Robvolz 

As my sweetie has said every time I reach down with my right hand to shift into the big gear on the crank (don't ask), "you know….its OK to coast."


[sorry, this was said on the Colnago tandem. I just realized you would not have known that.]

jonwvara 

I do this, too, although usually with a granny ring as well. A five-speed 14-17-21-26-32 is just the thing if your derailleur can handle a 32-tooth cog. If you don't feel like customizing a freewheel, I think that Suntour Perfects and Pro Compes--and probably others--can be found with those exact tooth counts.

bikingshearer 

In the 15 minutes or so when had delusions or racing (I was of Junior age and never got beyond club racing), i bought a 47 tooth chainwheel for my 1st gen Dura Ace crankset to replace the 52 tooth for some reason to do with gear limitations. I didn't use it much, if at all, and checking the gear chart above, I can't figure out for the life of me what I was thinking.

Of course, that's true of a lot of things I did at that age . . . .

mhespenheide 

Same. This is one of the things that annoys me about modern bikes. I really only raced juniors USCF and collegiate. If I remember correctly, the gear limitation for juniors was a 54x15. Many "normal" bikes at the time had a 52x13 if your freewheel had any kind of climbing gear in the back. 52:13 is a 4:1 ratio. But modern cassettes seem to insist on starting with an 11-tooth cog. Even a compact 50-34 chainring combination is overgeared by that standard. If you're going to run an 11-tooth cog, a 44-tooth chainring is probably big enough for most people.

48-34 and 12-34 would be a nice combination of rings and cogs. Or 44-32 and 11-32.