Climbing and Cassettes

Hi Peter,

I was running a 12-23 on my 8-speed Sora bike. Soon afterwards, I
bought a 13-26 cassette.

Mainly because I was still in my early days coming back from injury and
trying to get fit again. I hardly ever used the 12-toother, and I
wanted a bail-out granny gear I could flick to if necessary.

Having the big cog on the back is nice, in that you can always flick to
that if you really need to. But nowadays I rarely use that either -
when I'm 'training' I'm almost always in the 21-toother up the hills
(or Tam flogs me...).

If you want a bail out gear - then go for it. Yes, you will notice a
difference, but its not like the bike will suddenly start pedalling for
you either.

Ultimately, as it always does, it depends largely on why & how you are
riding your bike. Do you do general rec riding/touring on it, so the
big cog will be often used? Or is it solely a training/racing bike - in
which case you should really never use it.

Cheers,
Abby (who is an expert on nothin'😉

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23 cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.
I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette, if its only going to
be a minor change.
Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

Yes I know I should train on hills, and get better, but I want the easy way
out (^_^)

Thankyou for any useful advice.

think of the difference between your 21T and 23T then think of the same degree of difference as you would now have a 25T and a 27T

check out:
panix.comcycal.30f.htmlOpen ↗
that'll give you an idea of the difference in numbers...

Absent Husband said:

Hi Peter,

I was running a 12-23 on my 8-speed Sora bike. Soon afterwards, I
bought a 13-26 cassette.

Mainly because I was still in my early days coming back from injury and
trying to get fit again. I hardly ever used the 12-toother, and I
wanted a bail-out granny gear I could flick to if necessary.

Having the big cog on the back is nice, in that you can always flick to
that if you really need to. But nowadays I rarely use that either -
when I'm 'training' I'm almost always in the 21-toother up the hills
(or Tam flogs me...).

If you want a bail out gear - then go for it. Yes, you will notice a
difference, but its not like the bike will suddenly start pedalling for
you either.

Ultimately, as it always does, it depends largely on why & how you are
riding your bike. Do you do general rec riding/touring on it, so the
big cog will be often used? Or is it solely a training/racing bike - in
which case you should really never use it.

Cheers,
Abby (who is an expert on nothin'😉

One more thing needs to be said on that (and having not ever seen you
climb, I don't know if this will be helpful or not)...

The 26 cog allowed Abby to get up hills that he couldn't otherwise get
up.

Learning how to pedal more efficiently allowed him to climb those same
hills without going near his 26 cog.

Tam

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23 cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.
I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette, if its only going to
be a minor change.
Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

Yes I know I should train on hills, and get better, but I want the easy way
out (^_^)

Thankyou for any useful advice.

As dutchy said, there will be a huge difference. 27 though, thats huge!!

dont pay 140 bucks.

buy it through www.probikekit.com

Thanks Tamyka, but please teach me about more efficeint pedalling, what
should I do ?
"flyingdutch" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted
to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23
cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.
I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette, if its only
going to
be a minor change.
Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

Yes I know I should train on hills, and get better, but I want the easy
way
out (^_^)

Thankyou for any useful advice.

think of the difference between your 21T and 23T then think of the same
degree of difference as you would now have a 25T and a 27T

check out:
http://www.panix.com/~jbarrm/cycal/cycal.30f.html
that'll give you an idea of the difference in numbers...

--
flyingdutch

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23 cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.
I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette, if its only going to
be a minor change.
Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

huge.

"Peter Wilson" wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

In speed? heaps.. save your cash... perfect time for some strength
training before summer!

cheers
GPL

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23 cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.
I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette, if its only going to
be a minor change.
Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

Yes I know I should train on hills, and get better, but I want the easy way
out (^_^)

Thankyou for any useful advice.

another option would be to drop some teeth from your small chainring: changing from a 44 to a 40 for instance would make a much bigger difference as 1 tooth on a chainring is equivalent to 3 or 4 on the cassette.

Let's see if I get this right....

Don't put your hands on the hoods or drops, but up on the horizontal
bars. Keep a nice upright position, eyes up the road (not down at your
wheels).

Head and body relaxed and steady. No jigging all over the place, coz
that's wasted energy & inefficiency.

Nice round, full pedalstroke. Concentrate on the back/up/forward part -
the stomp downwards will look after itself. Keep pressure on the pedals
the whole way around...

I thinks thats everything (Tam will punish me if I've missed
something!!). Oh - and hills are your friend. Seek them out, and they
will reward you in many ways...

Abby (still no climber, but better than he was...)

ProfTournesol said:

another option would be to drop some teeth from your small chainring: changing from a 44 to a 40 for instance would make a much bigger difference as 1 tooth on a chainring is equivalent to 3 or 4 on the cassette.

but if he's on shimano 9spd presumably that's not an option to him, is it? (altho you can get a 38T shimano chainring, perhaps?)

Abby wrote

Let's see if I get this right....

