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Doubts about road bikes gearing

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Doubts about road bikes gearing

Old 12-20-14, 01:17 PM
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Amt0571
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Doubts about road bikes gearing

Hi!

I'm a mountain biker just about to buy a road bike. I'm looking for a cheap bike for occasional use, so I'm leaning towards Decathlon's Triban 3A.

However, I've been looking at road bikes gearing and I feel that all of them have way too high gears. In the area were I live, there are also lots of steep road climbs, some of them reach a 30% slope, and I'm trying to understand how can anyone climb this with the high gearing that road bikes have. The Triban 3A I'm looking for, for example, has a lowest gear of 30/25, and the Specialized Allez doesn't fare much better.

Currently I do 5000km/year on a mountain bike and around 2000 in my commute with a folding bike. Based on my climbs in group rides I feel that I'm a good climber, and I'm used to long, steep and technical climbs where I'm forced to use my MTB granny gear (22/32) to maintain a reasonable cadence. On most races I've done this year I usually finished among the first 15%, so I think I'm in good shape.

Do road bikes really roll that much better to compensate such a high gearing? even my Dahon Mu P27 has lower gears (and curiously, also higher)!! I feel that with this gearing I may as well call the bike a knee breaker!

How are you supposed to climb using such high gearing? I feel it's either standing and mashing or being extremely strong to avoid slowing down and maintain a reasonable cadence.

Is it possible to fit smaller chainrings in a road bike?

Thanks
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Old 12-20-14, 01:22 PM
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Get a triple chain ring road bike with a 11-34 rear cluster. It should work fine for most situations. If you still want lower gearing you could swap out the small 30 tooth chain ring for a 26 tooth ring for only a small amount of $$$.
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Old 12-20-14, 01:26 PM
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Most road bike are used for speed and that requires gearing for that versus climbing. Just need a different rear cassette and possibly a new rear derailleur if you exceed max tooth size on the RD. I just moved from a long cage rear that came standard with a 11-32 in the rear an dont live in an area with mountains or hills for that matter and can get by with 25 or 28 max tooth on the back if I go some place hilly.
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Old 12-20-14, 01:34 PM
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Usually a compact (34/50) paired with something like 12-34 is plenty. I use a 34/28 to tackle all of my climbs. My hardest only being 15% for half mile. I used to do it on a 34/25, and that was pretty difficult. Most people don't do 10% climbs, and most don't have the opportunity to. There is a climb I love, its 9% for 3.5 miles, and only 22 have done it. There is a 3% climb for 6 miles, and almost 300 people have done it. This being in the same city, like 10 miles apart.
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Old 12-20-14, 01:45 PM
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Just go try one...I think you'll find stock gearing just fine. My road bike feels like a rocket compared to my mountain bike.
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Old 12-20-14, 01:46 PM
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Whereas a 30/34 combination would be a little better, 30/25 is considered quite low gearing for a road bike. That is what, about a 1.17 ratio. Most fit cyclists can climb significant grades with that. Remember that mountain roads are graded much more reasonably than mountain trails are. If you have a 30 tooth chain ring, I'm guessing you already have a triple crankset. Normally those do come with larger rear cogs, but perhaps yours didn't in order to keep tight gear spacing. Having said that, as long as you have the necessary long cage derailleur, you can go up to a 34 tooth cog in the back. Heck, even with a short cage RD you can probably go as high as 30 teeth in the back, certainly 28 or 29.
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Old 12-20-14, 01:49 PM
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Originally Posted by Amt0571
Hi!

I'm a mountain biker just about to buy a road bike. I'm looking for a cheap bike for occasional use, so I'm leaning towards Decathlon's Triban 3A.

However, I've been looking at road bikes gearing and I feel that all of them have way too high gears. In the area were I live, there are also lots of steep road climbs, some of them reach a 30% slope, and I'm trying to understand how can anyone climb this with the high gearing that road bikes have. The Triban 3A I'm looking for, for example, has a lowest gear of 30/25, and the Specialized Allez doesn't fare much better.

