Originally Posted by rosefarts

Mr Sheep

I have 2 cassettes for mine. An 11-42 and 12-36. The wider range one is on my gravel wheels and gets used accordingly. The 12-36 is exclusively for casual road riding almost always towing a kid in a Burley.

I've dabbled with switching cassettes around and for the majority of my gravel rides, I can't live without the 11t. It's a rare gravel ride that I don't use both the 11t and 42t. It sounds like the OP has much steeper but shorter hills than me.

Without looking at the calculation, from experience, 40x11 is good for 27-29mph without bouncing. I'd hate for the OP to build a bike that would run out of gearing every time he bumps into an intermediate club ride.

40x11 is pretty much the limit, and like I said before, 40x10 or 42x10 would be even better.

10-46 is readily available, would solve all his problems, would allow a chain keeper, eliminate a front D, avoid cross chain for ideal gears, and put a mint on his pillow.