Biketouringhobo

look at Shimano SLX 11-36t cassette 10speed

saddlesores

i use the same set of tools to change cassettes at home or on the road:

lockring tool, 6" adjustable wrench, old sock.

when mounting, if i tighten finger-tight, then use wrench to go 6-7 clicks,
i'm able to remove the cassette holding it with the sock/rag. no need for
chain whip. not sure if this agrees with mfg's recommended torque,
but have not yet had one come loose while riding.

the real extra weight is in the spare cassettes.....

cyccommute 

I would agree that a 6" adjustable wrench is probably enough to remove the lockring if it were installed properly (i.e. by me). But all too often some hamfisted bicycle mechanic has installed the lockring and it's tough to get them off with a 12" adjustable wrench.

I solved the whole problem by going to Phil Wood hubs. There's no need for a lock ring removal tool on the road at all. The whole cassette body comes off (with the freehub mechanism) by removing the axle ends with a 5 mm allen wrench. Replacing a broken spoke is simple.

But there really is no need to be lugging around a cassette, a lockring tool, an adjustable wrench and even a dirty old sock just so that you can change your gearing when you encounter a hill. A nice triple with a good low gear and a good high gear is a much more elegant solution.

Squeezebox

Just so you know the 12-28 cassette weighs 9 oz. -260 gram. The chain whip I bought is 10 oz. On the road I'll go with the zip tie method. I will go to Home Depot and get some AL stock and make a lighter chain whip. I do agree with all of the above about not carrying an extra cassette on tour. But at home a different story. I wonder if I could make an AL spanner for the cassette removal tool?

cyccommute 

You can do what you want, of course, but I wonder what value you are expecting to get out of the exercise. I suppose that you could make everything light enough to carry around the extra stuff you need...don't forget to factor in something to carry all this stuff in because a cassette left loose in a pannier is going to make everything dirty and it will grind through the bag pretty quickly. But what do you find so appealing about a 12-28 cassette that isn't covered by an 11-34 or 12-34 cassette? Going back to Feeken's calculator and comparing the two cassettes on the same crank, I just don't see any advantage to the closer ratio cassette. It has some tighter ratios at the high end but I've never found a need for a small difference between gears at the high end for loaded touring. Having a good low is advantageous for touring but not close ratios at the top.

The other issue for loaded touring is when you would use the close ratio cassette and when you would use the wide one. Races are a different animal and there could be value in changing up the gear ratios for a particular section of a race. But you usually know the terrain of a race course and can plan accordingly. On a tour...especially a self-supported one...you really don't know what's coming around the next bend. Even if you are riding on a rail trail, you might need to get off it and I've found that's when things get...um...interesting.

Think through the process: you are using a 12-28 on a flat rail trail but you need to get off the trail to go to a town or a campground. Do you stop, take off the panniers, tent and sleeping bag, pull out the tools and the cassette, pull off the wheel, release the brakes, pull off the cassette, put the new one back on, put the wheel back in the frame, reattach the brakes, repack the tools and cassette (and anything you had to pull out to get to them), clean your hands, reattach the panniers tent and sleeping bag, resituate yourself on the bike, and then start pedaling again? And how often per day do you go through this rigamarole? How much daylight do you have?

Again, you can do whatever you want but touring is already hard enough without complicating it further.

jonc123

No complaints here also. I never bothered to think about the gearing in the past. I think I will have this bike pretty well dialed in now after I put the 24 up front.

How are you liking your bikes? Any problems?

Quarryman32

Only significant issue is lack of use. (Life happens.) I'll eventually replace the handlebars; the geometry of the drops isn't to my liking for some reason. We're extreme novices still, with under a thousand miles of touring so far, but absolutely no buyer's remorse about our rigs.

jonc123

I have about 1400 miles on mine. I am pretty much a novice also although I have done a few trips on a couple other bikes I had.

As soon as I bought my bike I was sure I would dislike dropbars. In fact even after a couple hundred miles I couldn't stand them. At some point it hit me that the pain and numbness in my wrists, hands & fingers was pretty much gone. Thats when I started to like them. Give them a good chance first; for one reason it will save you some money. If later you still don't like them, replace. The one thing that helped was to get the bars in the proper position for the place I was putting my hands (on the hoods). I had to purchase a new fork with a longer steerer to do that.

Fit on the bike is everything and it's important that it fits the way you want and not the way somebody else does.

Quarryman32

Thanks! After many thousands of miles on my road bike, I have an appreciation for the benefits of drops. I've also undergone a thorough, professional fitting with subsequent minor adjustments: swapped the stem, adjusted everything a scooch here and a nudge there. It's just the specific curvature of the stock drops on the DT that feel off. I'm talking millimeters here, so it's not a show-stopper. It could be that I'll adjust, just as I've discovered many differences between touring and road biking.

But you make a great point that must not be overlooked in all the discussion of components, materials, gear, etc. If the bike doesn't fit, you're not going to be happy with the experience.

cyccommute 

To each his own. But a word of caution on flatbars vs drops when it comes to touring: flat bars can result in more hand problems. Your hands on flats tend to stay in the same place most of the time and as a result you can put pressure on the palmar branches of the ulnar nerve. This can result in making your fingers go numb. Sometimes it can cause the fingers to be numb for extended periods. I did a 300 mile mountain bike tour back in the late 80s and ended up with the outer 2 fingers on both hands being numb for about 6 weeks. The roads and trails that mountain bikes are ridden on usually result in more hand numbness in my experience...probably due to more vibration...but it is still disconcerting to have your hands go numb for that long.

This ride was done before barends and trekking bars were available but, for the most part, get something for a flat bar where you can change hand position often and do so.

There are lots of drop bars out there that are poorly designed in my opinion. Most of the ones that I have tried and didn't like have drops that are straight up and down. I've found that the Salsa Cowbell 2 handlebars have a slight outward flare on the drops that puts my hands at a better position on the hoods. I actually have the Salsa Bell Laps on all of my dropbar bikes but the Cowbell 2 is closest to the Bell Lap. The other Salsa bars have a bit too much outward flare for my tastes but YMMV.

This is not the best perspective but it does show the flare on the bars



My wrists are at a more natural bend when on the hoods than other bars

djb

this comparison page of thiers with graphics shows very well the diff in their models

Salsa Cycles

Biketouringhobo

I pack a chain whip and cassette remove tool and small 3/8in socket wrench in my
rear panniers

Biketouringhobo

I am using Mtn Flats on my Surly LHT 26in 52cm 2008 and I had Salsa Bell Lap drops and I had a hard time pulling the Right Brake Lever with my bad right hand!!! and my hand never gone numb!

jonc123

Just wanted to follow up..got the 24t steel chain ring from Rivendell, took it to the LBS had it installed for a very small fee.

Thanks for the help. I should be good to go for the hills now.

Jon

bradtx

Thanks for letting everyone know, I hope it works well for you.

Brad