crappy Kona

[fossyant]

Being an MTB chainset, it's likely the rings aren't bigger than 44/46T, but you should be able to spin it upto at least 35 (downhill). If you are running out of gears on the flat, then I suspect you have poor cadence (pedalling too slow).

 

[BigTel]

@KneesUp They said they couldn't offer that as an alternative and wanted to build confidence in the brand (what a joke), but now I'm wanting to give it another bash with a revised riding style. When I'm flat-out I'm searching for another gear, so I guess going higher on the chainset might do that? Unless there are rear cassettes that are lower than 11? Been riding for years but never thought about the gearing until now.

 

[fossyant]

11t is as low as they get. A 42 x 11 gear is over 100 inches. You should be able to spin that up. What speed are you doing when you 'run out of gears' ?

I ride a 77" fixed and ride at 20-24mph easily and can spin it upto 30 plus on the flat - I don't have a choice of gears.

 

[BigTel]

TBH I don't know how fast I'm going, pretty quick, but like you said its a MTB crankset, so the tooth count is probably low, just checked on chainreactioncycles - it's a 40. Would 2 teeth make that much difference?

 

[KneesUp]

Is it a Dr Dew - so a 48/32 at the front and 11-32 at the back?

Just putting the extremes in at http://www.bikecalc.com/speed_at_cadence shows that you should be good for about 5mph to about 40mph on the gearing you have:

You're right that you can't easily get smaller than 11 teeth at the back, so if you need higher gearing you need certifying and a larger chain ring, which will set you back about £40 I guess.

 

[KneesUp]

You posed while I was @BigTel - Kona have the 2014 Dr Dew as a 32/48 but then they also have it as green. Is yours an older model?

 

[BigTel]

@KneesUp thanks for that - really helpful. This is what I'm running on the front:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/...oINuFXnHDpNRkzCCVZ4wLc4AhoPw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

It was an upgrade as the original buckled. It's now a bit of a bitsa.

 

[KneesUp]

@KneesUp thanks for that - really helpful. This is what I'm running on the front:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/...oINuFXnHDpNRkzCCVZ4wLc4AhoPw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

It was an upgrade as the original buckled. It's now a bit of a bitsa.

Yeah - that would give you about 3mph to about 32mph on the cadences above. I would imagine you could get a 48t chainring to replace the 40?

 

[BigTel]

I think that should do it. Thanks for your help.