rdtompki

I'm descending into the gear-inch abyss. My Volagi started of with a 50-34 compact and 11-32 cassette. I was in better shape last year and did one very tough 100K with that combination.

Being of the medium large, aged variety I "upgraded" to the ancient triple cranket configuration, 52-39-30. I love the triple, particularly the fact that I can do medium tough 100k (50'/mi) with my 12-30t cassette and on easier rides I never see the small chainring.

Just yesterday, however, I plunged further into the abyss and changed out the 12-30t for an 11-36t. I just came to the realization that no way I could otherwise complete a ride with two tough climbs or even a lesser ride with adverse (hot) weather. My decision paid off just today and I'm resigned to the guffaws resulting from my combination of triple crank set, pie-plat mountain RD and disc brakes. My Volagi has "Fred" written all over it.

Any other fellow abyss dwellers out there.

Reynolds 

The opposite for me. One of my road bicycles is 52-42 12-23, the other 52-42 13-21. And no, I'm not super strong, just it's totally flat where I ride, and it must be a really strong headwind to need the 42/21 or 23.

Zinger

Used to be a 39-26 would do for me. Now it's getting heavy. I'm putting on a compact this winter when I go through my bike.

B. Carfree

Long ago in a body that seems far away, I rode a double century in eight hours on a touring bike with a triple. It had a 24 tooth granny too, although the freewheel's largest cog was 26. Carrying a gear or five that I don't often use is much preferred to needing just one more than I have. Besides, it can be fun to spin past people on a climb with a 100 rpm cadence while they are standing and lugging it around.

Phil_gretz

Only you know what you need to ride comfortably. I have all of those components, too:

- triple: on my touring bike
- wide range freewheel [not cassette]: my widest is 14-30T on my utility bike (a double)
- disc brakes: on my mountain bike

If you want them on the same bike, why not? Ride on!

qcpmsame 

If the set up works for you then ride it until the wheels fall off or you die with your hands gripping the bars! it sounds like the bike suits you and your riding to a "T", enjoy all the miles and smiles it will give you. We are all past the time when we needed the approval of the "cool kids", we earned the right to ride what we want to, well done, Sir, well done.

Bill

groth

Well, my '98 Bianchi Volpe (just retired due to a broken frame) had a 26 tooth granny and a 28 large cog for about 25 gear inches.

The replacement is a Trek 520 that came with 26 x 32 for about 22 gear inches.

I'm wondering if I could go to 24 x 34 for 19 gear inches.

I also have a Greenspeed tandem recumbent tricycle. It's heavy - 100 lbs, give or take, depending on what it has on it. It has 20 inch wheels and 96 gear combinations (not all of them different of course). The low is 7 gear inches! (The high around 118.)

The lower the better on account of Groth's law: There's always a steeper hill.

- Ed

doctor j

My weekend bike is configured to accommodate a 12-30 10-speed cassette. We're currently running a 12-28. I don't have a 12-30 yet, but if I decide to ride some of the steeper, longer climbs in this region, I'll install one.

Bandera

Install the gearing you need for the terrain and proceed.
Modern cassette gearing is so easy to change having a set or three ready to go for different routes makes sense.
It takes 15 minutes to go from "home" to "flat" or "mountains".
No point in injuring yourself or being inefficient.

-Bandera

rydabent

My best advice is not to get too caught up in the gear inch abyss as you rightly call it. Unless you are a professional racer, it just isnt worth the time and effort. I remember the 80s and before when the "real cyclist" were all caught up in half step shifting and all that.

Many including me find that with 8, 9, or 10 sprockets on the rear gearing is pretty simple. With a triple on the front, I pretty much look at it as using the granny for climbing hills, the center ring for cruising, and the big ring for long down hills. I then shift across the cassette for the right gear under those conditions. The frowned upon "extra wight" of a triple in front is just worry for weight weenies. The plain logical fact is with a triple you can easily bike most anywhere under almost any conditions.

rdtompki

I'm just going to stick with the 11-36. I can change cassettes quickly, but going from the 12-30 road to the 11-36 mountain RD on my 11 speed freehub required a substantial change in H and L settings; not something you want to do routinely (coupled with my Campy shifter/Shimano RD combo). The spacing on the 12-30 was appreciated for certain situations, but the reality is that the 11-32 9-spd below that pie plate is fine!

