CyclingFool95 

At 45 I was still climbing everything in my area on 42/53 with 8-speed 12-21 and 12-23 cassettes. 7 years later, all my bikes are 50/34, although I'm thinking of switching to 36/52 because the 34 is just too small, even with an 11, and the 16 tooth jump in the front can be jarring.

bruce19

Maybe I'm missing something. Isn't it a 16 tooth jump with either compact or mid-compact?

CyclingFool95 

Yes. I wasn't very clear with my thoughts. The problem I have is that with a 34x11, which is already prone to being noisy due to the chain angle, I fairly often find myself with too high a cadence, and the switch to 50x16 awkward. I figure with a 36 up front I should be okay on the flats and not need to jump to the 52 too often. The terrain around here is rolling enough that if I try to just run the big ring, I end up on the cross end of the rear cluster on the little climbs, which is just as bad. Thinking more, I might be happiest with a 39/53 up front and a 29 rear for the big climbs.

My cassettes are varied - I have 5, 3 with 25 or 27, one 12-29, and, I think, a 12-32 that came with the Centaur group. Haven't even taken it out of the box.

bruce19

My new CAAD 12 has the 52/36 with an 11x30 cassette. The only issue I have is on short or shallow upgrades. I seem to want to be in the 52x30 and, of course, that's cross-chaining. I'm still experimenting.

fietsbob

I only up shifted at the crest of the hill that 16t jump 34->50, 36->52 ,

or the 24-> 40 from 3rd to middle on the triples I toured using.. 50t the outer in that case ..














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