11-32 cassette on a road bike?

[jack smith]

just purchased myself one of these for my road bike that already has a compact chainset upfront, mainly because i wanted something with 11teeth at the bottom instead of the 12-25 of my old one for abit extra power, then i saw the 11-32 option and thought, i do struggle on some of the very steep climbs up north, especially when they go on for over a mile, and i am on my way back from a hard days work with a bergen full of all sorts on my back not to mention i already weigh in at 110 kilo, is this size cassette frowned upon on a road bike? or will i see some great benifits? the cassette it's sale only cost me 7 quid new in the sale, abit heavier than my old one but thats understandable due to much more material

 

[adscrim]

Who cares if it's frowned upon. The real problem is that you might need a longer rear mech to cope with it.

 

[jack smith]

never thought of that one..., would i need a longer chain too?

 

[Stu Plows]

Possibly may need new derailleur, what year is your bike and what are the components on it?

 

[jack smith]

and can i buy just the cage or do i need the whole deralliour

specialized 2014 latest sora

 

[MikeW-71]

Latest Shimano deraileurs are accepting 32t cassettes, you would just need to check the cage length. If you have a longer cage one you'd be fine. You may need to lengthen the chain a bit though.

Even the Pros use this setup sometimes

 

[HorTs]

I'm thinking of getting one of these on my new bike, I'm used to a triple and they new one will be double, so this is a bit of a compromise.

 

[jack smith]

ill go give it i test on my old wheels on the workstand see if it shifts, just waiting for the late parcelforce muppets bring my new wheels

 

[vickster]

My road bikes have sram 11-32 and I still can't get up some hills

 

[jack smith]

just had it on the bike shifts FLAWLESS well impressed, for a cheapo recon cassette on ebay, way smoother and faster changes than any shimano cassette ive ever had, its fine aslogn as its in the small ring at the front, if its in the big ring i can get to the cog before the largest, but in reality it wil lalways be in the small ring when i need to use the large ones and on the plus side my new wheelset arrived when i was out there

 

[Cyclist33]

What wheels did you get, and what happened to the Ultegra plan?

 

[jack smith]

going for that and a new frame in the summer, just got some shimano rs11's for the 16 aero spokes and good enough for the winter got them for 70 odd new for the pair

 

[Stu Plows]

just had it on the bike shifts FLAWLESS well impressed, for a cheapo recon cassette on ebay, way smoother and faster changes than any shimano cassette ive ever had, its fine aslogn as its in the small ring at the front, if its in the big ring i can get to the cog before the largest, but in reality it wil lalways be in the small ring when i need to use the large ones and on the plus side my new wheelset arrived when i was out there

That’s why you need the larger cage, the capacity is too large for it to cope with the top teeth requirements on the cassette. Your cage will have a maximum capacity, this is calculated by the following…

(Big Ring - Little Ring) + (Largest Cog - Smallest Cog) = Derailleur requirement

 

[youngoldbloke]

Seeing 11-32 cassettes with 50/34 compacts offered as standard equipment on lots of new bikes - maybe this is the future? Perhaps seen as an alternative to a 'standard' road bike 50/39/30 triple with an 11-25 cassette, as 34+32 will give you a bottom gear of 28" against 31" from 30+25. Interesting that Shimano have not released a new triple chainset in their Ultegra 6800 series as yet.

 

[jack smith]

to be honest i never use the majority of the middle gears anyway, i prefer to power my way through things, so having the 11t but still having 12 one up is great, then for those really long steep climbs, just swap to the inner ring and 32t and take it slowly, wish i did this earlier!! one con is the new cassette is rather heavy but for 7 quid.... come on you cant go wrong, time will only tell how it will wear though but it seems more rugged than my hg50