Ring of truth
Now that riders have more choice than ever for cassette and chainring sizes, how do you decide what gearing is best for your bike?
n the beginning, there was just one gear. Grinding painfully up hills was all in a day’s work for the hardened road bike rider at the beginning of the 20th century. Then there were two. A ‘climber’s gear’ could be used by removing the rear wheel and turning it around – a slow, cumbersome process. Thankfully times have changed, and innovations in drivetrains mean there’s now choice aplenty when it comes to gearing, enabling riders to spin efficiently up even the most vertiginous slopes and then smash down the other side. It’s never been simpler to get the right gears for your needs without requiring a total drivetrain overhaul.
Perceptions, too, are changing. The old-school mindset that would see riders branded wimps for using the small chainring on a climb is departing. Sram product manager JP Mccarthy reminds us of a pivotal moment that sparked a shift in attitudes to friendlier gearing: ‘People pay attention to what pros use, and right after we worked with Alberto Contador in the 2008 Vuelta to provide him with lower gearing for a crucial mountain stage, we saw a huge amount of interest. Soon after that we launched our Wifli concept [a widerranging cassette and rear derailleur system that makes significantly lower gearing possible on a double chainring set-up]. Off the back of Wifli we saw, pretty quickly, the default option for cassette sizing from our OE buyers [how your bike comes specced from the manufacturer] becoming 11-28t.’
Know thyself
With a potentially mindboggling amount of choices available, narrowing down the options is the best way to begin. ‘It boils down to being honest about your own abilities and aspirations in terms of fitness, taking into account where you intend to ride 95% of the time,’ says Shimano UK’S Pete Griffiths. ‘It’s important to consider the drivetrain as a whole rather than just sticking a wide-range cassette on but still using large chainring sizes at the front.’
Mccarthy agrees: ‘You’ve got to know your intended use and consider the region you’re riding in. If you live somewhere flat you wouldn’t expect to require really wide-ranging cassettes and compact chainsets. Varied terrain is now a consideration too, not just gradients. Gravel bikes are a growing market so different surfaces come into play, and that may affect gearing choice.’
Honesty seems like the best policy. Churning big gears in a misguided show of bravado is more likely to result in a visit to a physio to repair your knees than impressing your riding companions. The consensus seems to be quite to the contrary, as 11-speed drivetrains have facilitated a much greater spread of gears, without sacrificing too much of the smooth and consistent feel we have come to expect. While the size of the smallest sprocket on the cassette has settled at 11-tooth or 12-tooth, the options at the larger end have grown continuously over recent years. A 25t sprocket was once deemed to define a ‘wide ratio’ cassette, but soon after followed 27t, 28t, 30t, then 32t and now even 34t and 36t options are available, which means there’s a huge scope to adjust gearing.
Mccarthy gives us another example of how pros are acknowledging the benefits of lowering gearing: ‘Last year we had one of our pro teams [TinkoffSaxo] use only our Wifli rear derailleurs all season long. That’s not to say the
‘The compact chainset is now by far the best seller, with a trend towards mid-compact following, but I don’t see that ever catching up’