How low can you go? Quest for the magic climbing gear

[Flinch]

I've got a 10 speed Record T triple crankset, that came as 50/40/30, along with a 12-27t cassette. In my quest for low gear nirvana, I replaced the 27t with a Miche 30t (BikeInn, about $8), and that helped. Since I am a hill weanie, I knew that I could squeeze the beasty to yet new lows. So a trip to my fav bike co-op, my happy place, garnered me a $2 Shimano 24t chainring, 5 bolt with a 74mm BCD.

The 24t chainring went on in place of 30t without a hitch, and I took out 2" of chain, as the decrease ring diameter left the wrap too loose in the back. After adjusting the B tension screw thingy all the way out, I got the derailleur pully to just clear the 30t cassette cog.

There are demons however, as I can't shift big-big without buying spare long cage rear mechs. But then if shifted like that, I would be stupid, right? And we all know that my brane wurkz jsut fiine, eh? The shifts from mid-low ring are smooth, with no drop (so far), and low-mid seem good, with slight hesitation but no major issues. Major testing ahead, before I can claim victory. Just wish I had this for the 5,000' of climbing during the century I did last Sunday!

So, risking the irritation of all the Campy experts, who are muttering "Tch-tch" as they read this, I now have a real hill climbing gear setup, with a low gear inch ratio of 21.5. Almost low enough

Lemmee hear your low gear stories !

[AngryScientist]

Similarly low. Most of my road bikes have either 46/30 or 48/32 in the front with either 11-32 or 11-34 in the back. Just a hair lower than 1:1 is usually enough for most of what I do.

After that, I utilize my "2 foot" gear.

[Hindmost]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Most of my road bikes have either 46/30 or 48/32 in the front with either 11-32 or 11-34 in the back.

Campagnolo 10 speed? What are you using for cassettes?

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by Hindmost

Campagnolo 10 speed? What are you using for cassettes?

Friction shifting, so any cassettes/spacing work for me.

[Andy340]

Have a WI 46/28 front with 11-32 cassette on my most regularly used road bike - allows me to take it relively easy (keep HR down) on > 10% grades

[Spaghetti Legs]

I like my Campy and I am too lazy and obstinate to go very far beyond just applying a compact crank. My lowest gear in the stable right now is a 34-29. I do have a 46-30 IRD crank but it’s on my 8 speed 13-26 tourer. One day, and I don’t think it’s too far away, I will break.

[Mark McM]

For a very special purpose, I've gone as low as 20t chainring and 32t rear sprocket (a ratio of 0.625:1). This is for doing the Mt. Washington Hill Climb race, which is 7.6 miles at an average grade of 12% (there are extended sections of 15%, and a steepest section of 22%). Note: My most recent attempts have used a single chainring, but in previous years I set up a 44/34/24 triple crank. But as the 44 was only used for the flat 200 yards before the climb begins, and the 34 was only used for about the first 1/2 mile of the climb, I stopped installing the outer and middle chainrings and front derailleur for subsequent iterations.

[Turkle]

It's funny, when I lived in NYC I was always super careful to have some nice low gearing on my bikes for hills in the Palisades, Bear Mountain, etc.

Now that I live in RVA, which is pretty much flat as a pancake, I feel like I never get to use either my highest or lowest gears, ever. All this wide-range modern gearing, wasted on me!

The lowest gearing I ever had on a bike was a 1x setup with a 40 in front and a 42 in the rear, and I felt so goofy spinning like that and not even moving forward at all I never used it. There's something about spinning a sub 1:1 gear that doesn't really do it for me. Of course, that's easy for me to say not living near any mountains!

[benb]

I also put a MTB crank on my road bike at one point for the Mt. Washington hillclimb.

I think it was a 42/32/22 and I didn't setup the front derailleur at all. I can't remember exactly what I did but I left it locked in the 22 ring.

I think I then was able to leave a normal 12-25 or 12-27 or something on it. It was a decent setup.

Then after the race I swapped a normal crank on to do the century ride the next day.

