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TECH NEWS
Giro tech: Contador goes Apex
Giro d’Italia leader Alberto Contador sidelined SRAM Red components and opted instead for much more lowly Apex in the mountains of this year’s race for the option of a wider spread of gears. The other members of Saxo-Bank Sungard, Astana and Garmin-Cervélo did the same.
Apex comes with a SRAM WiFLi cassette – wider, faster, lighter. The ‘wider’ bit refers to the fact that you get an 11-32T, and that’s what appears to be fitted here. That’s a big old spread of gear ratios open to you with a double chainset.
When SRAM say it’s ‘faster’ and ‘lighter’, they’re comparing Apex with a triple chainset. We really can’t see El Pistolero ever considering heading into the Dolomites with a triple on board.
A SRAM Red rear derailleur can’t handle that range so the riders all swapped to a mid-cage Apex option at the back. That’s 63 quid’s worth of rear mech instead of the usual £300 one. It’s only about 40g heavier.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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43 comments
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For me I've found that I love the compact with the 34/25 being the easiest gear, I use a 12-25 so still get close ratios which I like. If the 34/25 gear isn't enough, you might want to try a 27 cassette, the difference is 1.36 to 1.26, so you'll be moving one tenth of a revolution more for the same distance. (I think my rational is right there but excuse me if not!)
basically that might help and is easy to do as most rear mechs should accept the 27 no probs.
Otherwise it might not be a bad idea to consider a bike with a triple.
Greetings from the Republic of Boulder, CO. I don't think I am a gearhead, bikesnob or gearNazi but thought I'd offer my 2 bits. I'd echo keefus as I used to have a 55/46 and 12-25 set for my daily commute (all into big ring pushing) on rollers. The first group ride I did was up one of the steepest short climbs we have in our area (10-14% ramps). Needless to say that a) I did it at 3mph standing up in the 46/25, 2)yes, my tongue was dragging on the asphalt, and 3)weighed ~90kg. So yeah, I made it to the top but it was ...hard.
Now, I'm a bit lighter (60-65kg), have a compact double with similar rear gearing but can climb in the big ring for much of that climb. I did use an XTR cassette for awhile and found that was a nice choice as well. I opted for the CD vs a triple because of redundant gearing. I also didn't want to get into a bit of crosschaining as well which I'd experienced when demoing bikes with triple rings.
Last summer I did a ride over much of the higher mountains out in CO and found a compact double worked fine, definitely thought I did better/as good as the conventional 52/39 stuff that a lot of folks were riding.
I hope you dont mean that...it would be a shame if you did.
Bike Cru rides a BIG gear for 1 in 4 & 1 in 5 hills around the peak district, or is he staying on the rolling hills - more likely!!!
I assume Contador is still running a 54/39 with his new 11-32? I use a standard compact 50/34 with a 12-27 for hill work. In respect of meters development 39 x 32 yields the same meters development of 2.6 than my 34 x 27. A standard triple of 50/39/30 with a standard 12-25 cassette yields 2.5 meters development when turning the 30 x 25 gear. At the low end, all three solutions yeild almost identical results.
who cares as long you are enjoying cycling(thats the point of cycling havin fun)ride what ever gearing you like...:) as cyclists we should be encouraging people to ride,not telling them they shouldnt,get on your bike and smile..
well said, it's the evil motorists we should we shouting at, not each other
When my bottom gear was 34/25 I did feel a bit embarassed so changed to a 34/21. Then I began to feel a little embarassed by the 34 front ring so invested in a 39. After getting up King Alfreds the other day without too much distress on my new 39/21 when previously 34/21 had been a struggle I began to think I might be arriving in the world of cycling at last. I am dissapointed to see 42/21 is now the benchmark. I am now off to see if my butcher has any mexican beef in stock.
I do exactly this, except I managed to find a lovely Dura-ace long cage mech. Its great. I expect the 'mashers' will all be needing knee replacement surgery in the future!
I've been running my existing 105 50/34 chainset and medium cage mech and an Apex cassette for a while now and it works well. It will cover all gears without any problems - I have it on my commuter which I plan to tour on. A cheaper option than converting fully to SRAM if you happen to already have shimano!
As has previously been said, the best gear is the one that gets you up the hill in the quickest time. If you feel a 39/21 is the best gear for you then go for it. There can be no denying that it is a big gear as far a lowest gears go. Others, me included prefer to have a lower gear and achieve this by running a 34 chain ring. Quite frankly the thought of mashing up an 18-20% hill with a 39/21 low gear sends shivvers through my knees. My previous post emphasised that three different chain ring - cassette set ups yeild almost identical meters development results for the lowest gears. It's a personal thing, run the chain ring-cassette combination that suits you best. This subject all too often turns into a dick swinging competition, it's the not size of your gear that counts, it's what you do with it! Do we subscribe to this view though. Ha!
SRAM say that Contador was using a 50/34 compact chainset on his 'climbing road bike'.
strange how millar and co. are using big rings with lots of teeth on the back. when weight weenies are so bothered about every single gram but wouldn't using a small chainset and small rings at the back use less materiel than two big rings
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