Originally Posted by
Squidly
I have a 305 FTP and can and have pushed 3.4w/kg for an hour. I would have thought that would have been ok? Or am I well below the average cyclist?
Well you are much better than I in the power department. Maybe it's just your technique though and not your gearing. If you have a narrow range of cadence, then that will, IMO, be one strike against you for keeping up with your peers or your aspirations of what you imagine you should be doing. Do you ride with others that do better than you? What gearing do they have on their bikes? Or what do they do different?
I believe my current setup is in range of the Shimano spec but right at the limit which is why I wanted to upgrade the pulley if moving to an 11-50.
Yes a
48 tooth low is the max tooth for that DR. So anything bigger will be a experiment and might require other stuff.
edit... Actually it's 42 teeth for the max low sprocket....
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/produ.../RD-RX817.html (hit the chevron to open all the spec's)
But just not sure if that will give me enough range of gears for what I am after. Basically I want to be able to spin up very hard climbs. On my 42t at the weekend up really steep gravel and single track climbs I was doing about 40-50rpm at 350ish watts and any slower rpm I would have stopped dead. I would like to be able to spin at a higher rpm and not have to put that power out and go slower up the climb.
It's what I'd recommend. Though I don't do gravel or off road stuff. Since I started spinning 80 rpm as my comfort rpm and higher for times I'm accelerating or doing a hard climb, my cycling numbers have improved. I only spin slower when I'm resting or just completely worn out.
But I think you'll get the best info from looking at what others you ride with or see out there doing the same ride in the same conditions use. And that might well be a different bike. You'll pay a lot to get significantly lower gearing that won't affect your top end or leave you with big gaps in your lower ranges that just a rear cassette change will do.