Thanks to the encouraging words I'm comfortable with my "life altering" decision. It's consistent with my goals to continue to ride a variety of Northern California 100K with the occasional Century. Hanging on to the gearing of youth is fine until the plan goes in the dumper, then you're really, really wishing for a lower gear.

fietsbob

Since getting a Rohloff IG hub I rarely use my Derailleur bikes any more.

now I have 2, a 26" wheel 16:38; and a 20" Bike Friday pocket Llama, 16:53


Derailleur triples 50-40-24, 48-36-22, 52-42-26..

Barrettscv 

Nothing wrong with having the right tools for the job.

All my bikes have triples. I completed a 150km with >10,000 vertical feet of climbing ride earlier this month with a vintage 3x8 Shimano set-up on a vintage steel bike. Having a 30 granny gear and a 28 large rear cog make those 15% plus climbs doable.

Yesterday a cyclist and I were chatting after climbing a short-but-steep 12% climb. I was on a modern carbon fiber road bike. He was a nice guy with the latest Shimano digital Ultegra drivetrain.

He asked "Is that a triple?", I responded "Oh-yes, my bikes are well-equiped, specifically for my needs".

bikemig 

I like triples and I like compacts for long distance rides. I'm building up a touring bike and I decided to go with a 44-32-22 crank and a 11-32 cassette. I've never used gearing that low before on a touring bike but what the heck that's a lot of weight on my knees. I have two long distance bikes. One has a triple for serious climbing; the other has a compact for local rides where there is some but not a lot of climbing.

Hermes

Back in the day when Frank Berto was the king of gearing, I was always playing around with different rear gearing combinations. During the 5 speed cassette era, there was not a lot of choice and bikes were set up with a 52/42 front and a 13/25 or 13/26 rear. True racing bikes were set up with a 53/42 and 12/23. Triples were rare in bike shops and offered on touring bikes as a way to carry more weight up hill. Italian steel equipped with Campagnolo Gruppo was the hot ticket. At that time, I could only afford the cheaper steel Japanese stock bikes. However, I did figure out a way to put a wider range cassette on my SR Semi Pro so that I could climb up the hill to get to my house when we lived in La Costa, (San Diego), CA.

If one likes the triple and low gearing, then great. It is more fun to have more gearing choices when climbing. I am more cadence sensitive and prefer to spin a little faster when climbing. The only thing I have found with wide range 10 speed cassettes is that there are some gear combinations that offer too large a step between rear cassette gear changes for my taste. And I prefer the pedal spacing of the double versus the triple and notice the difference when I ride my tandem with the Shimano triple.

I have not found a lot of difference in climb times up longer steeper climbs using optimized gearing versus climbing in the big ring, spinning slower and standing more. However, big ring climbs are more fatiguing and require a lot more standing which tires my upper body. However, they are great for strength building and changing up the workout to stimulate muscular growth.

Currently, I have a 12/30 rear cassette on my R5 with a compact double 50/34. I put the wider range cassette on for climbing Mount Ventoux and lowered my body weight from 172 to 165 for the climb. I could have used a lower gear for the 4 mile center section of the climb that averages 10% grade due sections that were 12 to 13% where my legs tended to load up. However, I still achieved my goal of 950 VAM and two hour climb time.

