M.Roshi

Old 52/39/30T + 12-25T or New 50/39/30T + 11-28T

Edit: Thanks for all the input and questioning my ignorant question, learnt quite a bit.

shelbyfv

New

bboy314

Better for whomst?

slow rollin

Report back in 500 miles

Duragrouch

The new wider cassette, gains you more gear range, than the slightly more narrow triple, loses range. And with 16T max drop on most front derailleurs now, you can go wider still, or go 11-36T and get by with a 50/34 or 52/36 wide double.

Each tooth at the high end of the cassette, makes way more difference than at any of the chainrings. And on 20" wheels like my folder, that 11T makes all the difference in the world in having a sufficient high, without needing an internal gear hub for an overdrive.

79pmooney

My question is - what are you trying to do? Ride fast in flattish country with the occasional hill, hence to 30 tooth or ride into the Sierras, the Rockies, Oregon's coast range or the east coast's plenty of short steep hills? There's a place for both those gear setups. What's best depends on where and how you ride, your strength, your climbing style, how important closely spaced middle and high gears are for you ...

Tell us more about the above and we can be much more constructive.

urbanknight

Depends on your needs/wants. New is a wider range, old is closer gear ratios.

M.Roshi

Didn't know this would be complicated. I have a 2006 LeMond Alpe D'Huez road bike and the chainring is quite worn out and I looking to change some parts out. Saw some components at decent price with this gear ratio.

I like to know would the new gear ratio be an overall improvement over the old one, would I be faster on flat and easier on climbs? I'm from SF,CA so plenty of varying elevations.

Duragrouch

Like I said, the going down a tooth on the high cog will make more of a difference in (higher) speed than dropping down a couple teeth on the high chainring. That said, do you need a higher high? Most folks don't on 700c wheels. My bike has 20"/406 wheels so I need all the high I can get, I need that 11T bad.

Second, how my cogs on your cassette? That makes a big difference in gear steps.

Third, are you looking to just change chainrings, or entire crank? There are amazing deals on new hollow spindle two-piece cranks (similar to shimano hollowtech II), and I love the external bearing system versus taper spindle bottom brackets. However it is a lot easier to find 50/34 or 52/36 doubles, than triples in hollow spindle, at least with 5-arm spiders, which, for aesthetics and standardization, I prefer. 34 is as small as you can go on 110mm BCD, you'll need 74mm or other to use a 30.

Fourth, do you want a lower-low, riding in SF? Me, riding in Seattle, I need a 21 gear inch low, and may need lower if heavy touring. On 700Cx25(?) you may want a lower low than 30 x 28, which is 28 gear inches. Do you always climb standing, or do you want to be able to spin up while sitting as well?

M.Roshi

The Bike have mixed match components.... wheel is 700x25c can't go any higher, maybe max at 700x26c but my brother and I are sticking to 700x25c.

Front derailleur is a Shimano Ultegra Triple, Rear derailleur is a Shimano 105.

Old: Bontrager GXP 170mm 9spd 52/39/30T, Shimano 10spd CS-5600 12-25T

New: Shimano 105 FC-5603 170mm 10spd 50/39/30T, Shimano Ultegra 10 spd CS-6700 11-28T

On this bike we can climb without getting out of the saddle, my brother could power through almost any hills and not change gears, I'm weaker and like to play with the gears a bit more. Also trying to match parts for aesthetics too, haha...

70sSanO

50/39/30 with the 11-28 is better.

John

Aardwolf

Gear calculator is made for this situation:
https://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=...11,28&UF2=2125
Old at top, new lower.
You can fill in your middle sprockets.

Duragrouch

Welp, I guess what I'm trying to say is, the newer setup you mention is better than the old. But if you haven't already bought parts, you should evaluate if that will get you everything you want, because even wider range gearing than that is available.

Aesthetics matter to me too. I'm not yet a fan of pie-plate low cogs, and I like 5 arm crank spiders, which seem to be getting as scarce as lugged frames.

