positron

no its not.

davidmikesell

As of right now, the parts I can use are dictated by what I have. I would rather spend money on a new cassette than a new crankset. I'll probably get an 11/34 at least at this point.

IndianaShawn

I understand, your trying to use what you have on hand. I found the Shimano HG50 11-34 here....... https://www.bike.com/item/shimano-hg5...srccode=GPBIKE

davidmikesell

I appreciate all the help! Another question while i'm at it. Aside from weight savings, what will a more expensive cassette get me?

LeeG

this is where things start to sound like death by a 1000 cuts. When I built up my CC with a double I tried it for awhile with a 48/34 and 11-34, then a custom made 13-34. Then switched to the triple with chainguard for a double 44/30 and 12-28 cassette.

For $82 this is getting pretty cheap unless your bike doesn't have a square taper bb. I spent close to three times this after buying a triple Sugino, extra chainrings and chainguard. The 30t chainring can give you a very low gear with 34t cassette and the 46 can provide all the big gears one needs for normal riding. The ability to spin high rpms when needed is a better way to achieve short term speed than having huge gears that will only be used going down hill.

https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...-crankset.html

sstorkel

If you're willing to spend $90 on a crank, you'd be better served buying a Shimano Deore trekking triple, like the M590/M591. They're typically around $90-100 and include a decent-quality external cup bottom bracket.

kayakdiver

I run a 26/39 Sram X7 Crank with success. For touring it's all the gearing I need. I also run Ultegra STI 10 Speed shifters, Mountain XT RD and Tiagra FD. Plenty of options that can be mixed to perform well. For touring in flat country I wouldn't think twice about a compact double and something like an 11/28 or 11/32 cassette. But in the end everyone has different levels of fitness and comfort level. One size does not fit all.

positron

not much.

They usually have a single aluminum carrier for the largest ~6-8 sprockets, which will dig into and damage aluminum freehub bodies much less than individual steel sprockets plus spacers do.

Since Alu freehub bodies are a stupid idea anyway (hubs should use steel or ti only IMNSHO) , and since your hub most likely uses steel, this is not really an issue.

On the plus side, the cheap casettes can be separated into sprockets and spacers and recombined to make custom cassette gearing ratios. the lighter ones cannot do this as easily.

fietsbob

friction shifting works better with the wider spacing of 5 & 6 speed rear cog clusters,

then the shifting is a skill , the rider learned , late , over-shifting,
then re centering the pulley under the cog.. each time..

engineers took over, now there is a early shifting and no real need to be that involved.
klick the lever, and , as long as the front end of the lever, and the stuff in back
are remaining synchronized, the shifting goes OK,

Count the number of pages of questions on this site alone,
of the problems people have when the shifting does not go well.

then the reason/fix analysis, gets more complicated,
as the mechanism becomes more complex.

positron

The gears are closer (both in ratio and spacing) of course, but friction shifting with 8-9 speed cassettes is dead easy...
High quality ratcheting frictionshifters such as simplex, diacompe silver or suntour retrofriction make it a no-brainer.

without indexing, minor maladjustment becomes a non-issue, it is accommodated during the shift itself.

pdlamb

Disagree with no point if low gear is as slow as walking, on two points. First, walking up steep hills with a loaded bike can become a bear. Lean the bike over so you get a halfway decent stride without panniers banging into you legs, and the steering gets wonky. Second, do that often enough, and you wear out the soles on your shoes. I almost cried when I had to toss my Sidis!

Rob_E

You might have a point with cycling-specific shoes. I always ride in my off-bike shoes, and I still manage to destroy them in some other way before I wear out the soles.

And I agree that, all things being equal, pedaling a loaded bike will probably be more pleasant than pushing it, but I don't find the difference so extreme that I'm going to let it steer me away from my preferred gearing set-up, not when those walking times are so few and far between. If I was spending hours chugging up a mountain, I would probably change my mind, but I just haven't had to deal with those kinds of hills here. Back In The Day when I was more likely to find hills I couldn't roll up, either because of fitness, gearing, or a different terrain than what I have now, I seemed to remember welcoming a chance to step off the bike for a few minutes and work a different set of muscles.

Still, we're talking minutes of walking per hours of riding. Turn that ratio around, and I'd be singing a different tune. My low gear is set by my hub manufacturer, and I like my hub enough that I'm willing to deal with a slightly higher than ideal low gear. All other things being equal, I would absolutely choose a low gear that I could pedal up anything in. Whether I would bother pedaling up a hill at walking speeds would depend on the situation. But the OP seems to be limited to be limited to some specific gearing set ups, so my advice remains the same: go as low as you can within your current restrains. The bike will be rideable, and you'll get a better idea of what kind of low gear you really need.

fietsbob

No probably about it .. I have found myself on hills,
that I walked a few tens of meters , grabbed the brake to hold the bike,
catch my breath, let my heart-rate drop again,
and repeated for another 10 meters..

davidmikesell

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Just to put things into perspective, the lowest gear on my current/only bike is 42 up front and 18 in the back. Almost any other gear would feel a lot better.

davidmikesell

Would it worth it to get a set of Paul touring cantis? How would they be compared to Avid shorty 6s? I've heard great things about Paul brakes, and I've heard awful things.

fietsbob

Paul has different approaches than the imports, each return spring is individually preloaded.
maybe that is not what you want to bother with.
he supplies a bushing to fit over the boss on the frame, to have that surface stainless,
+ adds O rings on the brake lever to keep the grease cleaner in side the pivot.

the lever arm on the brake is longer..
IRD Cafam , an Import is a similar, from a distance, look to Paul's Touring.
but the details are different.

sstorkel

Can't imagine anything that could be worse than the Avid Shorty 6...

davidmikesell

explain... please?

positron

the avids apparently suck, but you dont need to upgrade to the best either... there are many great options in between.

"Would it be worth it to get a Mercedes S-class? how would it compare to a Toyota Yaris? Ive heard great things about the Merc... etc etc"

I have the pauls (neo retro, touring) and i love them. but if I were on a budget, these are 95% as good at stopping:
https://www.amazon.com/Tektro-CR720-C...296814&sr=1-17

I bought the Pauls cause they are cooler, and US made. I love the individual preload, but then I laugh when someone says any brake is hard to set up. theyre not. not a single one, ever. not even stupid magura hydraulic rim brakes...

positron

Actually, now that I think of it, I had this post-WWII japanese bike from the late 40s with a rod-actuated brake that used a leather strap pulled against the rear hub to stop... that was annoying to work on. I don't recommend that style brake for loaded touring. Anything else is fine.

Sold that one to the guy who owns the Bisbee Bicycle Brothel, the bike was actually later mentioned in a bicycle quarterly article.

v.t.

I just added a set of these to my fuji touring and they are great on the steep Seattle hills with the wet weather we have been having.
https://www.rodcycle.com/articles/bigsqueeze.html

sstorkel

Despite upgrading to Kool Stop salmon-colored brake pads and fiddling around adjusting them for hours, my Avid Shorty 6 cantilever brakes are still one of the worst-performing brakes I've ever used. Not quite as bad as the side-pull brakes on my first road bike, but I wouldn't buy them again.

davidmikesell

Thats's good to know. I got the paul brakes for a great price. Even if I don't have the amount of cred it takes to use them, I figure I'll grow into them.

positron

no cred required, great brakes. You will be happy