Hill Climbing Cassette

[rockdude]

I got a call this morning from a friend who is on a training plan of climbing our steep hills 5 days a week. He is running DA 9 speed with compact cranks & a 11-27 or 28 cassette on the rear. He wants a bigger cassette to help him keep his cadance higher.

Can he use a MTB cassette without shifting issues?
Is there a road cassette that has 30 to 32 teeth he could use?

[fourflys]

I got a call this morning from a friend who is on a training plan of climbing our steep hills 5 days a week. He is running DA 9 speed with compact cranks & a 11-27 or 28 cassette on the rear. He wants a bigger cassette to help him keep his cadance higher.

Can he use a MTB cassette without shifting issues?
Is there a road cassette that has 30 to 32 teeth he could use?

I'm pretty sure he'd have to use a different rear derailure (longer cage) to use a Mtn cassette... I'm pretty sure the DA stuff will only handle what he has now...

Look at the Rivendell site as they spec most if thier bikes with a 12-32 in the rear...

[Johny]

I got a call this morning from a friend who is on a training plan of climbing our steep hills 5 days a week. He is running DA 9 speed with compact cranks & a 11-27 or 28 cassette on the rear. He wants a bigger cassette to help him keep his cadance higher.

Can he use a MTB cassette without shifting issues?
Is there a road cassette that has 30 to 32 teeth he could use?

Need a MTB rear derailleur too.

I have DA9 53/39 coupled with XTR derailleur/XTR 12-34 cassette. It works fine.

Depending on how long and steep the hills are, climbing 5 days a week without good recovery will only make you a worse climber IMHO.

[Volant]

I've used an XT 11-32 rear with Dura Ace and it works fine. I don't think you can go beyond 32 with DA, however (I don't even think 32 is 'recommended').

[veggieburger]

Won't the smaller compact rings in the front allow you to go a tad bigger on the cassette?

[rwsaunders]

The DA 7700 spec sheet for the short cage indicates that the cassette range is 11-26....I've been running a 12-27 for years without a hitch.

[weisan]

I used to live for hills until my back went out. A year ago, switched over to this setup, gave me the necessary gear to overcome the steepest section without killing myself, like it a lot, and have zero problems.

DA 9
XT 11-34 9s cassette
XT rear derailuer
FSA compact crank: 52/36 (I swapped out the std-issued chain rings 50/34)

Gear inches:
52 36
11 124.2 86.0
13 105.1 72.8
15 91.1 63.1
17 80.4 55.7
20 68.3 47.3
23 59.4 41.1
26 52.6 36.4
30 45.6 31.5
34 40.2 27.8

[palincss]

There's even a new 12-36 9spd cassette, if you're serious about low gears. You'd certainly need a MTB RD for that one.