Anyone riding 52/36 with 11-32?

MarkOne wrote:

No idea what those calculators mean tbh!

They can be useful to compare ratios for various cassettes and chainsets.

I select a tyre size, use gear inches (because it's what I'm familiar with), enter chainring sizes and select the relevant cassette from the drop-down. I then put the numbers into Excel to get a graph or chart so I can visualise the ratios. Attached is one that shows 39 and 34 tooth chainrings with a couple of  10-speed cassettes.

Blue = 39t chainring with 11-32
Green = 39t chainring with 12-28
Red = 34t chainring with 12-28

The steep angle of the 11-32 in higher gears indicates bigger gaps in what I find are the more useful ratios for general road riding. On the flip side, in lower gears this gearing means the 39t is not far off the gearing of a 34x28 compact for hills.

MarkOne wrote:

Simon E wrote:

.... that 4-tooth step to the 32 tooth cog is very welcome.

As for chainrings, aren't you supposed to be able to replace the chainrings on a semi-compact with 50/34?.... 12 & 13 from another cassette. .

Hoping that 32 has me spinning 70 at least on most bills here.

Yeah looks like I can swap the rings later if I need, rather than the whole chainset as i'd feared

No idea what those calculators mean tbh!

70 rpm isn't spinning, it's borderline grinding. 90rpm and above is spinning. It relieves so much leg stress to spin high rpm. You will arrive at the top of the hill able to continue without gasping and slowing to recover

Below is a table from Sheldon brown 3 columns showing chainring​s I've selected 52,36,28. The numbers down the side are a standard 11-32 Cass. Sheldon's calc indicates a 14% difference between using a 28t and 32t. That is huge and can be the difference between getting up a hill or not

With you weighing 70kg, unless very unfit, you should be able to climb with a 28t reasonably well. But saying that, having a bailout gear with a 32 t is always nice.

I went out today to do a long ride in zone 2 no matter what i came across,. I rode up a long hill of 16 % at 90 rpm, kept my heart rate below 140bpm by using 28t chain ring and 32t sprocket. I do weigh nearly 100kg and can power up short climbs but prefer to hold a very high cadence for hills more than a few hundred meters.

As with many things in life, it's all very personal but also related to where you ride.

Now, I live in Florence, where we have wall-climbs, rolling hills and Apennine mountains and the 34t crank with my 30t cog makes a difference to me - it's my get-out-clause on the 20% - 25%+ climbs. With my Ultegra 50/34, I have a custom/slightly bodged 11s 11-30 (where a mechanic extracted a mid-range cog a slotted on a 30t cog after the 28).

On the other hand, I find my compact 50t crank doesn't always satisfy with a 11t rear cog, and on a long, gently flowing or straight downhill section I do sometimes "run out of gears".

I'm considering a 52/36 semi-compact crank and larger range 11-32 rear cassette. This should retain the same ratio for low climbing gears but give me a little extra push at the top-end.

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