Advice on Gearing for Stigmata Gravel Bike

[Pelican]

I'll swap my 50/34 for your 52/36 GC! You'll need the compact even with the 11-32. When will the shop have it ready?

[PoppaWheelie]

I'm in your 'hood (SF) and do some of the same rides. I'm 48 and am a ways off from my skinny, fit youth. Anyway, last year I ran a 34/50 with a 13/32 and was mostly fine. There aren't any roads where you'd need more, obviously...some gravel climbs maxed it out. This year I changed to a 12/42 rear and I have either a 38 or a 42 single ring up front. For dirt the 38 works much better and gives me more gear than the 34/32 combination I had last year. The bike loses some utility on the road though....spins out pretty quickly going downhill with the 38.

The Wolftooth Goatlink works pretty well with the Shimano medium cage rear to get you into the big cassettes....but the SRAM long cage rears work much better (Force 1) if you can live with as single ring. I'd start with your Ultegra stuff and just at a Goatlink and an XT rear if you need more gears. You'll need a spacer to change the cassette but those are easy to come by...eazy peazy. Change to 1x long-cage clutch if you get the itch later on or need a more burly set-up.

[gallant]

Thanks everyone for all of the feedback and advice. You guys definitely confirmed for me that I need to go much lower in terms of gearing. So now I just have to figure out how low to go!

I think I want to stick with the core Ultegra groupset for now. I'm leaning towards just moving to the compact 50/34 crank with the 11-32 as the initial build. But I didn't even realize that a 11-36 SRAM rear cassette existed. Thanks John H! And I confirmed I have the long/mid cage rear Ultegra rear derailleur so it will work. I can move to 11-36 for phase 2 if I find myself needing the extra bailout gears on long, steep climbs!

Pelican - I will ping you directly to talk about swapping my 52/36 for your 50/34. I have a 165mm crank so hopefully you are cool with just swapping chainrings

[Lionel]

Climbed Gazos creek dirt this week-end with a 50/34 and 11-40, was so happy to have the 40 !

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by Lionel

Climbed Gazos creek dirt this week-end with a 50/34 and 11-40, was so happy to have the 40 !

I climbed it too but with a 50/34 11-32. I wished I had a 11-36/40. The 11-36 sram cassette that I and I think John uses with a 6800 ultegra long RD is the 1170. I think going with a 50/34 and a 11-32 to start off with is a good idea. You can get around on roads and most fire roads with that configuration in your area.

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by gallant

Pelican - I will ping you directly to talk about swapping my 52/36 for your 50/34. I have a 165mm crank so hopefully you are cool with just swapping chainrings

LOL, just come by the house dude.

[jruhlen1980]

Originally Posted by gallant

I think I want to stick with the core Ultegra groupset for now. I'm leaning towards just moving to the compact 50/34 crank with the 11-32 as the initial build. But I didn't even realize that a 11-36 SRAM rear cassette existed. Thanks John H! And I confirmed I have the long/mid cage rear Ultegra rear derailleur so it will work. I can move to 11-36 for phase 2 if I find myself needing the extra bailout gears on long, steep climbs!

+1, obviously everyone is different but I run the 50/34 and 11-32 on my gravel bike and have never felt like I needed a lower gear. However, I don't live in mountains. It's easy to put on a bigger cassette if you need one though.

[SpeedyChix]

As a flatlander who does out of area mountainous rides with extended climbs I'm a fan of 34/46 paired with the SRAM 36 cassette the John noted. Works very well with a Shimano mid-cage RD. Locally I'll swap the chain and cassette back to a Shimano 32. Using a quick link it's an easy and quick swap.

[KVN]

There's some decent hills in the driftless area west of Madison. I use 46x28 by 11x32. I Love it, and the 28t front ring comes in handy on epic rides and single track.

[classtimesailer]

I'm probably too late but...
4 BWRs under my belt with a 53/39. Twice with a 11/28 and twice with 12/27. The 52/36 is all you need unless you think you can pedal up the rather technical rock gardens. (There will probably be too many walkers in front of you causing you to dismount anyway.) There are some good descents and some flat roads where you may want to keep up and the 52 will be handy. Cool frame. Have fun.

[dem]

Another local.. I vote "as low as you can go" too.

You'll never regret having lower gearing around here. There are endless 15-20% grades to be had off-road, and often with lots repeated, extended water bars of 30% that really suck the life out of your legs.

I use 44/30 and a 10-42, and I will use my 30-42 every ride - especially long, epic days where I want to keep the effort down.

(I typically do 15K ascent per week, and sub-19 minutes up OLH, so this isn't a fitness vs. fatness commentary

PS, doing Montebello/Black/Haskins/Butano/Gazos on Saturday if anyone is up for it! ~80 miles, 11K ascent

[Saint Vitus]

Originally Posted by DrSpoke

This is what I, and most of my buddies, use here in SoCal - including yesterday's BWR. It seems to have the range needed for both up and down, road and dirt. A couple of the stronger riders use an 11-32.

Hey I resemble that...