indyman1973

I would like some opinions on the optimal cassette size for me. I have a 2012 Cannondale Carbon 3 synapse. I've put about 2000 miles on it thus far and have noticed a few things about the gearing. First, I run out gears fairly easily on downhills. I am a masher, not a spinner. I like to ride hard and fast.

In addition, i just finished my first Hilly Hundred in Indiana and could have used another gear or two on the bigger hills. I managed to climb them all, but Mount Tabor about kicked my butt. I can't use my last two gears when I'm climbing because the chain rubs on the chainstay and my lbs told me I should run in those gears because of the stress that particular angle has on the chain. Make sense??



I currently run a compact crank (50/34) on a 11-28 cassette. I noticed that SRAM has a 11-32 cassette. Would this be a good option and compatible with my setup?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

10 Wheels

Lexi01

This is pretty common circumstance for a beginner - "I'm a masher, I like higher gears"..."I run out of gears on downhills"...

50/34 - 11/28 is more than enough for anyone. Just stick with what you have, ride more and work on upping your cadence.

cplager

Hi,

What you need to check is whether or not your rear derailleur is long enough for the 32. If it is, you're golden.

That doesn't help out your top end. A triple crank up front might help out both high and low end.

Cheers,
Charles

cplager

I don't see how this is really a helpful statement. There are plenty of people who would find that gearing doesn't go low enough or high enough. Albert Contador switches to 11-32 cassette for steep hills. Are you really going to give him the same advice?

If that works for you, great. I don't see any reason that would work for everybody.

Charles

valygrl

No, that does not make sense. The chain should never touch the chainstay, no matter what gear you are in. And the shop probably advised you against cross chaining, which is big ring + biggest cog on cassette or small ring in front + smallest cog in back. So, your lowest gear would be small in front + big in back which is not cross chained, so you can use it.

consider you might need to learn to shift? Do you maybe have big & small chain rings mixed up for what they are for?

indyman1973

Not really a beginner. Been riding for years, but am putting more into my training rides this year. The Cannondale is new. I have worked on increasing my cadence and that has certainly helped, but wanted to see if there is anything to gain from a different cassette.

indyman1973

. The chain is definitely rubbing on something but I admit my shifting is not great. In Indiana you rarely need more than a few gears. Maybe the Hilly just highlighted my inexperience with shifting

echotraveler

i have 2 cassettes right now, an 11-32 apex and a 11-26 red.

now that i have the experience of a 11-26 i can say with confidence that closer together gears help you train better, as you can progress harmoniously when shifting. specially on fast group rides the shorter jumps help you save energy as you apply force to accelerate.

on the other hand the 11-32 has huge spaces between gears, its enough to feel a pull when you want to accelerate. i didn't notice this before riding the 11-26. Now the 11-32 has its uses. Leisurely rides/long extreme mountains/rando/touring. that 32 gave me a big break on a 80 miler with the steepest hills ive ever climbed.


An 11-28 should have enough power for downhills/uhphills. Many say you don't use the 11, I do for sprints. and a 28 is a pretty good climbing gear. IMO you need 2 things:

1. standard crank
2. train your pedaling

saying your a masher, makes me think you need to start disciplining your impulses and start conserving your energy. Mashing = lots of lactic acid + depleting all your energy = BONK!

Lexi01

Sorry - I didn't think I was talking to a world class athlete.

Certainly, OP, if you're constantly training (and struggling) in 18% climbs all day every day then sure, look into a larger cassette. But if you're a regular Joe who is doing "regular cycling" with few climbs here and there, who is currently running a compact crank with an 11/28 cassette (and still struggling) - then I'd advise you cycle more and work on your cadence.

Beaker

+1

Rubbing sound could be many things - maybe the b-screw in your rear derailleur needs a little adjustment? This will move the derailleur away from your cassette in the event that the pulleys get too close to the biggest cog in your lowest gear. Alternatively it could be that you need to check whether the tension in the derailleur cable is OK - this is an easy check by twisting the barrel adjuster on the rear derailleur while turning the cranks. If you need more on that, check out the parktool website.

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...nts-derailleur

Of course, that's just two of several possibilities.

ericm979

If there's anything rubbing on the frame, it's the fault of the bike setup, not your fault.

On 50/34 cranks the chain will rub on the inner side of the big ring when in the small ring and the smallest cogs. That's normal. But nothing else should rub, ever.

A high gear of 50x11 is plenty for amateurs. If you run our of gearing below 38 or 40 mph you need to work on your cadence. And at those speeds you are faster not pedalling and tucked in.

You will probably need a different derailleur to handle a cassette with a 32t cog. Sram makes them for road use. Your dealer should be able to set you up.

indyman1973

Yeah I'm beginning to think I have what I need. I would be interested to try a 11-32 on a few rides to see if there is any gain. I definitely need the 11...just not sure if I need the 32.


To your point...I definitely ride hard. I rarely get my cadence over 100, I typically ride around 85-90 rpms.

carpediemracing 

Masher doesn't mean you're not allowed to know how to spin. I'm a gear masher too (an old teammate told me last month jokingly that my lowest gear - I was bottomed out in a 44x25 on a hill - was about as high as his sprinting gear) but that doesn't mean I can't spin. I sometimes sprint at 70-80 rpm but other times at 110-120 rpm.

