Quote:
Originally Posted by squiggs96
This is all very interesting to me. I didn't think something like a cassette could have so much impact, or have me doing so much research. Now I think I want like 3 different ones! Which setup do you use now?
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Chris Froome - the recent Tour De France winner has 11-32 on some of his bikes.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115657379@N08/14591182981
I read here recently that the gear ratio range of going from 28 teeth to 32 teeth on the big cassette ring makes climbing approximately 14% easier. You can use a faster cadence with less brute strength required for the same wattage. The jump from 25 to 32 should be something like 22% according to the math in this thread:
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/com...re-242734.html
My full carbon Ghost bike from MEC still has Shimano 105 11-28t but I recently got a second cheap Northrock road bike (Giant manufactured road bike for Costco lol) to build into a commuter. It came with Shimano Sora 11-25t so I had Cyclepath MacLeod swap in a Sora 11-32t for $30 or so.
My commuter has a carbon fork but aluminum frame and is often loaded with pannier bags on the rack I added so I'm often carrying a lot of additional weight (laptop, groceries, lock/chain, etc.) up hills. So its made my bike a whole lot more versatile to have what amounts to two more easier gears than it came with.
After the swap, I never ride my carbon race bike anymore. The gears and riding position are too aggressive. It's just not fun lol.