Originally Posted by
baobao
For a road bike, why would anyone even consider 46/30? What do the professionals in Tour de France use in mountain stages?
I ride a 46/30 on one of my bikes. With an 11/28 cassette, I have all the gearing I would ever need for climbing and still keep nice close ratios. On the high end, a 46/11 is the same gearing as 50/12 which means I only lose one gear compared to today’s typical road gearing. The one thing I don’t do any more is a lot of shifting up front. With a 50 tooth ring, I was doing a lot of shifting to keep cadence where I like it. With the 46, I rarely need the small ring except when climbing. I am thinking of converting my other bike.