Do a little bit of work on spinning. With a 50x11 I figure you're running out of gear at about 42-44 mph sustained speeds, but by then you're usually better off sprinting up to speed (i.e. you need to be able to spin) then doing a tuck. You need the big gears if you're trying to catch up on the downhill, if you're trying to stay away from a group, or if the hill isn't that steep and you have to pedal to get down it at any kind of speed.

For those last kinds of descents having bigger gears does help. (They also help if you're in a fast moving group and you need to move up, i.e. you're on a flat road, the group is moving along at 35 mph, and you need to go 40 mph to move up decisively.) For big gear "comparisons" use this:

50x11 = 53x12 = 55x13

Not exactly but sort of. For about a year I ran a 55x44 - I stole the rings off our tandem because my two sets were worn and all the other cranks I had were the wrong bolt circles. I finally bought new rings and stuck the 53 on because the 55 was too big. I was lazy so I didn't both with the 39 ("I'll put it on after this weekend's race"). I can tell you that a 55x11 helps on those shallow sustained descents where if you tuck you top out at about 40-45 mph.

At the same time the 44 is a pain. But I haven't changed it out yet I just avoid hills.

cplager

Isn't that backwards? I would expect that a world class athlete wouldn't need gearing as low as an amateur?

What should people who have trouble climbing hills do? Climb more hills. If somebody does better climbing hills with a larger range of gears, then I don't see how that's a problem.

Cheers, Charles

p.s. The Hilly 100 lists hills with maximum slope of around 24%. Certainly these climbs aren't nearly as long as alpine climbing stages, but that's still quite a slope.

eja_ bottecchia

I don't use a compact crank on my Colnago or Bottecchia.

I ride 53/39 up front.

On the rear I change depending on where I am riding.

11-25 (11 speed) for mostly flat.

12-27 (11 speed) for average hills/grades.

12-29 (11 speeds) for real hilly terrain.

I am an "older" and slightly overweight rider.

The point of this is that in my opinion there is no "best" cassette, there are always compromises.

Lexi01

Nope.

Bah Humbug

Amateurs don't have to climb HCs all day every day for a week.

rdtompki

Ok, let's put this in perspective. The steepest pitch RidewithGPS shows on Mt. Tabor road is 11.5% and these are pretty short bumps. If you ride hard and fast and are strong enough to mash you should be able to get up these bumps easily in a 34-28 combination, standing for a bit if you had to. Still, if you were to tackle serious climbing it sounds like something a bit lower might be in order.

bikerjp

This is my setup. When I first started riding I thought I needed more gears. Maybe I did. But it didn't take too long to be able to ride short steep climbs (11-12%) with this gearing. I now have one bike with an 11-23 and ride these same hills albiet with a bit less spinning. Stick with what you have and just keep riding.

Bah Humbug

I run a 50/34 12-27, to get nicer spacing than the 11-28 without giving up much depth (and I don't feel the need to pedal at 35mph downhill - not racing), and my next gearing plan, after extensive trainer time this winter, is to swap the 34 for a 36 to improve front shifting. If 34/28 doesn't feel low enough, I'm inclined to think that more training will help soon enough that you'd feel foolish if you went to the trouble of getting a mid-cage RD + 11-32 cassette.

cyclezen

50/11 is a huge gear - If you could really ride that 11 on flats, the uphills would be a none issue...
and if you're not climbing up hills, then any downhills are really, really short and not a consideration in gearing.
you're not running out of gears on the downhill, you're just not making full use of them.
I checked out the Hilly Hundred Profile and the Sunday leg does claim some 24/25% - which must be very, very short - otherwise there's nothing over a 300 ft elevation difference, most much less - all very doable with 30 / and mid 20's rear - and to make it less a struggle, the 30/28 is more than enough stump puller for short, steep sections.

get some reasonable cadence goin - at 90 rpm, which is certainly not a fast spin, more like normal cadence, the 50/11 velocity is over 32 mph...
wanna be able to ride hills better? go ride hills...
that 32 will not be noticeably easier for someone who doesn't ride uphill.
but putting in some regular hill work will eventually make the 28 seem a lot easier...

gotta luv the concept " I am a masher, not a spinner. I like to ride hard and fast." - inference that being able to ride reasonable cadence is naturally not 'fast' or 'hard'.
don;t get me worng, I'm not dissin you or how you choose to ride, but equipment goes only so far, the rest is rubber on the road and some well understood concepts. Cycling improvement is best accomplished when viewed thru a large picture window, not a cellar hatch.

JMR

Actually, I think it is a very helpful statement.

AC was running an 11-32 cassette in the Vuelta when the climbs were up to and over 23%, and he was racing for nearly 3 weeks straight.

I can pretty much guarantee that the OP is not going anywhere near a grade of 23%. With 34-28 anybody SHOULD be able to get up any NORMAL climb... if you can't you need to ride/train more, not go and buy more equipment.

JMR

DaveSSS 

That does not make sense. If you're climbing, you should be in the 34T ring and you can certainly use any of the cogs, except the smallest or perhaps the two smallest. What do you think those last (largest) two cogs are for? If you were climbing in the big ring, that makes no sense at all.

indyman1973

I was climbing in the 34T ring. Maybe I should take off my training wheels???