climbs of around 6-7% and I’m a reasonably strong climber. Power is equally generated between pedal torque and cadence. So unless you are genuinely spinning out, it makes sense to use lower gearing.
In your case on 20% slopes I would ideally want the lowest gearing possible, which on my AXS setup would be a 33/36 ratio. I actually have a 35/33 fitted which I can just about grind up the steepest 20%+ hills, but it still isn’t pretty!