Quote:
Originally Posted by NHAero
I realized that when I sold the Casati that it was the last bike I owned that had a 50T chainring or larger. Looking at the Bob Jackson (3x10) and Firefly, Strong, and Litespeed 26er dropbar conversion, all 2x11, the top gears are 48-12, 46-12, 44-11, and 42-11. With the wheel/tire sizes each bike runs, a pedal cadence of 100 rpm yields top speeds of 30-32 mph. Since I live in a place without any long downhills, this is plenty. If I were back in NH, where I lived for 35 years with similar gearing, I'd experience longer downhills but would still tend to coast if I'm going over 30 mph. I'm not a racer. One of the aspects of having a top gear of about 100 gear-inches is that I actually do hit top gear on most rides. On the Firefly, I changed the small cog on the 11-34 cassette from 11T to 12T so the jump at the top of my speed range is a one tooth jump instead of going from a 13T to 11T - I use the 12T more than I would use the 11T.
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Let's see... I've got bikes setup right now with:
53-11 Bianchi steel frame kinda-vintage-ish overall, so I like the big ring.
52-11 Trek Madone that does get raced
40-11 Trek Boone.. because it's a CX bike... but I'm still good for 30+mph when necessary. I actually enjoy this gearing since I'm rarely out for a ride when I NEED to go faster. I could totally see myself building a sub-compact bike in the future for regular group rides.