Gearing question

"Darren" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Is there a quick way to see what gearing I have.

I have a Trek 1400 Road Bike 2004 model with Shimano 105's groupset.

However when I hit a steep climb, I seem to struggle.
It feels to me that the gearing I have is not good for steep climbing.

Is it easy to change the gearing to make it easier to climb?
or is it to expensive ?

Can you count the teeth on the smallest and largest cog at the back. They
might be, for instance, 12 teeth and 23 teeth, making your "casette" a
12-23. To climb better, you need a cassette with a bigger number, like a
13-25 or even a 12-27. The swap is easy to do if you've got 2 tools, a
chainwhip and a cassette lockring remover. Both tools can be got cheap, but
your LBS should be able to swap your cassette over for a very minimal
service charge also.

Cheers
David M

"Davidm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Darren" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Is there a quick way to see what gearing I have.

I have a Trek 1400 Road Bike 2004 model with Shimano 105's groupset.

However when I hit a steep climb, I seem to struggle.
It feels to me that the gearing I have is not good for steep climbing.

Is it easy to change the gearing to make it easier to climb?
or is it to expensive ?

Can you count the teeth on the smallest and largest cog at the back. They
might be, for instance, 12 teeth and 23 teeth, making your "casette" a
12-23. To climb better, you need a cassette with a bigger number, like a
13-25 or even a 12-27. The swap is easy to do if you've got 2 tools, a
chainwhip and a cassette lockring remover. Both tools can be got cheap,
but your LBS should be able to swap your cassette over for a very minimal
service charge also.

Cheers
David M

I always thought to climb better, you should do more climbing?
But coming from a guy who finishes last each week at kew, maybe you should
go the 27 instead🙂

Darren said:

Is there a quick way to see what gearing I have.

I have a Trek 1400 Road Bike 2004 model with Shimano 105's groupset.

However when I hit a steep climb, I seem to struggle.
It feels to me that the gearing I have is not good for steep climbing.

Is it easy to change the gearing to make it easier to climb?
or is it to expensive ?

Thanks for any feedback, and I hope someone here might know about my Bike.
Cheers,
D

It takes fitness to climb hills, everyone struggles to climb quickly. I like to keep the cadence above 70rpm on a climb, lest my knees give up on me. If you can't maintain even this low cadence in your lowest gear, you might want to go to the bike shop and ask for a 12-25 or a 12-27 cassette. Also, check the small chainring at the front is a 39 (some bikes are shipped with a 42). It's a lot easier to climb with a 39/27 than a 42/23!

Ritch

"Darren" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Is there a quick way to see what gearing I have.

I have a Trek 1400 Road Bike 2004 model with Shimano 105's groupset.

However when I hit a steep climb, I seem to struggle.
It feels to me that the gearing I have is not good for steep climbing.

Is it easy to change the gearing to make it easier to climb?
or is it to expensive ?

Thanks for any feedback, and I hope someone here might know about my Bike.
Cheers,
D

I have a 1400 and the front is 39, cassette is 12-25. I haven't had my bike
for long and the first couple of decent climbs I did I kept looking down at
the cassette thinking... this can't be right, I must have more gears...
maybe
I'm still on the big ring :-O Coming from a mountain bike it was a bit of a
shock.

Like people are saying though, to get better at climbing, climb more. And
try to keep your cadence up. You'll get better.

Mick said:

"Darren" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Is there a quick way to see what gearing I have.

I have a Trek 1400 Road Bike 2004 model with Shimano 105's groupset.

However when I hit a steep climb, I seem to struggle.
It feels to me that the gearing I have is not good for steep climbing.

Is it easy to change the gearing to make it easier to climb?
or is it to expensive ?

Thanks for any feedback, and I hope someone here might know about my Bike.
Cheers,
D

I have a 1400 and the front is 39, cassette is 12-25. I haven't had my bike
for long and the first couple of decent climbs I did I kept looking down at
the cassette thinking... this can't be right, I must have more gears...
maybe
I'm still on the big ring :-O Coming from a mountain bike it was a bit of a
shock.

Like people are saying though, to get better at climbing, climb more. And
try to keep your cadence up. You'll get better.

You want to have your position checked also. You may have: bars that are too narrow/wrong shape; your seat too low/high, forward/back; pedals/cleats misaligned; stem short/long; everything adds up - you need to be relatively comfortable on the easy bits of a grade to be able to 'put in' when it gets more diagonal.

M "'When the going gets diagonal, the tough get going' Phil Liggett, the Pyrenees, July 2002" H

mfhor said:

M "'When the going gets diagonal, the tough get going' Phil Liggett, the Pyrenees, July 2002" H

Hah! love-ya werk, Phil 😄

Pantani once said you werent a climber if you were using anything bigger than a 21T!!!

(then again he weighed less than my 6yr old 🙄 )

flyingdutch said:

Hah! love-ya werk, Phil 😄

Pantani once said you werent a climber if you were using anything bigger than a 21T!!!

(then again he weighed less than my 6yr old 🙄 )

I thought that was Fabrizzio Mazzoleni! 🙂

Ritch

"Dej" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I always thought to climb better, you should do more climbing?
But coming from a guy who finishes last each week at kew, maybe you should
go the 27 instead🙂

You come last? Well, at least you try, and that's better than most :-)
Anyway, you are right, there's an easy way and a hard way. The easy way is
to change the cluster, but the harder way is more satisfying...

Cheers
David M

"flyingdutch" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Pantani once said you werent a climber if you were using anything
bigger than a 21T!!!

(then again he weighed less than my 6yr old 🙄 )

....and then again, he was on more than 21T apparently.

Cheers
David M