Currently I do 5000km/year on a mountain bike and around 2000 in my commute with a folding bike. Based on my climbs in group rides I feel that I'm a good climber, and I'm used to long, steep and technical climbs where I'm forced to use my MTB granny gear (22/32) to maintain a reasonable cadence. On most races I've done this year I usually finished among the first 15%, so I think I'm in good shape.

Do road bikes really roll that much better to compensate such a high gearing? even my Dahon Mu P27 has lower gears (and curiously, also higher)!! I feel that with this gearing I may as well call the bike a knee breaker!

How are you supposed to climb using such high gearing? I feel it's either standing and mashing or being extremely strong to avoid slowing down and maintain a reasonable cadence.

Is it possible to fit smaller chainrings in a road bike?

Thanks
Where do you live? 30% grade is a lot and there aren't many places people live have that kind of grade for any meaningful distance.
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Old 12-20-14, 02:02 PM
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WUT? 30%? What planet are we talking about?
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Old 12-20-14, 02:05 PM
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OP, you say you do group rides on mountain roads. And everybody is on MTBs? That is not a common scenario. Are you sure you aren't talking about trials?
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Old 12-20-14, 02:07 PM
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Originally Posted by dalava
Where do you live? 30% grade is a lot and there aren't many places people live have that kind of grade for any meaningful distance.
I live in Spain. 30% is not sustained, but the hardest part of a climb. I've done it with the MTB several times and it took almost 30min to climb and I definitely had to use my 22/32 on several parts of it.

Checking on a GPX track I recorded there, It shows a maximum grade of 27%, and there's mostly nothing less than 15%. It's a 3.5km climb, so it's quite long considering the grades.
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Old 12-20-14, 02:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Amt0571
I live in Spain. 30% is not sustained, but the hardest part of a climb. I've done it with the MTB several times and it took almost 30min to climb and I definitely had to use my 22/32 on several parts of it.

Checking on a GPX track I recorded there, It shows a maximum grade of 27%, and there's mostly nothing less than 15%. It's a 3.5km climb, so it's quite long considering the grades.
Granted, but isn't that a worst case? Maybe road bikers just don't climb that kind of hill. Any more than they would go on a mountain trail. Nothing like that exists in the major stage races that I know of. Perhaps it is just not a route that is intended for road cycling. You can just avoid it when on the road bike. It is much more important on the road bike to have the intermediate gears than huge cogs for that kind of climbing. I hope you don't live at the top or bottom of that road. That would present a bit of a problem.
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Old 12-20-14, 02:24 PM
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Originally Posted by rpenmanparker
Granted, but isn't that a worst case? Maybe road bikers just don't climb that kind of hill. Any more than they would go on a mountain trail. Nothing like that exists in the major stage races that I know of. Perhaps it is just not a route that is intended for road cycling. You can just avoid it when on the road bike. It is much more important on the road bike to have the intermediate gears than huge cogs for that kind of climbing. I hope you don't live at the top or bottom of that road. That would present a bit of a problem.
Of course it's a worst case. But there are several climbs around here with parts that are 20+ %...
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Old 12-20-14, 02:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Amt0571
I live in Spain. 30% is not sustained, but the hardest part of a climb. I've done it with the MTB several times and it took almost 30min to climb and I definitely had to use my 22/32 on several parts of it.

Checking on a GPX track I recorded there, It shows a maximum grade of 27%, and there's mostly nothing less than 15%. It's a 3.5km climb, so it's quite long considering the grades.
These grades are very unusual. Around here I know a couple of private roads that go to 15%, but U.S. road construction standards generally prohibit going above 12% on public roads and require even lower grades on roads that expect high-speed or truck traffic. A 15% grade road in a region with permanent snow cover would likely turn into a huge ice-covered slide for much of the winter, becoming impassable in either direction.

Road bikes are limited in their low-end gearing and even 12% would be uncomfortable in the lowest gear for many people. On top of that, there is a recent trend to eliminate triples (and that means 34T minimum in front on most road bike models).

On anything steeper than 12-15%, you have to go out of saddle.

