New Rear Cassette (Larger)

As a follow up to the 'explain gearing thread', I just got a larger rear cassette for my Vita Sport. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains and many people put mountain bike gears on their road bikes. I went from a 12-25 to an 11-28. That gives me one more lower gear, and I can get up the hills that I could not get up before! I did not really need a mountain bike cassette because my smallest front gear is 28 (touring type I think). So, I get a ratio of one to one with the new setup. Since most front cranks seem to have 30-34 teeth, they would need 30 to 34 teeth in the rear to get the same ratio. (You take the amount of teeth in the smallest front gear and divide it by the number of teeth in the largest rear gear to get the ratio of the lowest gear.) I did not even need a new chain or derailleur. I've been out on a couple of hilly 20 mile rides and feel really good.

That's great! And with the 11, you can now bomb down those mountains faster than before. ;)

I have an 11-28. And, yes, my favorite part is "bombing down the mountain"! :D Yet, I don't bomb down QUITE as well as I used to, since dh gave me a compact double for my birthday a week ago. Changed my front gearing from a 53/39 to a 50/34. So I can go up steep hills a little easier, but lost a little something going down. So far, the downhill isn't too bad, though I DO notice it, but I do like the easier uphill gear. Hasn't made me go "faster" uphill yet, but if I learn to spin faster it will.

I think it was your thread that got me even more confused. I thought I had the gear thing figured out, but apparently didn't. After I got my new crank set, I sat in the jacuzzi with dh on my birthday and had a big training lesson to REALLY understand it all! Hopefully I can retain it! Ha ha! ;)

Congrats on your new gears!