Gear questions

[danleung1@excite.com]

This is the factory gears on my road bike.
front 50/36 compact, rear 12-25 9-speed cassette.
I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer and I need some low gear
for my old leg.
Should I change the front, to 50/34 or the cassette to 13-32 or both?
Do I have to adjust the chain length as well? Can it be done by DIY?
TIA

[rdclark]

On Oct 5, 1:31 pm, danleu...@excite.com wrote:
> This is the factory gears on my road bike.
> front 50/36 compact, rear 12-25 9-speed cassette.
> I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer and I need some low gear
> for my old leg.
> Should I change the front, to 50/34 or the cassette to 13-32 or both?
> Do I have to adjust the chain length as well? Can it be done by DIY?
> TIA

This -- http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/ -- might help.

The missing information here is how strong a climber you are. If
you're Lance Armstrong, you can climb anything on the gearing you
already have. If you're me, you need all the help you can get,
including a sub-1:1 ratio for steep climbs at a walking pace --
especially if you're touring with some gear on the bike.

Your derailleur may need to be replaced with a long-cage model to wrap
enough chain to handle a cassette with 32 or 34, and you will
certainly need a new chain.

r

[David L. Johnson]

danleung1@excite.com wrote:
> This is the factory gears on my road bike.
> front 50/36 compact, rear 12-25 9-speed cassette.
> I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer and I need some low gear
> for my old leg.
> Should I change the front, to 50/34 or the cassette to 13-32 or both?
> Do I have to adjust the chain length as well? Can it be done by DIY?

The change of the inner ring from 36 to 34 will make a very small
difference in the gears, about 6%. Changine from the 25 to a 32 biggest
cog in the rear is a huge change, 28%.

But, that cassette will mean large jumps between all of your gears. Is
that what you want?

Don't bother with the new front chainring unless the one you have is
worn out, or nearly so. Yes, think about a bigger cassette if you are
worried about the hills, but that mountain bike gear may be overkill.
Kinda depends on how good a climber you are.

The Rockies have a lot of long climbs, bue they are not as steep,
usually, as a lot of other regions have.

Don't worry about the chain length. Replace the chain. Probably about
time, anyway.

--

David L. Johnson

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our
educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely,
if not entirely, the use of textbooks
-- Thomas Edison, 1922

[Claire Petersky]

<danleung1@excite.com> wrote in message
news:1191605483.843822.14180@k79g2000hse.googlegro ups.com...

> I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer and I need some low gear
> for my old leg.


I don't know exactly where you plan to tour in the Canadian Rockies, but my
experience a couple of years ago (over the continental divide twice and over
the highest paved road in Canada) was that nothing was particularly steep.
I remember things like a half day up a 5 or 6% grade, which is more an act
of being persistent, as opposed to strong. Then again, I wasn't doing a
fully-loaded tour, either.

You can see a sample photo, on the way up that highest paved road:
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/Author.htm. It was really pretty.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

[Ozark Bicycle]

On Oct 5, 12:31 pm, danleu...@excite.com wrote:
> This is the factory gears on my road bike.
> front 50/36 compact, rear 12-25 9-speed cassette.
> I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer and I need some low gear
> for my old leg.
> Should I change the front, to 50/34 or the cassette to 13-32 or both?
> Do I have to adjust the chain length as well? Can it be done by DIY?
> TIA

If you're really serious about loaded touring in the mountains, you
should think about a triple crankset. For example, a 50/38/24 in front
will allow you to get really low gears when needed without getting a
cassette that has huge steps between gears, the way a 13-32 (or
similar) does.

[Dave Mayer]

<danleung1@excite.com> wrote in message
news:1191605483.843822.14180@k79g2000hse.googlegro ups.com...
> This is the factory gears on my road bike.
> front 50/36 compact, rear 12-25 9-speed cassette.
> I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer and I need some low gear
> for my old leg.
> Should I change the front, to 50/34 or the cassette to 13-32 or both?
> Do I have to adjust the chain length as well? Can it be done by DIY?
> TIA
>

What do you mean by tour the Rockies? Self-supported with camping gear?
Riding on highways or gravel backroads? If you are fit (i.e. 25 year-old
male with 5% body fat fit), and riding without baggage, and sticking to the
major highways (Golden Triangle, TransCanada, Crowsnest Pass, Banff to
Jasper etc., then you should be OK with your current gearing. Otherwise,
change out your cassette to a 32. Camping - I'd ride a triple.

[me]

On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:17:48 -0700, Ozark Bicycle wrote:

> On Oct 5, 12:31 pm, danleu...@excite.com wrote:
>> This is the factory gears on my road bike. front 50/36 compact, rear
>> 12-25 9-speed cassette. I want to tour the Canadian Rocky next summer
>> and I need some low gear for my old leg.
>> Should I change the front, to 50/34 or the cassette to 13-32 or both?
>> Do I have to adjust the chain length as well? Can it be done by DIY?
>> TIA
>
> If you're really serious about loaded touring in the mountains, you
> should think about a triple crankset. For example, a 50/38/24 in front
> will allow you to get really low gears when needed without getting a
> cassette that has huge steps between gears, the way a 13-32 (or similar)
> does.

+1 Some of the climbs you will can experience in the Rockies *can* be
climbed by a determined rider on double front chainring, but I have done
the Golden triangle ( Castle Junction-Radium-Golden-Castle Junction ) 3
times. I used a triple each time , and the last time I was marginal.

Yes, it can b done DIY, but if you go to a triple, you will need new BB
and Front Derailleur, probably, rear derailleur as well.