For general riding, the 12/25 cassette is better matched to my riding style for most NorCal climbs.

berner

I have only one bike with two choices of rear wheels. For the bike path or riding around town for errands, the cassette is 13 - 26 for mostly flat routes. This wheel also has a rougher duty tire to stand up to clam shell on the bike path. For longer rides in outlying areas and where there may be steeper hills, the cassette is a home made 13 - 30. On the recommendation of Barrettsv, the chain rings are 50, 39 and 26. I don't need the 26 ring often but toward the end of a long ride when the legs are near their end, I'm very glad it is there. I use the same bike to tour with 25 pounds loaded on the back. During a tour, even if a hill is doable in higher gears, I make an effort to spin in the 26T ring which is better for long term endurance. As has been said, use the tool that works best for you.

Sixty Fiver

I am rather partial to the use of an mtb triple with a 24/34/44 and a closely stepped road block... It still has all the top end one would want and if I need to pull stumps I have that gearing on tap as well.

rdtompki

I didn't have a small chain ring on hand, otherwise I would have given that a try (my FSA triple is 74mm BCD). My large chain ring is 52 so anything smaller than a 30 is technically beyond the FD capacity. The quality of the shift going in/out of the small ring isn't an issue since it's only use occasionally.

sreten

Hi,

I don't understand front triples and wide range rears at all,
you end up with loads of overlap and no close ratio gears.

Surely as 65 suggests you want a close ratio rear,
dumping the next to useless at 50+ smaller rears *.


rgds, sreten.

* My top speed on the flat (wind behind me) went from 24 mph to
28 mph yesterday because I hammered it on 52t/18t at ~ 120 rpm.

My smallest rear is 14 and I don't think I'll ever need smaller.

Hermes

A triple plus a wide range rear cassette yields a bailout gear. IMO, the ideal triple rear cassette setup is a 53/39/30 with an 11/23 10 speed rear cassette. We use that on the tandem for some rides. My idea of a bailout gear on the tandem is an 28 tooth rear cassette. However, I would go lower for 10% grade long climbs.

IMO, triple gearing can be tweaked by changing rear cassettes.

On Saturday, we did a ride down the California coast on Highway 1 with a Force 5 wind at our back. We had white caps on the ocean and we were easily going 30 mph on the flats increasing to 35 mph on mild grade descents. I was spinning a big gear even on the climbs. Who would want to spin 110 plus cadence for 1.5 hours? One the way back, we suffered immensely at 12 to 14 mph at high power and easy gears. My wide range cassette earned its keep.

IMO, one innovation that would be nice to have would be a quick release rear cassette. We carry a bag with 4 different cassettes and choose the right one for the particular route. The cassette comes off easily in one piece and the new one goes on. It takes 30 seconds max with no special tools. There is a mountain cassette, flat cassette and two in between.

Bandera

There are things that folk cycle up/down known as "Hills" and other more vertical and way, way, way longer things known as "Mountains". These are not theoretical constructs derived from gear charts but actual physical challenges that cyclists overcome with experience, fitness and power. Properly selected gearing is essential to maximize efficiency and various configurations are optimal for individual cyclists riding a particular terrain. Triple cranks w/ wide ratios can meet that requirement nicely.

These conditions are not typically encountered on a folding bicycle and are ridden for more than an hour, or five.

-Bandera

sreten

Hi,

I have a 20" folder and a road bike.

Still those with a single or old school double front (48 and 52/42) are the people
who really need a wide ratio rear, though both my bikes have 14t to 28t, 6 and 7.

Properly chosen triple cranks with a close ratio rear makes a lot more sense
than a standard triple with a wide ratio rear that just overlap gears a lot.

rgds, sreten.

Barrettscv 

I also like having a very small inner ring for climbing with a load and Cyclocross sized outer and middle rings for extending speed while desending.

This Deore Trekking crank came with 48, 36 and 26t chainings, replacing the 26 with a 22 cost less than $9. Combined with a nine speed 12-27 cassette, I get a huge range with close cog spacing.

Retro Grouch 

Just do it! The bottom line is there is only one person in the whole world that bike is supposed to make happy.

Bandera

Have you ever attempted to cycle up a mountain?

-Bandera