Sy Reene

OTOH if you can't manage even with the 34/34 on your current bike doing the hilly routes you wanna do in the future, then there'd be no reason to spend the extra money as it still wouldn't accomplish what you need accomplished.

Leinster

Woah, hey now, that's over the top. He hasn't done much climbing, by his own admission. So he probably won't be able to go up Mt Baldy this weekend or next, but there's no reason it wouldn't be within his range after a year or 2 of solid, regular riding in smaller hills.

Princess_Allez

I went from an 11-28 to and 11-34. It makes me wonder how I was able to manage hills before the change. I really enjoy having a bail-out gear and a 30 tooth for when I want a steady, uphill pace that my legs can't [don't desire to] do in the 28 tooth.

Joearch

As you guys can tell by my post count I am new to the forum. The input here is helpful. My strength/endurance has improved in the last 4 moths and I hope it will continue. I made the investment in the bike because I felt like this was something I will be continuing to work at. At some point I will need to get working on easy to moderate grades and build from there. I am leaning towards gong the 11-34 route as every little bit will help in the climbing which if I am not mistaken is what this bike is partially designed for.
Appreciate the ongoing conversation and input. Forum following is fun. Over the last number of years it has been car and watch forums. This is a blast and helpful for a new guy. Keep the input coming.

Sy Reene

I didn't mean to come of rude, but just meant to say that he already has a bike that has the gearing he's considering. If it doesn't suffice to do the hills he's looking at then perhaps just the ride the bike that's on order.

The $200 upcharge isn't bad considering the chain and labor is included, but a new RD and Cassette is about $180 if bought later, but it's not clear if he gets to keep the swapped out RD, chain and cassette, or the LBS is keeping it for that $200.

August West

My bike came with an 11-34T but I swapped it out for and 11-32T and 11-30T. I use the 11-32T most often but kept the chain sized to the 34T so I can put it back on if needed.

The downside of an 11-34T are the gear ratios in the smaller cogs. I hate, hate, hate the 11-13 and 13-15 spacing on the 34T cassette. Those are BIG jumps in the high gears. The 11-12-13-14-16 of the 11-32T works much better for me. The 11-12-13-14-15 of the 11-30 is even better but there are times I've had it on I wished I had the 11-32T. So for me the 11-32T is the best compromise. YMMV.

11-34 - 11-13-15-17-19 ...
11-32 - 11-12-13-14-16 ...
11-30 - 11-12-13-14-15 ...

Atlas Shrugged

Perhaps I am lucky and not as sensitive to the gaps in gearing and have all three cassettes you mentioned. 11-30 and 11-32 on my S-Works Roubaix, 11-34 on my gravel bike. I always seam to find a gear I am comfortable in. There has been many rides where I enjoy having a low gear option. I will take that tradeoff anytime.

HTupolev

Sure, but there's an important question about how best to achieve adequately low gearing. If you prefer tighter spacing and don't need such a high top gear, for example, reducing the size of the chainrings can be a better option than using a super-wide cassette.

Sy Reene

Just why is Shimano so invested in lots of 11-xx options but not much, if anything in 12-xx?

mattscq

For my own personal erudition: why is it not possible or more common to hack together a cassette with your own blend of 11 gears? As far as I know, the cassette comes apart so you should be able to just come up with a series of steps that work for you and test it to see if it shifts smoothly?

roadCruiser76

I just got my new bike today and I swapped out the 11-30 it came with for an 11-34 without any hesitation. The 11-34 setup was one of the things I liked best on my old bike. In my case I didn't need to change the chain or derailler, I just needed the new cassette itself. It cost about $100. I have a di2 medium cage derailler on my bike. I find that any time I hit grades of 10% or more, I really appreciate having the lower gearing. I can put out a lot more power if I'm able to keep my cadence up in the 70-80 rpm range, rather than trying to grind it at a really low cadence.

genejockey 

Compact cranksets?

Joearch

Your line of thinking is exactly what had been keeping me back from switching. Especially since I have been riding in flats. I hope to work in some moderate inclines in an incremental way as others have suggested. So I will sacrifice some closer ratios in the high gears to give me lower gears when needed. I feel like that’s a good trade off for me.

Bah Humbug

I started riding not even ten years ago. At that point, most bikes came with standard cranks and 12-25 cassettes, which was too hard for me then. Now it's flipped to where high-end bikes come with gearing that's far lower than what I need, often compact cranks with 11-30something.

