Fear of the compact and new bike shopping!

[mwktar]

Hi guys,was wondering if one of you competent chaps could give me some chain set comparison advice.

I'm a big lad and favoured a triple when I bought my first road bike as I live in mid Wales and hills are the only option.

I'm currently looking at upgrading and can see that a lot of the mid range sets seem to have ditched triples in favour of compact 11 speeds.

My current set up is 50/39/30 with a 12-25 cassette

The compact I'm considering is 50/34 with an 11-32

I've never been too good at working these things out but am I right that the compact will actually be giving me a lower low and a higher high gear here?

Cheers for any help,always find this group awesome for advice

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

With the set up mentioned, the compact actually has a substantially lower bottom gear than the triple. A quick calculation gives me roughly 32 gear inches for the triple and 25* gear inches for the compact. Should be great for the hills.

It's that 32 tooth 1st gear on the cassette that makes the difference.

At the top, going from 12 to 11 teeth gives approx 120 gear inches in place of your current 110 so, yes more at either end of the range.

Edit: To work out the figure yourself for any given gear ratio, divide the number of teeth on the chain ring by the number of teeth on the cassette sprocket then multiply by the diameter of the wheel including the tyre.

Yes, you can do it in mm or cm if you prefer.

*Another edit: that should have read 28 not 25. Mea culpa.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I used to have a triple which was 52/42/30 with a 12-28 cassette (8 speed). I went over to a compact 50/34 11-32 (10 speed) and kept the same low gearing but lost a touch of the upper higher gearing (speed).
Your change there will give you an extra lower gear (or two) and keep the same upper gear. Whilst you say that the new is 11 speed you don't say what your old was, but that only controls the incements. I don't think you will have an issue tbh (and unlike a lot of people I much prefered my 10 speed compact over the 8 speed triple I had).

 

[User19783]

I say,
Stick to what you know,,
As you are doing ok,

11 speed chains don't last very long, I am not going to quote how many miles approximately, as someone somewhere Wil say different.

If live in Wales, I would too have a triple.

Please don't get a compact, just as it's the rigth thing to do!.

 

[mwktar]

Sorry - I'm on a 9 speed atm

 

[raleighnut]

You may find the gaps between gears are a lot bigger both at the front and the rear if you switch away from a 3x9 although the overall ratios are wider you currently have a much smaller 'jump' between gears.

 

[Onyer]

I went from a triple as per your setup to a 52/26 and 11-32 double. At first I missed the mid range gears, because as has been pointed out the upper and lower gears gave more at either end. But you soon get used to it, so don't be scared.

 

[mcshroom]

I was in your situation when I got my new road bike. Also a big lad, and my previous bike had a 48-38-28 triple with a 12-26 rear cassette (8sp).

My new bike has a 50-34 compact with an 11-28 cassette (10sp). Yes I notice the higher bottom gear (which wouldn't be a problem for you as you'd have a lower bottom gear than you have now) but for the vast majority of riding it doesn't make a massive difference. If you don't have a lower gear to bail out into it's surprising what you can climb in a higher gear

What I do notice is that I have to do more double shifting when I change chainrings as the drop from 50-34 is quite big, so I often have to move to a smaller cog at the back when I shift down. Plus side is that there's far less trimming involved at the front.

I would say don't let it be a deal breaker. If you find one you like with a triple then great. If not then a compact will probably be fine anyway

 

[mwktar]

Once again guys you've all been amazingly helpful looks like I know what I'm going for then.

For those interested I'm currently riding a specialized secteur sport 2011 triple,but will most likely soon be the proud owner of a specialized Roubaix SL4 sport compact 2015

Thanks again folks!

 

[vickster]

I haven't walked up a hill in a long time and I use 50/34 and 11-32 on all my bikes (other than the single speed ). I'm not exactly light at 90kg but then I live somewhere which is mostly flat. Steep sharp hills and long steep hills would catch me out, long not very steep draggy ones are fine, any difficulty would be fitness and weight rather than gearing related!

 

[mwktar]

I haven't walked up a hill in a long time and I use 50/34 and 11-32 on all my bikes (other than the single speed ). I'm not exactly light at 90kg but then I live somewhere which is mostly flat. Steep sharp hills and long steep hills would catch me out, long not very steep draggy ones are fine, any difficulty would be fitness and weight rather than gearing related!

Think ill come live with you lol.my gf lives near Swansea which has lovely flat sections. Can ride 50/60 without much struggle . Where I live a basic ride tends to have 1000 ft per 10 miles climbing average

 

[vickster]

Think ill come live with you lol.my gf lives near Swansea which has lovely flat sections. Can ride 50/60 without much struggle . Where I live a basic ride tends to have 1000 ft per 10 miles climbing average

Ouch!

 

[mwktar]

Ouch!

It's not all bad mind, have some serious hills within 1-2 hours ride from me including bwlch mountain, caerphilly mountain,llangynidr mountain and the tumble - all top 100 UK climbs,great for training\jazzing up a ride

 

[vickster]

Can't imagine anything worse I like flat roads, I guess I'm more of a sprinter than a climber

 

[User19783]

Wish you the best on your new bike.