petrolhead
New Member
Hi Guys (and Gals don't wanna be sexist now do I?), I could really do with some advice as to what gearing to use on my Giant TCR Advanced if anyone can help? It's only a month old and is still completely stock so it still has the 52/39 chain ring and 12/25 cassette it came with but I find that I struggle badly on steeper gradient hills to the point where I have to stop as I physically can't push the pedals round anymore and getting started again is just comical what with trying to get cleats into pedals again and the like. I should probably point out that I am a relative novice and I've only been road cycling for a few months so I'm still finding my way a bit. Long drawn out climbs I can seem to manage ok albeit in 1st or 2nd gear and shorter steepish climbs are also ok as I can stand and kick up them but the steeper hills have me beat. I was considering changing the cassette for a 11/28 or a 11/27 but I'm unsure if they will fit straight on without the need to change the chain or derailleur or even if it would make that much difference, does anyone have experience of this? After giving that a try I was going to turn my attention to the chain ring and perhaps change the small ring from a 39 to either a 36 or a 34 tooth but again I'm clueless to whether this would be easily achievable? It has a full Shimano 105 groupset if that helps in anyway?
I suppose an obvious answer would be to stick to the kind of hills I can do (I live in Devon and there is plenty of both I can assure you) and keep working on the other ones a bit at a time until I can conquer them and ordinarily that's exactly what I'd do but I'm now starting to do longer rides and sportives and as such I have no control of the routes or hills that I'll come up against. Again a cheaper option would be to put on standard pedals and trainers and just jump off and push if I needed to I suppose... but it would be nice to have the option so I can swap out what I needed depending on what kind of cycling I was doing if you see what I mean?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice offered, I bow to your superior knowledge and I'm sure your name will be on the entry list in biking heaven.
Cheers
Jim
I suppose an obvious answer would be to stick to the kind of hills I can do (I live in Devon and there is plenty of both I can assure you) and keep working on the other ones a bit at a time until I can conquer them and ordinarily that's exactly what I'd do but I'm now starting to do longer rides and sportives and as such I have no control of the routes or hills that I'll come up against. Again a cheaper option would be to put on standard pedals and trainers and just jump off and push if I needed to I suppose... but it would be nice to have the option so I can swap out what I needed depending on what kind of cycling I was doing if you see what I mean?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice offered, I bow to your superior knowledge and I'm sure your name will be on the entry list in biking heaven.
Cheers
Jim