Joearch

The bike and potential for climbing are worth exploring The 11-34 for me . $199 all in, 100% OEM spec new parts and I get the original parts back. Made friends w LBS owner who matched excellent online price for the bike. Would not take the parts in trade as he has many sets of 11-30 from 11-34 conversions. I guess I’m not the only person doing the switch.

surak

When you get a rd that accommodates 34t, you can still easily put in a narrower range cassette. That's what I did for STP, replaced my 11-34 for a 12-25 (105).

I've thought of putting together a custom sprocket combination, but never have due to laziness. Over time with my 11-34, I find that I don't mind the gear jumps between the small sprockets as much as I expected.

diphthong

except for a dozen or less of flattish roads (carpinteria to ventura bike path, pch from mugu to dume, pch from newport to dana point, pch from oceanside to del mar,
the flat parts of hidden valley rd in jtnp, a few stretches in anza-borrego state park and mojave national preserve and palos verdes drives south and west),
the most scenic roads in socal are in the mountains. east camino cielo. hwy 33. fig mountain. big/little tujunga, hwy 2/ach. hwy 243. hwy 18. hwy 330. hwy 38. hwy 39.
hwy 74 in both the santa ana mtns and the san jacinto mtns. hwy 79 through the san diego backcountry. s6/s7 up palomar mountain. s1 through the laguna mountains.
s22 from ranchita down to borrego springs. stunt. piuma. fernwood. latigo. deer creek. yerba buena. schueren. saddle peak. mulholland. gmr. grr. decker. encinal.
lyons valley rd. boulder creek rd. santiago canyon. mojeska canyon. live oak canyon. de luz rd. sandia crest rd. (skipped a few).

if you want to experience the best of what socal has to offer, you're going to have to hit the mtns. and yes, that 34 will definitely come in handy.

if you're perfectly content with the flats, then save the $200.

Joearch

Great list. Will be starting to go in that direction so the wider range will help facilitate rides in those locations. We will see how this plays out. The cost is not so much a consideration as making mods to a new bike.

Robert A

I live in LA too. My CAAD12 came with an 11-30 cassette and I toughed it out for 1.5 years of difficult hill climbing. I just got an 11-32 cassette and it makes a meaningful difference, especially with some of the 10% and greater inclines that I hit regularly. Realize that changing from 11-30 to anything larger will likely require you to replace the chain and the RD, so you're looking at $200 plus labor.

Branko D

I have a 50-34 in the front and 11-30 in the rear, and while it is an excellent gearing combination for general riding, when I run into sections which are above 10-11% as part of a big climb, I find myself either having to go in the red, or pedal at a lower cadence then I'd like, or having to stand up - or more of the above, and I'm reasonably fit guy, although not a super light or strong climber (71-72kg, 20 min power of about 260 to 280W).

So, there are a couple of local climbs with super steep bits in them where I ponder switching out for a medium cage derailleur so I can fit a 11-34 in the rear, but I would still prefer 11-30 for most riding otherwise, since it has both nicely tight spacing in the higher gears and still plenty of range for most climbs which makes it just about perfect for a general purpose choice.

I'll probably stick with the short cage derailleur and just bear it on the extra steep bits which are mercifully rare, but it really depends on the gradients of local climbs, your fitness, your weight, and so on. If speccing a new bike from scratch I'd go with a medium cage RD just to have the option of running a big cassette.

MKahrl

At 64 years of age the O.P. grew up when riders had hair on their chests, only needed five rear cogs, could pedal at different cadences and not whine about how a two tooth jump is upsetting his finely tuned rpm power range.

Go for the lowest gears you can find. They will come in much more handy than the 50x11 combo with its ridiculous 122 gear inch. At 64 he presumably also doesn't suffer the testosterone poisoning that the rest of us on the 41 suffer from.

CAT7RDR

Since the OP is 64 y/o, I imagine he wants to prevent knee tendonitis, a 34:34 or lower ratio will help him to keep his cadence up and the knee stress manageable.

Joearch

I think my first 10 speed was a Concord brand bike. Pearl white paint. Not even sure what gear inch means. Dont want another thing to think about.

Joearch

You bet. 20 months ago I was hit by a car while in a crosswalk resulting in some very unpleasant fractures and knee reconstruction. Cycling rotation good, undue stress not so much.

genejockey 

Assuming that LA has the same kind of hills available that the Bay Area has, I'd say that keep both ends of the range. I find the 50x12 on my Bianchi isn't really enough, and I'm finding the 36x34 on my new Canyon is getting more use than I expected.

BTW, don't assume that we guys in our early 60s don't suffer from testosterone poisoning. Indeed, we may suffer MORE from it because we're 20 years older and thus more fragile and slower to recover from doing something stupid!