Ultegra cassette upgrade ?

[nickyboy]

I'd guess most of the other cyclists you see are setting off in a "middling" gear. To my mind this seems to give the best result. Too low (easy) a gear and you're spinning like crazy and you need to change gear. Too high (difficult) a gear and the torque needed to get the pedals turning is difficult to generate

FWIW, I would usually set off, on the flat, with something like 50/19. If you don't know, that means the chain is on the big chainring at the front (assuming you have more than one chainring) and the chain is on the sprocket with 19 teeth at the back. For most cassettes that's somewhere in the middle

You will definitely have something like 50/19 with your current set up. Have a count of the teeth on the various sprockets and see if you can find one with 19 or close to 19. Then see how you get on pulling away from a standing start using this. If the others are still zooming off into the distance the problem isn't gearing, it's lack of fitness/excess weight I'm afraid

 

[confusedcyclist]

My bike only has one gear, how do I go faster?

 

[Stinboy]

Smaller rear cassette? Accelerating quickly off the line?

Got to be singlespeed surely

I must admit I did check todays date when I read the OP

 

[bladesman73]

you know, i was in belgium last year. on my racing bike with a mate who was on a shoot hot carbon racer. stopped at some lights and some lad on a heavy old mountain bike appeared next to us. lights went green and the bugger is off like a shot..took us ages to get close to him. moral of the story is its not the equipment thats the issue its the engine

 

[youngoldbloke]

Somewhere in your 11-32 cassette is a gear that's going to be more or less equivalent to the gear the fast boys are using when they leave you for dead. Find it, and see if your legs are up to it! ( Or buy a cassette with close ratios, but I bet it won't make much difference)