DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Having failed miserably to get the Scott running properly re the front derailleur, and, of course, just having bought a twin-bike cover, I'm rather seriously toying with the notion of stripping the Scott and letting the frame go, and re-inventing the mixte even more. It gets the riding anyhow at the moment. It's only downside to me is the lack of very low gears. I do need low gears, cuz I's a wimp, me...
Were I to swap bits over as-is, the mixte would move from 50-36 and 11-34 8-speed to 50-36 and 12-36 9-speed. Not a great change. If I then fit a new compact double with 50-34, it gives me a low gear of a bit over 25" on 28mm tyres. Probably low enough for most things, even for me! But still significantly noticeable from the 23" lowest currently on the Scott, and a loooooong way from the 19.5" I had on the Trek. On the other hand, if I leave the front gears as-is, I do get a little extra low, lose a little top end, and the feel of the bike stays largely unchanged. And the double clanger simplicity at the front just...works. It shouldn't, it's a mix of indexed shifters, and the original non-indexed Suntour mech, but it just does, very smoothly too!
The Shimano WH-R550s currently on the Scott would be maxed out at 28mm tyres, as are the R500s currently wearing exactly that on the mixte, so the only change is a few grams less and a more silver bike. A more silver bike is a good thing, right? Right?
The only, very minor other downside is fitting a bottle cage mount to the mixte frame. That's a damned pain, but there are solutions...
Decisions, decisions...
Were I to swap bits over as-is, the mixte would move from 50-36 and 11-34 8-speed to 50-36 and 12-36 9-speed. Not a great change. If I then fit a new compact double with 50-34, it gives me a low gear of a bit over 25" on 28mm tyres. Probably low enough for most things, even for me! But still significantly noticeable from the 23" lowest currently on the Scott, and a loooooong way from the 19.5" I had on the Trek. On the other hand, if I leave the front gears as-is, I do get a little extra low, lose a little top end, and the feel of the bike stays largely unchanged. And the double clanger simplicity at the front just...works. It shouldn't, it's a mix of indexed shifters, and the original non-indexed Suntour mech, but it just does, very smoothly too!
The Shimano WH-R550s currently on the Scott would be maxed out at 28mm tyres, as are the R500s currently wearing exactly that on the mixte, so the only change is a few grams less and a more silver bike. A more silver bike is a good thing, right? Right?
The only, very minor other downside is fitting a bottle cage mount to the mixte frame. That's a damned pain, but there are solutions...
Decisions, decisions...
