tigat

My wife and I picked up riding at roughly the same time-9 years ago, in preparation for a cycling tour in Ireland. After that lovely event, her riding has tapered off. Climbing in particular had gotten harder, and I heard more than once that the change from the aluminum framed triple she started on to the carbon framed compact double I picked up for her a few years later (a Domane 4.5), was not the apples for apples deal I had represented it to be when it came to going uphill.

So, for Christmas this past year, I had the Ultegra short cage rear derailleur swapped out for a mid-cage 105 and added an 11-32 cassette. Along with that, I had the shop do new cables, a full cleaning and tune, and replaced the stock wheels with the 1550 gram Paradigm elites that came with my Emonda.

She was, through the winter trainer months (she rode there once a week at most), totally unimpressed.

A few weeks ago, we hit the road for the first time, training with our daughter for a 66 mile event at the beginning of June. My wife took off like a rocket. Every time my daughter and I looked up, she was a quarter mile out, blissfully oblivious to the fact she had left us in the dust. On the hills, she would climb, come back down to us, spot us a lead and then blow by again. We've repeated the pattern on five rides now.

She's convinced that I had the shop do some sort of hidden motor. I'm just glad she's enjoying the ride again.

TimothyH

This is a great story.


-Tim-

Bmach

Compact and a 11-32 can have both higher and lower gearing than some triples. Enjoy the riding.

Outnumbered

Gearing is a funny thing to understand. It really is.

bruce19

Very nice.