I've been going little/little, and just short enough to keep the cage from rubbing on the chain. Woks fine at the big/big end of things, too.

Dew doesn't count as a precipitation activity on Strava.

I sometimes have difficulty believing I used to do all the climbs around here with a 53/39 x 12-25. Mrs. Peel is now 52/39 x 13-26, and I can't imagine doing a 3 mile, 7% climb with that gearing - even though I'm lighter and possibly stronger than I was.

Back in my racer-boy days, the only time I used a 25 was one particular race that had a 17% climb section. My usual largest cog was a 23, and my crit wheels had a 11-21. Yesterday, I was climbing a 10% section in my 29, and wondering how I got up that hill before...oh, yeah...20 years and 20 bs made a little difference.

R7000. I hate the feel of fewer teeth compared to more, and with my terrain here on pavement I'm almost always in the 50 or 52 and using most of the cassette...except for the smallest one or two because I don't go pacelining at 30mph. I also don't want to use the junior cassette because the 14 is too big for a small, and only going to 28 would make me go to the small ring once or twice more in my standard ride.

As it is, with 12-speed I'll almost definitely just run a 46x11-34 for the R2. Gravel... maybe a 40T with the Rotor 11-36 or 11-39. Gravel I do use the small ring, but only on some climbs.

Of course moving to a place with some verticality may just chuck all that out the window.

My cassette is 12-25. And I like it.

That won’t be available (from Shimano) come 12-speed anyway.

Yeah, a 12t doesn't feel so great and an 11t has a bit of a nails-on-the-chalkboard feel to me, too. I can only imagine a 10t on some of the 12-speed groups *shudder*

So, what's keeping you from doing 12-xx for now? Just don't like the available cassettes? I haven't looked in a while and don't even know what's out there for Shimano, though there was a recent thread with links to some interesting third party, one-piece 12-xx cassettes. They're DA money, though, and I don't know that I want it that bad.

:crash:

You racer boys and your Strava this and Strava that.

I'll take "Yes," for 200, Alex.

There's always the Scuds if a school's looking for a new team name and per some online dictionary it actually has a meaning "a formation of vapory clouds driven fast by the wind."

My high school teams did not have an official name. We were just Deerfield, though sometimes informally referred to by ourselves as "Big Green." Our colors were green and white, like Dartmouth's, which is about 90 miles north of campus.

The only 12-up I'm aware of from Shimano is the 12-25 Velo Vol uses, and 25 is too small; it'd force me to shift the front more often and kill the point of the exercise. Back in the 10sp days I ran the crap out of the 12-27, which was fantastic. With 11-sp all the wheels went to 11-28, which was... ok. The fact that every manufacturer (of groupsets) is using the extra cogs for very wide-range cassettes with gaps no smaller than before, and with far fewer options than before drives me up the wall. New Ultegra will be 11-30 an 11-34 only. DA will have those and an 11-28 available. That's it.

As for the Recon/ Edco cassettes, I've heard mixed reviews of their quality, and some of them appear to have bizzarro-bonkers ratios. And I've made peace with the cassettes I have no for my fitness and terrain, using the small ring solely for climbing the stupid hill I live on and gravel climbs. However, the 11t is a waste, and the 12t is meh. AG's 11, 12, and 13s are unused, but the 28t is, again, too small for her too.

Campy used to make a 13-29. I could use that with a standard crank, or a TT crank.

I think I'm running all freewheels now. I'll have to check to make sure. And possibly all uniglide.

It's so interesting to me to hear about 11T being unused. I'm in 52/11 2-3 times a ride with our rollers here. Half of the time I'm not even aware until my computer beeps at me that I'm out of gears. I'm also in the 36/30 several times per ride as well.

Well and this is why I said the moving may crimp my plans to toss all my FDs in the trash. ;)

And what cadence do you use in your 52x11? I understand (unlike some) not wanting to do 90rpm at low power at 30-whatever MPH, but I've never found much point in the low power, low cadence pedaling on downhills.

I wish it were easier to ride with each other; it would be fascinating to see what I do on your roads, and vice versa.

I have found I’m most efficient around 90- general hop in that gear at around 28-29. Pedaling down some of the longer gradual descents here you can get to 45-50.

Mostly. BTW the Sunday ride is called "Reservoir Dogs." We are a scrappy bunch.

That's what I run. Either 12-25 or 12-28, depending on my needs. But this is 10 speed Shimano.

Besides heat which I abhor, it's ragweed season. My tell in heat is when muscles start cramping that rarely do, it's too hot. Today, it was right triceps and left deltoid which only happens in severe heat. They started at mile 14 and I often ride 65-75 with no pain in either. I checked out around 21 miles.

I'm too wimpy to spin at 90 unless it's low power and generally favor a higher cadence. I do occasionally try to shift to a non-existent 11t, but that's usually not until I'm pushing 40mph or higher. At that point, I'll pedal up to 120rpm or so and just let gravity embrace my fatness thereafter.

Interesting experience on today's ride. Recall I still run Ultegra 6700 on my bikes. Also recall that the exposed parts of the shifters are notorious for rusting, and there is a bit of rust on mine.

When I started the ride, my inner paddle (to shift to a smaller cog in back) would sometimes just move but not shift, and sometimes would "catch" and shift properly. Oh crap. The outer shifter would shift crisply to the bigger cogs nice and crisply. So I am pretty sure the problem is NOT a fraying cable or a cable problem at all, but something in the shifter mechanism that is not engaging properly. I am not enough of an expert on the shifter innards/mechanism to make a definite diagnosis. Luckily, as the ride progressed, the weak "catch" or inability to shift at all became less frequent, and within 15 minutes it was working fine.

My suspicion is that whatever ratchet or other gizmo inside the shifter may have gotten stuck due to rust and lack of use (this is my first ride on the bike in 2 weeks), but I am torn whether to just leave it alone versus spray a bunch of WD40 and/or lube up into the mechanism to help clear out whatever the cause was.

Suggestions???

Sometimes the non-cycling world attempts to appropriate cycling with hilarious results. To wit, a $28,900 Louis Vuitton single speed bike that is probably less capable than anything from State:

https://theradavist.com/2021/08/__tr...Bkuqtqbtl52A8U

Some of us are too fat for 25s.

Both big cogs and tires.