Viich

44:16 on a 20x1.75 tire, obviously.

PromptCritical 

you should verify the shifter will work with 10-speed cassette

Clyde1820

https://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=...N=MPH&DV=teeth

https://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=...N=MPH&DV=teeth

Duragrouch

Noddenough. 20x1.75 with 50:11 only gets me 85 gear inches, which is bare minimum high end for me, just enough to pedal down mild grades, but it's enough. 34:30 gets me 21 inches, enough for now, might go down to 15 for heavy touring.

Smaug1

Well, for me it's new. I like a LOW low gear, so when my legs and lungs are spent, I can still climb on the bike instead of on foot.
I did a 60 mile gravel ride a couple weekends ago with non-stop hills. By the 50 mile mark, I just couldn't climb the steepest hills in the lowest gear any more.
I like a low gear that's below 0.8:1. Lower if possible, even if it means walking speed.

On the flipside, having higher high gears means you can descend faster, but for me, when I'm going over 30 mph, the worst is that I don't go faster, which is better than pushing the bike.

veganbikes

Nothing is really complicated here the biggest thing is when you ask which is better but provide no info about yourself and what your needs are it complicates it for the people you are asking. In the end a compact double with a bigger 11 or 12 speed ratio at the back would be the best for someone like me but that is me you might have different needs or wants.

In terms of weakness, switching gears is not at all "weakness" don't feel that way. The whole point of gears is to change them not to just sit in one gear and try and power through just to seem hard to yourself. If your brother wants to be super strong tell him to get a fixed gear and HTFU but in reality gears exist for a good reason and you should use them especially when climbing hills.

terrymorse 

I just went through this process on an old bike. I ended up just buying a full Tiagra 10-speed groupset with 50-34 double cranks, and an 11-34 cassette. Gear ratios from 1:1 to 4.5:1.

Aliexpress has full Tiagra sets for sale.

Edit: Triple chainrings are the work of the devil, made somewhat necessary when wide range cassettes were not common. But today I say "be gone devil!"

SoSmellyAir

This is not complicated. You should consider, with respect to your old drivetrain, two issues: (1) do you run out of gears at either the top end (52T chain ring with 12T cog) and/or the low end (30T chain ring with 25T cog; and (2) are there situations where you keep shifting back and forth between two adjacent cogs because neither feels quite right, even though the riding environment (terrain and wind) is not changing much? The latter may indicate a gap in your gearing.

The old drivetrain has a top end of (A) 52/12=4.333; the new drive train has a top end of (B) 50/11=4.545. If you have sufficient power to maintain the same cadence (i.e., pedaling RPM) at both A and B, then B will let you go faster at the top end. But the gaps between cogs are wider in the new drivetrain which may make you slower in situations where your ideal gearing is in such a gap. It really depends on the gear combination you usually ride "on the flat", which you have not identified. On the flats, most cyclists are not riding at the top end of their gearing, which is more for going downhill.

The new drivetrain has a lower low end which will make it easier on climbs.

NumbersGuy

No, you won't be any faster on the flats as I highly doubt you were spinning out your 52-12 gear. You will have a lower gear available, so if you have been doing significant climbing in your 30-25, that might be a bit easier (but slower) in the 30-28.

Don't expect this gearing change to make a drastic change to your riding. The engine is still the primary driver of your performance on the bike and new slightly different gears aren't going to change that, especially with a triple that already had a lot of ratios available to you.

Camilo

What do you want? Higher gears or lower gears. You have a bike you've obviously ridden a lot. You should be able to decide what range you want compared to what you have. What we think is irrelevant.

Iride01 

If you climb a lot. Then between those two choices you gave, a lighter bike will do more for you than either of those gearing choices.

Viich

I will POUND you out of the gate if you run 50:11 and you'll never get by me.



. I run ~53.5 gear inches. Even the pros won't run much more, they just train to spin faster.