Counting Teeth

[Davehateshills]

Them there hills have not been getting any easier recently and since i picked up my second hand trek a few weeks ago they have got a whole lot harder. I went from a triple on my MB to a twin on my roadie and I thought that I will just have to man up and push the pedals that little bit harder. It dawned on me today to actually have a look at the chain-rings and rear cassette to see what is actually on the bike.

On the chain-ring are: 53:39
On the cassette is : 12:27

Now from what I think I have picked up on the forum over the last few months I think that quite high geared, or is it?

 

[black'n'yellow]

Now from what I think I have picked up on the forum over the last few months I think that quite high geared, or is it?

Gearing is relative to the fitness you have. What you call 'high' gearing may be perfectly ok for someone else. If that is too high for you, then the most realistic choice is to swap chainsets for a compact 50/34..

 

[Zakalwe]

What you've got there is a "standard" crankset and a fairly well spread cassette. Strangely, compact cranksets have become the new standard but there nothing wrong with running standard, you'll just have to work on a bit of fitness. Changing to a compact could be a bit pricey, you'll need a new crank and chainrings, plus labour costs if you don't feel up to doing it yourself. Anything up to a few hundred depending on your groupset.

I just keep pedalling, you'll get use to it soon enough, your mountain bike triple is likely to have smaller chainrings than a compact too.

 

[Aushiker]

Another option is to change the cassette to a 11-28. I did this way back when and then eventually changed the crankset to a compact crankset when I was building a new bike up. The intial cassette change helped for sure.

 

[Zakalwe]

An 11-28 would give you one even harder gear and one that's one tooth easier, with less options in the middle. I don't know what groupset you're running but I'd see if there's a 14-32 or something like that to fit your rear derailleur. You will need a new chain to go with it, as the one you have will be too short.