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Cassettes – Wide or Tight?

02.22.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 24 Comments

I met up with my biking friend John T after work today. He was excited because he made a major change on his bike: he got a new cassette.

He’s excited about it because the largest cog on the cassette has 27 teeth. It replaces the original cassette that came with the bike, that had a 23t large cog. Last summer, he managed to climb “Heart Attack Hill” west of Austin with the 23, but he’s sure he couldn’t do it now, after several months of low-mile riding. He thinks the 27 will make it easier for him to climb.

I’m sure it will. When I got a new cassette more than a year ago, the bike shop found one with a 28t cog. A 26 was the largest that came with my bike. I couldn’t climb Heart Attack Hill with the 26, but I can with the 28 (and better conditioning).

In fact, my cassette has a wide range. Its smallest cog is an 11, so its progression is 11-13-15-17-19-21-23-26-28. Yes, nine speeds. I like it, because I can really fly in the big ring with the 11t cog, and the 28 gets me up the hills. But lots of bikers hate wide range cassettes.

Their concern is with the gaps between some shifts. I have two-tooth jumps in most gears. A lot of cyclists will tell you they prefer one-tooth jumps — that wider gaps like I have make it hard to figure out just what gear you should be in, and that means more shifting between the big ring and small ring up front.

So, the more gears you’re running in back, the tighter your cassette will be. Another option would be a triple up front with a tight range in back. The small front ring will get you the granny combination you’ll need for climbing.

Both John T and I run 50/34 compact cranksets up front. We’re not racers. We’re not climbers. We both need help on the hills. For us, a wide range cassette works.

What do you run on your bike? What do you see as the pros and cons of wide range versus tight range cassettes?

 

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Categories // Components Tags // cassette, cranksets

Backpedaling – With a New Old Crankset

02.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

I put in considerably fewer miles in January than in the last few months of 2010, mainly because the weather was so uncooperative.  But even so, I did come to one major conclusion about my bike:

I have to change cranks again.

Regular readers might remember that my bike fitting in April showed that I needed shorter crank arms.  The ones I had were 175 mm, and the fitter recommended 172.5.  I was able to change over much sooner than I thought, because guest poster Don Blount had an older crankset that he had upgraded, and was nice enough to send it my way.  The difference 2.5 mm made in the pedal stroke was noticeable, and an improvement.

But then came New Year’s Day.  The left crank arm fell off during a ride.

I prepared myself after that.  I put an 8 mm Allen wrench into my seat bag, ready to tighten the pedal bolt if I ever needed to.  Unfortunately, just a few days later, I needed to.  I stopped during a ride just to check it, and sure enough, the same left crank arm jiggled a little.

I mentioned the problem to a bike mechanic, and he told me the crankset was shot, and needed to be replaced.  I didn’t really want to, and figured I could just tighten it as needed.

But I’ve needed to tighten it more often than I thought.  And it’s very unpredictable, too.  On a recent 30-mile ride, the bolt stayed tight, even after I’d traveled some grungy roads.  But on an easy Veloway ride of half that distance a few days later, I had to stop on the second lap to tighten it down.

So, I’m retrofitting.  I still have the original equipment crankset and bottom bracket, and I’ll just swap out one for the other.  That means I’ll be going back to 175 mm crank arms.  Well, I lived with them for more than two years, and they performed fine – just maybe not as optimally as shorter arms.  For the casual kind of riding I mostly do these days, I don’t think it will be a bad thing.  Except maybe, I’ll just have to be more careful about lifting the inside pedal on tight turns.

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Categories // Components Tags // components, cranksets

Compact Double or Triple? You Have Alternatives

09.30.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

My posts comparing triple cranksets with compact doubles continue to get a lot of views on an almost daily basis.  Clearly, riders are interested in comparing the two versions to try to determine which is best for them.

Now, I’ll offer some further confusion.

The choice doesn’t have to be between a triple — usually a 52-39-30 tooth crankset and a compact double — usually a 50-34.

SRAM came out with its Apex drivetrain this summer.  It’s a double crankset — you can’t get a triple from SRAM.  But what you can get is an 11-32 cassette, that will give you the range of a triple with the narrowness of a double.

The SRAM Apex 11-32 cassette and 50/34 crankset.

SRAM claims the wider range of gears offered on the ten-speed, 11-32 cassette give less redundancy between chainrings and smoother transitions between gears.  The chainrings come in three variations: 53/39, 50/34, and 48/34.  Couple a 34-tooth chainring with a 32-tooth cog and even the Bike Noob  ought to be able to climb most any hill he comes across.

Velo Orange, which caters to the long-distance cycling crowd, takes a different approach: they have a new Polyvalent crank with 46 and 30-tooth chainrings.  They suggest these would be great on city bikes and utility bikes, but I’ve seen randonneurs drool over it on their online forums.  Obviously, a 46-tooth big ring won’t let you get to the top end speed of a typical road bike, but for people who spend 12 or more hours in the saddle at a time, ease of pedaling counts for a lot.

The Velo Orange 46/30 crankset.

Either of these would be worth considering if you need help getting up the big hills on your cycling routes.  The VO Polyvalent is listed at $105.00 on the Velo Orange website; The Apex 50/34 crankset can be had at Amazon.com for $118, and the 11-32 cassette for $78.

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Categories // Components Tags // chainrings, cranksets

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