chris675D

Hey guys, if you want to move this to the 41 that's fine but I have a question about which cassette range to pick. I'll try to keep this short. When I bought my bike off CL the chainrings were 45/36 and a 11-25 cassette. I rode that for months and it was fine. I only ever spun out on a couple fast group rides where I was drafting. I raced a crit with it and I was fine. A couple days ago someone crashed into me and bent the chainrings. My manager at work gave me a set of fsa 50/34 rings. It made the bike stiffer but the gears became a lot harder. I found myself mashing most of the time and not spinning.

Now I'm thinking of getting either a 13-25 or 14-25 Ultegra 6600 cassette to make it easier to spin the gears; and both of these come with an 18t sprocket which I've heard is great to have in a crit. Should I pick one of these or just HTFU and get used to bigger gears?
Thanks for any replies if I get any. And I'm not a junior.

YMCA

If you don't use big gears, then don't have them! It enables you to fill those other spots, like the 18 that you like.

I'm a cat1 and have never had bigger than 53x12 on my bike. Currently I run a 52 and for years had a 50. The 12 is rarely used by me, but I like it for rolling a long descent, or the occasional very long slower sprint where I'm too tired to stay on top of gear and of course for big gear training into the wind.

Putting big gears on a bike does NOT man you up. It just says you never learned to be supple and light on your feet! Disclaimer: there are a few supple guys on here who are good racers and like their 53x11's, but they are exceptions.

Racer Ex 

Put on what you want if it works for you. But you might want to learn how to shift, that gear spread will cover 12-39 MPH spinning 120RPM.

And I don't know why/who thinks an 18 is some magic crit gear.

Homebrew01

That makes no sense. Change gears if you are "mashing"

Here's a good gear calculator where you can enter 2 different cranksets to compare them.

https://gear-calculator.com/#

misterwaterfall

This. You went from a small chainring of 36 to 34 so you now have a lower hear to use if needed. What you have now is better on both ends than your old set

aaronmcd

Damn! How do you get by with 53x12? We have this hammerfest "racey" ride here, and one of the sprints is after a long, straight downhill. This past weekend a bunch of guys were going for it, and I had to get in the wind a lot to keep moving up. Found it too tiring to spin my 50x11. I'm 100% sure I could have gone faster with 53x11

But - I use my 34x28 on long climbs, so I can't get everything I want. Are you really good at spinning fast for a while? Or maybe it's just not common for real races to finish like my example ride...

YMCA

no way you're spun out on 50x11. Unless you are going 100kph

Learn to supply spin the gears in high speed situations.
I have 52x12 now. It will rarely get used out of necessity. And I'm one of the "fast guys".

ovoleg

I run a 11-28 cassette for racing and for training. I just love the combo. It allows me to climb slower if I want to(recovery ride or just dont feel like hammering) and gives me the gearing to keep up with some of the guys on the downhills. My average cadence for a race is typically in the high 90's and sprints are around 110. I dont think I've ever got into the 52/11 for a sprint, but then again last year wasn't the year of awesome performances haha.

I hit my highest top speed out of a buddies draft at around 42mph with 52/12 spinning super fast, I tried again later with the 11 and could barely get to 39mph...Super anecdotal but whatever, thats what this thread is bout

I personally think that people overthink gearing too much in racing. Especially in the cat 3/4/5's... In one race I saw the dude shift into the 11 and take off, he was going so freaking slow because he couldn't spin the gear at all, I just flew around him.

jsutkeepspining

I just laugh when people bring this stuff up. I raced around with a 53/15, and was either winning sprints, or consistently finishing in the top 5 of the group sprint. Now that i can use a 53/11 i'm happy to use it, but i don't think it is at all necessary in 99.9% of situations (especially in the lower cats where riders are barely able to sprint, let alone have a fast lead out, jump at 40+ mph, and need that massive of a gear).

aaronmcd

You're right, I didn't spin out - not even close. I just looked at that section of the ride. It was only 32 to 40 mph for a bit over 4 minutes, meaning I didn't even have to spin 120 rpms. I've done 50 mph without spinning out. It looks like it was actually the multiple 700 watt surges that wiped me, not spinning. Still think I could've gone a bit faster with a 53 at my current spinning abilities though.

Lesson to self: look at the data before making assumptions.

waterrockets 

Dunno though. Are you saying you'd have been over 700W for those surges at a lower power? Do you think your anaerobic work capacity could handle the same number of surges at a higher power? Did you need more power during the surges? (as in: were you losing ground?)

chris675D

When the guy crashed into me, my front derailleur slightly got bent. As a result I can only go up to the 4th sprocket before it gets noisy from the chain rubbing.

Yesterday I compared a couple different cassette and ring combinations on sheldon's site and found which range to choose. I ordered a 13-25 cassette, and this will keep me from cross chaining hopefully. This new cassette goes up in single increments up to 19, unlike the last one which skipped one gear.

himespau 

Why not just replace the FD?

chris675D

Because my gear inches would still be larger if I am in the big ring.

aaronmcd

Well, how I felt I "could have" performed might not really be how I could have performed.

That said, it felt like I had nothing left after moving into the wind to pass, jumping to follow, and repeating for 4 minutes, and it felt like it was the spinning that was killing me. Nothing left for the final surge that I needed to go with. I felt like I could have had another surge or two in me if I had the option to shift up and stomp a few times and give the spinning a rest - kind of like the occasional stand on a long climb - or shift up each time I ducked into a draft. Might not be the case though, if YMCA makes it work with 53x12.

aaronmcd

I haven't had a problem with the 11-28, where most gears I use jump more than one tooth per click. There are very few rare occasions where I want exactly x cadence at y speed, but nothing such that changing cadence or speed slightly made any real difference.

Also, are you saying that you can't use the bigger cogs? A front derailleur is cheaper than a cassette.

shovelhd

Too bad you ordered the cassette, you didn't need it, which is different than wanting it. 50/34 and 11-25 is a pretty standard compact race setup.

I race criteriums with a 39/53 and 11-23 or 11-21. I shift a lot.

wens

Tailwind or false flat sections in races are about the only time I've ever been really glad for an 11...but I was really really glad for an 11 then.

YMCA

Anybody that "needs" anything bigger than a 52x13, is fooling themselves.
I own a 12, but if it was never invented I'd still be fine at any cat1 pace.
Dear gosh, don't get me started on 11's

chris675D

I can but I don't want to have to cross chain just to find an easy enough gear. Rather have the sprockets I want lower on the cassette.

chris675D

It's alright I work at a shop so it wasn't a fortune. I can always sell it after a few rides.

Well thanks for the advice guys. There's no need to post any more unless you guys are just discussing things amongst yourselves.

shovelhd

Hey, it won't go to waste.

revchuck 

For future reference: replace broken parts first, then other stuff. Yes, a bent FD is broken. While I agree that having fewer gaps between shifts is a good thing - I run a 12-23 cassette most of the time for that very reason - it's more important to have your bike work correctly.

Homebrew01

Or bend it back.

Racer Ex 

I hit 137 RPM today on a 50 x 11. Granted, Zabriskie was in the pack.