Subject: RE: Understanding gears & cranksets Aikidoman - 2009-08-26 12:54 PMThe lowest ratio you have on the tri bike is 40.6. You have three gears lower than that on your roadie (37.1, 33.9 and 31.2)
Is you can see, you can get one back if you switch to a 12-27 (37.6) for 80 bucks. You get back about 1 1/2 if you switch to a compact crank for about $250 (38.4 and 35.4 from the earlier charts)
You can get back just about all three if you switch to a compact crank AND get a new cassette.
It's all about how much you need to get gearing wise and how much you want to spend. The money is probably not an object if you just can't ride the bike. However, I found most issues can probably by solved with a cheaper cassette and about 2 minutes worth of work to swap it out.
But you have a slightly bigger problem.
I have heard people going to a 12-34 rear and going with a MTB derailer for the worst of conditions, but I don't know how well that works.
I called my LBS and asked him to order me a compact crank. His suggestion was to change out the cassette to a 12-27 OR see if it was possible to switch to the 12-34 like you suggested in an attempt to save some money. I guess I'll go with that to start, knowing that I still have the option of going compact if I need the lower gears. I'm assuming that with time I'll get used to it but I still have races to do in the meantime and it sounds like most favour the compact crank. Thank you so much for your help and suggestions. (And all the others who helped me out too!! ) |