That’s right. Only when pro cycling started to need lower gears, the industry provided. Not just Froome, the entire peloton needed something lower to climb L’Angliru, Mortirolo and other brutal climbs. La Vuelta is known now for short and ultra steep finals.
If most pros want a 32 for L’Angliru, that means I want something bigger for more mundane climbs.
It’s true that more gears allowed this, but there was little technical impediment to design a cassette and derailleur like 12-30 with 8 or 9 speeds back in the day. Designing smaller chainrings was even easier. But the road market has always been very conservative.
@guacamole.eric I don’t think I would enjoy climbing with a 34-27. Some roads would become walking territory too. Good luck with your conversion to granny gears!
The steepest I’ve done with this bike is around 16%, near the top of A Rou Yang. It wasn’t pleasant
The mention of MTB gears earlier was also intriguing, and I wouldn’t mind wider tires to feel safer going down hills with more traction. I suppose at some point I should just consider an MTB or touring…
If you prefer flat bars, it’s an option. But nowadays, with disc brakes, gravel gears and gravel frames, you can put some big fat ass tires on drop bars bikes. Actually, I think that gravel gears are much more adequate for beginners, occasional riders, older riders, etc., than road gearing.
Although Taiwan tarmac is damn good. I don’t think very wide tires are really a necessity here, unless you ride a lot through the most local roads, those that are concrete. Taipei does not have a lot of those around. If you feel you have lack of grip, maybe the air pressure is too high. Or the compound of your tires is very hard (good for durability, bad for grip).
Changing the chain ring can save you a bit of money and does not require you to swap out the entire crank set. The chain ring costs a bit more than a cassette, but is just as effective.
If I am not mistaken, the thru axle of the crank set should not have much to do with the gearing. You should be able to swap chain rings without having to worry about compatibility with the frame.
To OP: I am running 52/36 crank set and 11/30 in the back. I tend to grind pretty hard when the gradients hit the double digits, but that’s just how I like it. Just as @shutuplegs has said:
It depends on the BCD of the crankset. With a 110 mm BCD, which is probably what the OP has, the smallest possible (round) chainring is 34T. Some aftermarket brands do smaller (32 and I think 30) oval chainrings, though.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough. I was talking about frames with braze-on plates. There is a maximum and minimum height where the front derailleur can be placed. Again, there are some aftermarket products that can increase or decrease this height a few mm. But if you want to go really low (double chainring MTB cranks) I don’t think it would be possible with a braze-on road frame. They are usually carbon made and not compatible with clamp front derailleurs because they are not round shape. Anyway, it is probably not the best of the ideas to use a clamp in a carbon tube that is not intended to use one.
With a frame that can take clamp front derailleurs, yes, you can usually go as high or as low as you want.
Oh those are good points. I do like the handlebars on my road bike over flat bars.
In terms of traction, I haven’t had a loss of traction while riding at speed, but I’ve been quite paranoid about it because it rains on the mountains more, and my spin teacher has had a fall from avoiding traffic. I wouldn’t mind having extra buffer with my traction, just in case. My thinking here is also influenced by a YouTube video that said lighter tires make a negligible difference in time trials.
I have had a loss of traction on flats doing sharp turns at low speed. I inflated my tires to their max back then, 115 psi, but have backed down to 100 since then.
I’m loving the level of technical detail in this thread, as in this comment. I wouldn’t have known to even Google for this stuff, so this is super helpful, thank you!
100psi That’s a lot. Some people still use those pressures, but most people have drastically reduced it (the pros too). I run 70 back and 60 front. 32 tires, standard tubes. Around 80 kg (me, the bike, water, tools, everything).
Try lower pressures according with your weight and tire size. You’ll gain grip and comfort, and probably reduce the rolling resistance too. The trend now is to use wider tires and lower pressures.
I prefer to run 90psi front and back and sometimes do 90 front and 85 back on my 25c tires. I have run up to 27c tires and usually do not inflate them past 90. However, I have had tires that have lowest recommended tire pressure of 140psi. Safe to say I did not keep those tires on for too long.
This is purely anecdotal, but the other night I overinflated (relative to my preference) and had my tires ~90psi. I have 25c tires and normally have them at 75-80psi.
I was going down the Jiannan Road hill which had wet roads and it just felt weird. On one of the turns my back wheel almost skidded out from under me. I’ve ridden down that road 5-6 times while it was even more wet and never had an issue. Maybe it was just extra wet in that area of the road or I was riding too slow. The tire website says for my weight and 25c I should be running 90-94psi. But it felt as if I was riding on ice skates.
I know running tires with low(er) psi does increase the chances of pinch flats and much of this is personal preference, but I wonder if going under the recommended tire pressure has any other negative (safety) effects?
I’m guessing the latter calculator is an older tire pressure model? The first one assumed a lighter total weight, so I bumped it to match (up to 10kg). Still 76/81 psi.
I checked the tire sidewalls a little closer and noticed my front says an 87 PSI min while my back says a 100 PSI min. Looks like I probably shouldn’t dip below those .
Just wanted to circle around and say it’s been a couple months since I got my gears swapped out. Having a 34 in the rear makes such a big difference, I’ve been able to do Leng Shui Keng multiple times since, and it doesn’t feel like a redline effort unless I want it to be. That makes such a difference in me even willing to make an attempt.
I asked my shop about the possibility of wider frames and unfortunately, my frame can take a max of 23mm tires. This does give me an idea of what I’d want in a future bike, so that’s valuable at least.
You’d have to go pretty low pressure but in the case of clinchers, you can ‘walk’ the inner tube, i.e. the inner tube slips on the inside of the tyre.
I’ve ridden my 23mm tyres at 30psi before (not on purpose) - I only noticed because my bike was suddenly very comfortable! Worth noting that I use tyres with wire bead, and not the folding kind. Generally I run at 85psi. Had no issues in eight years, not even a puncture out on the road (foreshadowing)
I’ve been riding with my tires at 80-85 psi cold. For one tire, this is lower than the tire sidewall recommended min (90psi). It’s noticeably more comfortable, though, so I’m willing to risk it. It’s been 2-3x 50km rides since I started doing this. No issues yet
I wouldn’t worry too much about the recommended psi on the tires, they’re there bc EU law (and probably other country laws) require manufacturers to show it.
I would be more concerned if your weight and tire width is suited for the PSI you’re running.
That’s a lot. Some people still use those pressures, but most people have drastically reduced it (the pros too). I run 70 back and 60 front. 32 tires, standard tubes. Around 80 kg (me, the bike, water, tools, everything).
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