Advice on replacing cassette so I can climb hills

[Lovacott]

Anyway, I seemed OK for a while but the rocky, soil path got steeper and never seemed to end. I was breathing harder than I ever have before and eventually I kind of conked out. I'm not that unfit as I do a bit of wall climbing and I'm not overweight.

Before I started cycle commuting up and down Devon hills to work back in May, I'd spent six weeks of furlough doing 20 miles per day on the local estuary cycle path. By week six, I was hitting speeds I'd never dreamed possible and I was doing it with ease.

However, on my first attempt at the hills, there were none over 12.5 degrees which I could get more than a third of the way up.

My first commute took me nearly 100 minutes.

But every day after, I managed to get a little bit further up each hill and within two weeks, there were only two which I couldn't manage in the lowest gear. A month in, and I was doing all of them without having to resort to "granny gear".

Eight months later and I can't remember the last time I used the small ring on the front? My commute now takes me 53 minutes.

Hills are not all about strength and fitness anyway. A good 50% comes down to technique and familiarity with each hill.

How hard do you go on the approach, how quickly you want to get up the hill, which gear do you select before you start your ascent and when do you change gear on the way up? Where to conserve energy, where to go full pelt?

The only way to answer the above is to repeat each hill until you get it right. Soon, you will have built up a map in your head with every gear change and effort level labelled onto that map.

 

[Deleted User]

You can get an 11-42 cassette, a chain whip and cassette tool aren't much.

 

[Lovacott]

You can get an 11-42 cassette, a chain whip and cassette tool aren't much.

I was looking at gearing lower for a month or so, but after that month, I was looking at getting rid of the lower gears and going higher.

The easiest way to beat a hill is to do it many times over with what you already have.

If you try to make it easier by changing your bike spec, the hill has won by default.

 

[CXRAndy]

That’s quite a low gear. Maybe you aren’t as fit as you thought. Go out and keep riding hills might be better and cheaper than changing your cassette.

Its still 1:1 ratio. Some folk need less than that.

If you have a single front chain ring, Id suggest fitting a front derailleur, and double subcompact chainrings. Something like 40/28 or 42/30. FSA do Adventure setup and Shimano have the GRX range too.

You could go lower with a 36/22 double MTB group set

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The stated gearing of 36/36 with 700c wheels, gives a bottom gear of 27". My MTB and hybrid bikes with triple chainrings and 6 speed rear sprockets, have a low gear of 28/28 which gives a gear of 26" on the MTB's and 27" on the hybrids. These gears are so low that I hardly ever use them, even on long climbs.
Personally I think the issue here is not gearing, which is pretty low as it is, but building up leg strength. There are still a few roads I know where I would not necessarily attempt to ride the whole way up on a bike, the worst ones being Swains Lane and Dartmouth Park Hill in Highgate which are punishingly steep in places. There are times when the best thing to do on a bike can be get off and push it up really severe sections, especially if riding into a headwind at the same time.
Rather than change the gearing on the bike I would agree with @Lovacott in that the more you ride up hills the better you get at doing it. Not that I enjoy hills. I don't and I actually try to avoid having to ride bad ones as much as possible - but if hills are part of a route you actually want to ride you have to regularly ride them to maintain the strength and fitness.

 

[CXRAndy]

Rather than change the gearing on the bike I would agree with @Lovacott in that the more you ride up hills the better you get at doing it

I'd rather have a bike where I can ride it up hills without needing to get off or die from sheer exhaustion.

My gearing allows me to ride up 30%+ gradients or power downhill at 50+mph.

My lowest gear inches is 18" to 110"

I can ride up mountains in zone 2 for hours rather than low grinding cadence.

 

[Lovacott]

Not that I enjoy hills. I don't and I actually try to avoid having to ride bad ones as much as possible - but if hills are part of a route you actually want to ride you have to regularly ride them to maintain the strength and fitness.

I hate fecking hills but it's either that or an extra seven miles along a busy dual carriageway.

I have to say though, that every day I do the hills makes the next day about 1/100th of a percent easier than the day before.

Day to day, the improvement is not noticeable but looking back a month and I can feel the difference.

Looking back a year and I am a universe away from where I was.

 

[lazybloke]

If you try to make it easier by changing your bike spec, the hill has won by default.

Is that a problem?

I like a challenge. I also like having an appropriate range of gearing for my fitness level.

Most if all, i want cycling to be enjoyable.

 

[Kryton521]

You could look at swapping out your front chainring? Oval 32 tooth?

 

[TheDoctor]

That's what I'd go with. A 32T chainring gives you almost exactly the same bottom gear as a 42T cassette, and it's cheaper and easier to swap. Granted, it lowers all the gears, but I tend to lose interest in pedalling once I'm doing 30MPH or more.

 

[DCBassman]

Yup, what the Doctor ordered^^^^^^.

 

[TheDoctor]

@Kryton521 got there first.
I've been doing the 1x thing since before 1x was a thing.
34T chainring (smallest I can get on my chainset), and 12-32T 7 speed cassette. Changing gear becomes a major policy decision...

 

[si_c]

Nothing beats bike fitness but lower gears do help. This is especially true off-road.

Go for the 32t or better 30t if you can chainring first then change the cassette. The latter may require a derailleur hanger extender and playing with the tension screw so is a bit fiddlier.

 

[fossyant]

You might actually need a mountain bike long term.

 

[DCBassman]

You might actually need a mountain bike long term.

If the bike us otherwise good, then modify the drivetrain in a big way, to get the gearing you want. I have a lowest of 20" on a road bike. And as another thread points out, it's needed around here!