jimmymerlin

Hi. I had cancer 6 years ago and have never really recovered my fitness levels and its quite possible , i never will. Ive lost my right eye as a result and feel quite nervous when cycling on roads these days , as i cant see behind me so well anymore when making a manoeuvre. Having said that, I still want to ride my bike and feel i deserve spoiling myself by getting the sram etap electric groupset , but as my fitness has gone, I would like to ask what is the very lowest gear ratio i could fit to my bike using sram . I currently have a shimano ultegra triple chainset fitted , but would like to change to a compact or subcompact version with a large rear cassette, so that the ratios i get would be as good ( or even better) than with my triple. In the past, I have cycled up Alpe Duez twice, Les Duez Alpe, Col de Galibier , Mont Vontuex and many other big mountains in France and Italy and while i think those days are over, I would still like to spoil myself with an excellent quality groupset, My Merlin Titanium frame is brilliant and light, but is not really ssusitable for a shimano D12 system without having cables clipped all over the place, whereas with the sram, as the battery is mounted on the components, I would not have untidy wring as I would have with the shimano set up. So any advice on the lowest gear ratios I could hopefully achieve would be much appreciated. Many thanks . Jimmymerlin

cxwrench

It's all on the SRAM site. If you want to go all Red you'd want the 10-36 cassette and the 46/33 crank.

DaveSSS 

I have two bikes with force axs 10-36 cassettes. I use Shimano grx cranks for more range, with the +2.5mm chainline corrected with spacing washers. The 810 series cranks come with 48/31 chain rings and the cheaper 610 series has 46/30 chain rings. I manage to use the standard RD, but the wide version is preferable. There is no 10-36 red cassette.

FWIW, I regularly ride 10-12% grades at 4-5 mph with this setup. To get a 30T chainring from sram requires their 43/30 wide crankset.

Camilo

Sram force axs ETap "wide" version use a 43x30 crank and 10-36 cassette standard. With AXS ETap (Red or Force) you can combine with Eagle ETap RD if you want even more range in the back.

Start looking diligently now and don't be too price sensitive and you will probably be able to cobble together a group by July.... If you're diligent and get in preorder and back order lists.

bikerchris_3

I too had a frame that I loved and wanted to upgrade without running cables. So I went with SRAM AXS setup. However I wanted a 1x setup so I used the SRAM road brake and shifters and the SRAM mountain bike eagle rear derailleur and chain. SRAM rear derailleur for this setup is a 10-50 or 10-52. That was wider than I needed for my riding so I actually went with a Rotor 11-46 12 speed cassette. The setup up works flawlessly. I run this with a 44 chainring at the front which works for me. So to the OP question you can get a really wide and really low gear setup by using a mix of road and MTB components to suit your needs. As a recreational cyclist I wanted to be done with the front derailleur since the rolling hills when I live caused me to change the front as often as the rear in my original traditional road setup and as a recreational cyclist I can vary my cadence to allow for the slightly wider steps between gears for a 1x setup.

smashndash

Just wanna point out that with Eagle, I believe you have to use a 1x setup officially. I think I've seen a 2x eagle floating around somewhere. Maybe it's possible with some modifications. But I wouldn't count on it.

So you either use a 42 x 10-50 eagle setup or a 43/30 x 10-36 setup. Both will have similar low and high gears. Of course, you can go smaller with the eagle chainring but you'll start to lose out on top end.

DaveSSS 

I use Shimano grx cranks with the +2.5mm chainline corrected with spacing washers. They make a 48/31 in the 810 series and a 46/30 in the 610 series. I get the same 30/36 low gear as a sram wide 43/30 crank without the loss of top gear. Both cranks shift great.