I learned three things today:
1) I don't have to stick with the 12-23 cassette the previous owner put on my bike. 11-28 actually provides a low gear for 16% San Diego hills and a high gear for going down them. What possible use could there be for a ridiculous corncob like that?
2) All Shimano cassettes with the same ratio count are interchangeable, and 9-speed Sora is a lot cheaper than I expected to have to eat on a twenty-year-old Dura-Ace bike
3) Shimano publishes full service manuals for everything going back decades. It took about ten minutes to switch cassettes and adjust the rear derailleur
Unless you're racing, going to a triple crank can really help
Docwemple said:
Unless you're racing, going to a triple crank can really help
which is interesting, Mtn Bikes have gone to 1x(11,12,13) without loosing much gear ranges.
I run 11 to 46 teeth on my rear cassette and 32 on the front.
Shimano documentation has always been fantastic.
IMO, derailleurs and gearing and all that for both mountain and road bikes are a most egregious example of purposeful planned obsolescence and incompatibility for no good reason other than selling more products.
And, yeah, 12-23 is a pretty tight ratio best for a buff young rider on the flats!
In reply to chaparral :
In addition, you can put a 7-9 speed long cage mountain rear derailleur on it (an XT, for example) and run cheap 9 speed mountain cassettes up to something like 11-34 or 11-36. Starting with 10 speed Shimano started messing with the pull ratio of the rear derailleurs but for 9 speed they're still the same.
I think the previous owner rode it only on freeways. That would explain the 53/12 high and 41/23 low. I'm in good shape but I'm not light so my new 41/28 is about right for the big grades, and my new 53/11 is good for the other side!
In reply to chaparral :
My retro grouch Leri Mirella has 53/42 front and 11-23 rear, might as well be 1x with only the 42. It takes a pretty good "other side" for me to use 53/11. :-/
My mildly less retro Lemond Tourmalet has 52/36 front and 12-25 rear. I'm a lot more comfortable on that bike these days.
Grtechguy said:
Docwemple said:
Unless you're racing, going to a triple crank can really help
which is interesting, Mtn Bikes have gone to 1x(11,12,13) without loosing much gear ranges.
I run 11 to 46 teeth on my rear cassette and 32 on the front.
for MTB the gears don't need to be near as close of ratio as is ideal on road bikes... you can still do wide gearing but the jump between gears can really throw your cadence off.
BoulderG said:
IMO, derailleurs and gearing and all that for both mountain and road bikes are a most egregious example of purposeful planned obsolescence and incompatibility for no good reason other than selling more products.
And, yeah, 12-23 is a pretty tight ratio best for a buff young rider on the flats!
especially with an old school 42/52 type non compact crankset...
my road bike runs a triple and even then I run a slightly smaller granny... as a fat guy I'm moving a lot more weight up hill...
my touring bike I'm running old school 9spd with a triple and a 11-32 (don't need the 34t that I preffered for MTBing to keep me out of the granny as long as possible)