Oh - and hills are your friend. Seek them out, and they
will reward you in many ways...

Yeah they will reward you with the trip back down......remember generally the bigger and nastier the climb the more fun the trip back down.😄

Abby I should let you and Tam know next time I venture over to cootha, we can hit it straight up the front with penalties for getting out of the saddle muhaharraahaaaaaa hak hak cough choke eekkkkkk thump.......Lotte has stated in the past that she isnt interested.

"Absent Husband" wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

Let's see if I get this right....

Rhythm.. rhythm.. rhythm... and keep an eye on that HRM.. don't go out any
harder than you can sustain for the entire climb...

cheers,
GPL
:busting to get home to setup the new s725!:

Paulie-AU said:

Abby wrote

Let's see if I get this right....

Oh - and hills are your friend. Seek them out, and they
will reward you in many ways...

Yeah they will reward you with the trip back down......remember
generally the bigger and nastier the climb the more fun the trip back
down.😄

Abby I should let you and Tam know next time I venture over to cootha,
we can hit it straight up the front with penalties for getting out of
the saddle muhaharraahaaaaaa hak hak cough choke eekkkkkk
thump.......Lotte has stated in the past that she isnt interested.

--
Paulie-AU

She'll change her mind. Else Abby will keep beating her...

Tam

Absent Husband said:

Let's see if I get this right....

Don't put your hands on the hoods or drops, but up on the horizontal
bars. Keep a nice upright position, eyes up the road (not down at your
wheels).

Head and body relaxed and steady. No jigging all over the place, coz
that's wasted energy & inefficiency.

Nice round, full pedalstroke. Concentrate on the back/up/forward part -
the stomp downwards will look after itself. Keep pressure on the pedals
the whole way around...

I thinks thats everything (Tam will punish me if I've missed
something!!). Oh - and hills are your friend. Seek them out, and they
will reward you in many ways...

Abby (still no climber, but better than he was...)

Forget something or don't forget something...

.... I'm still gonna punish you!

Tam

Tamyka Bell said:

Learning how to pedal more efficiently allowed him to climb those same
hills without going near his 26 cog.

So what were you doing wrong AH? That's the second time this week that
your pedaling style has been mentioned to have been made more efficient.
Were you only using one leg or something?

--
BrettS

BrettS said:

Tamyka Bell said:

Learning how to pedal more efficiently allowed him to climb those same
hills without going near his 26 cog.

So what were you doing wrong AH? That's the second time this week that
your pedaling style has been mentioned to have been made more efficient.
Were you only using one leg or something?

--
BrettS

Effectively, yes. He was doing 2 legs * half pedal stroke per leg...

He was only pushing down. Because of this, he had to downgear a long way
to keep his rhythm up, and he was bouncing in the saddle something
shocking. One day when I was violently ill from a dodgy lunch, I lost it
and started yelling at him up the hill. I'm such a [censored]. Anyway, now he
uses the entire pedal stroke, not just the downstroke, and can keep his
bum planted instead of bouncing, and can keep the cadence up in a much
higher gear.

Tam

Yep - full pedal stroke instead of just a heavy stomp downwards...

I think Tam was already cranky that day, and she was yelling at me with
that tone of, "if I have to watch that travesty of a pedal stroke one
more freakin' time..."

Has taken me a little while to make it 'normal', and I'm still not
quite there, but it has definitely (obviously!) made me a better rider.

And I didn't realise quite how much I'd been jigging all over the place
either...

Cheers,
Abby (still unco though...)

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23 cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.
I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette, if its only going to
be a minor change.
Please tell me how big a difference I will notice.

Yes I know I should train on hills, and get better, but I want the easy way
out (^_^)

Thankyou for any useful advice.

Have a look at the previous thread on this subject.

cyclingforums.comt223584 .htmlOpen ↗

Cheapest way out is to get LBS or DIY remove cassette and take out 14 t cog and put a 27 t on the end next to 23t. No problems.
When you build strength and technique can change back easily.

Cheers
Hugh

Peter Wilson said:

Having read previous posts about climbing and cassettes, I too wanted to
ask, as the OP did not really answer the questions.

But I too struggle on some serious climbs, and am running a 12 x 23 cassette
on my road bike.
9 speed, Shimano 105.

Ok if I go to a 12x27 rear cassette, will I notice a huge difference.

It all depends how slow you need to go. And whats on your crankset?
Ideally you want a gear that will let you maintain your most efficient
cadence, around 90rpm.
If you are climbing at 20km/hr, a 700C wheel is doing around 160 rpm.
So if the chainring is 40T, you want a 22 or 23 on the rear to pedal at
90 rpm.
But if the hill is steeper, or you are weaker, and do only 15km/hr, then
you want a 30T on the rear!

Of course if you have a granny gear up front, you can keep the
close-ratio cassette. e.g. 28:21 at 15km/hr.

Quoted message said:

I mean I don't want to fork out $140 on a new cassette,

ouch! A 9-speed cassette should cost half that.