The best you can do in your situation is to get a bike with a triple and replace the cassette (and the chain). That would get you to 30/30 or 30/32 without having to spend too much money. If you also swap the rear derailleur for a mountain version, you can go to 30/36 (but you have to pay attention to makes & models of shifters and derailleurs, the situation with compatibility between road shifters and mountain derailleurs is complicated).
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Old 12-20-14, 02:48 PM
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Originally Posted by rpenmanparker
WUT? 30%? What planet are we talking about?
The planet HTFU41.

I'd like to see links to GPS data, but my understanding is GPS only works on earth.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:04 PM
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Just get a bike with a triple crankset, whatever cassette your legs and lungs require and go ride and be glad you have climbs where you live haha. Compact cranks blow.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:07 PM
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Originally Posted by znomit
The planet HTFU41.

I'd like to see links to GPS data, but my understanding is GPS only works on earth.
If it's Spain, 30% grades are not totally out of the question. They probably still have lots of roads which were originally laid by Romans and designed with donkeys in mind.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:08 PM
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Toughest road climb around here gets close to 20%. It's not too bad 39x27, just gotta stand up and stomp.

It's a little harder on the fixed gear 43x16.

A little easier with the Lemond and its road triple, 32x26, I think? I usually go up a couple of gears so I can get it over with faster, though.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by znomit
The planet HTFU41.

I'd like to see links to GPS data, but my understanding is GPS only works on earth.
One of the stages in Tierenno Adriatico 2013 (Spelling is wrong) there was a 30% grade. Many pros had to get oof and walk because their gearing was too high.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Amt0571
How are you supposed to climb using such high gearing?
Since you live in Spain you must have a local road cycling club that know the terrain and gearing, ask them what set-ups are required.
Road bikes are designed for quick gearing changes to match the gearing to the rider/terrain, it's been figured out for the last century or so and modern machines have a plethora of efficient options.



The pic above shows the gearing Contador was using in the Giro's nasty mountain stages in '13.
Since you are fit making the transition to the road will be easy if you get w/ the local road club, some of the top pro cyclists came from a MTB background.

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Old 12-20-14, 03:30 PM
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Originally Posted by Lazyass
Just get a bike with a triple crankset, whatever cassette your legs and lungs require and go ride and be glad you have climbs where you live haha. Compact cranks blow.
But that doesn't mean you have to feel deprived if you can't ride you road bike on them. Every type of bike has a purpose, and without special modification that is not particularly good for most road riding, a 30% grade is just not part of the road bike repertoire.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:30 PM
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Originally Posted by colnago62
One of the stages in Tierenno Adriatico 2013 (Spelling is wrong) there was a 30% grade. Many pros had to get oof and walk because their gearing was too high.
Okay, so what does that say? Normal folks would want to ride elsewhere, eh?
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Old 12-20-14, 03:36 PM
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Even gearing down has a limit. Exactly how slowly do you want to go and still try to keep the bike upright? A normal rider would have to put out 500 watts to maintain 4.5 mph on a 30% grade. For how long can you do that? Not to mention the bike handling difficulties. If you get off the straight line of the road, you will be constantly fighting to keep the bike from falling over. What difference does it make what the gearing is that you can push over? Is that the way you want to ride your bike?
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Old 12-20-14, 03:38 PM
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Cassette is 11-36.
FD is IRD Alpina-D, although I'm told a Tiagra FD also works in this application.
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Old 12-20-14, 03:39 PM
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Originally Posted by rpenmanparker
Even gearing down has a limit. Exactly how slowly do you want to go and still try to keep the bike upright? A normal rider would have to put out 500 watts to maintain 4.5 mph on a 30% grade. For how long can you do that? Not to mention the bike handling difficulties. If you get off the straight line of the road, you will be constantly fighting to keep the bike from falling over. What difference does it make the gearing that you can push over? Is that the way you want to ride your bike?
Good point. In my experience, even 18% presents major difficulties: if you stop for whatever reason, it's all but impossible to get going again. At these grades, wheels don't offer much of an advantage. You might as well be walking and pushing the bike uphill, you'd go almost as fast.
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Old 12-20-14, 04:20 PM
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Originally Posted by rpenmanparker
But that doesn't mean you have to feel deprived if you can't ride you road bike on them. Every type of bike has a purpose, and without special modification that is not particularly good for most road riding, a 30% grade is just not part of the road bike repertoire.
Huh?
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