The other time I did Mt. Washington I did a 50/34 crank combined with a 9-speed MTB backend that had a 12-34 cassette or something like that. The day I did that it was actually counterproductive. Physically I could have handled a low gear of like 34x30 and having the 34 low cog mentally let me wimp out and not go hard enough.

I have a 30x50 on my MTB and it's actually useable there.. but anytime I'm going to use it I'm climbing something so steep that the slightest mistake around anything technical will make me have to walk. There's basically nothing around the area that is that steep that would really qualify as "non-technical" because that's generally going to be too steep for any motor vehicle other than a heavily built up offroad crawler, and a vehicle like that will not need the trail smoothed out.

I really enjoy climbing super steep stuff on MTB to see if I can make it.

Where I live around Boston I actually kind of despise the compact crankset and low gearing I have on my All City Space Horse. I have a 50/34 + 12-30 or something on that bike. The gears feel just silly low on pavement without being in the mountains. No free lunch on that one as the 50/34 is definitely the way to go for "gravel" and you can't really stick a narrow range cassette on it either as that's even more annoying.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by benb

I also put a MTB crank on my road bike at one point for the Mt. Washington hillclimb.

I think it was a 42/32/22 and I didn't setup the front derailleur at all. I can't remember exactly what I did but I left it locked in the 22 ring.

I think I then was able to leave a normal 12-25 or 12-27 or something on it. It was a decent setup.

Then after the race I swapped a normal crank on to do the century ride the next day.

The other time I did Mt. Washington I did a 50/34 crank combined with a 9-speed MTB backend that had a 12-34 cassette or something like that. The day I did that it was actually counterproductive. Physically I could have handled a low gear of like 34x30 and having the 34 low cog mentally let me wimp out and not go hard enough.

I have a 30x50 on my MTB and it's actually useable there.. but anytime I'm going to use it I'm climbing something so steep that the slightest mistake around anything technical will make me have to walk. There's basically nothing around the area that is that steep that would really qualify as "non-technical" because that's generally going to be too steep for any motor vehicle other than a heavily built up offroad crawler, and a vehicle like that will not need the trail smoothed out.

I really enjoy climbing super steep stuff on MTB to see if I can make it.

Where I live around Boston I actually kind of despise the compact crankset and low gearing I have on my All City Space Horse. I have a 50/34 + 12-30 or something on that bike. The gears feel just silly low on pavement without being in the mountains. No free lunch on that one as the 50/34 is definitely the way to go for "gravel" and you can't really stick a narrow range cassette on it either as that's even more annoying.

Back when the Mt. Washington Auto Road still had a lot of dirt and gravel sections, you could easily tell which riders were used to riding MTBs and which weren't. As you know, riders typically use very low gears for this event. When standing on the pedals, the road riders would stand directly over the descending pedal - but when on the dirt sections, the extra torque would result in tire slip and wheel spin. Riders with MTB experience knew enough to keep their weight back over the rear wheel when standing in very low gears.

[skouri1]

I figure myself a lightish climber type. and yet, riding a standard with a 30 even is brutal on the wrong climb. 1 :1 or close is great for any mortal (non pro) riding challenging hills. I would love a 32 back there and even so. I thought my 34/30 wa sufficient but not as good as 34/32.

[Spdntrxi]

my gravel bike has 32/40. I did the wall on Mt Diablo @ steady 200w and finished with a wheelie during the Mt Diablo hill climb.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . currently has a 30 in front and a 36 in back. I'd take a bit lower if I could make it work.

Yes, I'm old.

BBD

[Elefantino]

I have an FSA 46/30 crank and an 11-32 cassette on the Look. It's what I'm taking to France. I think I'm going to try an 11-36 with a RoadLink and see how that shifts. I'm trying to find the right gear to make it up the Col de la Loze to Courchevel.

[Louis]

Beyond what the gear ratio math says, eventually you get to the point where you're going so slowly that it's hard to keep the bike upright. The "how slow can you go?" issue is determined by some combination of rider skill and bike handling characteristics.