Help - Triple vs. Compact & loads of hills

[RolliePollie]

Hi all,

I have the opportunity to buy a brand new Felt FW15 at an exceptional price. Problem is, this bike comes with a compact crankset (50/34, 11-25). I currently have a triple (52/42/30, 12-26) and I use my granny gear on every ride. It is extremely hilly around here and there are several hills where I'm riding at 4 mph or less. I do pretty well with my triple but I actually wish I had one more grannier granny gear. I just can't imagine giving up all those gears and I'm thinking a compact would not be such a good idea. I'm really quite ignorant about this stuff. Can anyone give me any advice on this?

Thanks in advance!

[maillotpois]

If I lived where you live (and indeed I ride a lot around there), I would get a triple. (Indeed, I have one.)

If you're happy with your triple, and you use your granny gear on every ride (which I would if I lived where you live ) and you wish you had more gears (which I do when I ride where you live - drat where's my quad!! ), then you probably should stick with the triple.

[Mr. Bloom]

I think you can get the bike and convert it to a triple, can't you?

[Triskeliongirl]

I ran some numbers through sheldon browns calculator. If the formatting of the table messes up this is a summary:

1. On your old bike your lowest gear was a 30/26 = 30.3 gear inches.

2. On the new bike your lowest gear is a 34/25 = 35.7 gear inches.

3. The least expensive solution is to install a road casette, 12/27 (assuming its shimano) but that will only get you to 33.1 gear inches, in between the 2 situations.

4. If you want to go lower, and you have a long cage road derailleur you might get away with a mountain 12/32 casette, that will get you to 27.9 gear inches, lower than the old bike. This is borderline for a long cage road rear derailleur, a mountain rear dearailleur will surely work though.

5. If you wanna go lower, you need to install a mountain rear dearailleur and an 11/34 (or 12/34) rear casette. That will get you to 26.3. This is what I have and lower than your current set up.

50 34 30
25 52.6 35.7 31.5

26 50.5 34.4 30.3

27 48.7 33.1 29.2

32 41.1 27.9 24.6

34 38.6 26.3 23.2


If its campy, I think you can get a 13/28 road casette which will also help alot.

Of course you can also put a triple on, but then in addition to changing the crank set (not cheap) you may also need to change the front derailleur and possibly brifters depending on compatability, so most expensive solution.

[RolliePollie]

Thanks Sarah! I appreciate the validation on the triple and on the fact that it's hilly where I live! Today, like every day that I ride, I try and try and try to shift even though I know there aren't any more gears. But then I make it to the top of the hill and everything is good again.

I would imagine there aren't too many compacts on the Death Ride...and I want to do that ride next year or the year after that. So...perhaps I should contact Felt and see if they can make a bike with a triple just especially for me!

[RolliePollie]

I ran some numbers through sheldon browns calculator. If the formatting of the table messes up this is a summary:

1. On your old bike your lowest gear was a 30/26 = 31.5 gear inches.

2. On the new bike your lowest gear is a 34/25 = 35.7 gear inches.

This is just the kind of explanation I needed to see! So...looks to me like I'd be walking up hills with the new bike.

It seems reasonable to buy the bike anyway and then switch out the gears. But I think I'll look at some other bikes instead of buying the Felt just because it's such a good price. The price might not look so great after I figure in the modifications.

[maillotpois]

I would imagine there aren't too many compacts on the Death Ride...and I want to do that ride next year or the year after that.

No, there are plenty of compacts on the Death Ride. I just don't use one.

We have folks on our team who do have compacts. Our racer boys don't need anything else with them, but we have some folks who use the compact with a shimano XTR or XT mountain bike rear derailleur and big cassette. That seems to be the best option. However, you do lose your big power gear if you use that. (Which I do.) Most of our people have triples.

Good for you for setting a big goal for yourself. It is a very doable ride if you prepare, pace yourself, and keep your sense of humor throughout the day.

[Triskeliongirl]

This is just the kind of explanation I needed to see! So...looks to me like I'd be walking up hills with the new bike.

It seems reasonable to buy the bike anyway and then switch out the gears. But I think I'll look at some other bikes instead of buying the Felt just because it's such a good price. The price might not look so great after I figure in the modifications.

notice I corrected a typo, your current lowest is actually 30.3 so yes this is geared a lot higher than your current bike. But don't discount moving to a mountain rear casette/derailleur as it can get you even lower than your current set up.

[RolliePollie]

No, there are plenty of compacts on the Death Ride. I just don't use one.

We have folks on our team who do have compacts. Our racer boys don't need anything else with them, but we have some folks who use the compact with a shimano XTR or XT mountain bike rear derailleur and big cassette. That seems to be the best option. However, you do lose your big power gear if you use that. (Which I do.) Most of our people have triples.

Good for you for setting a big goal for yourself. It is a very doable ride if you prepare, pace yourself, and keep your sense of humor throughout the day.

I would hate to lose my big power gear...I love to pedal away at high speeds on downhills. So...it's looking like I'm a triple kind of gal.

Thanks everyone for your quick responses and advice!!!

-sara

[Triskeliongirl]

But you wouldn't lose your high gear if you put an 11/34 on in back. 50/11 isn't very different from 52/12. What you lose are the tight increments between gears, or in other words the gaps between gears would be larger. But the advantage is you cover a wider range of gears in a single ring, avoiding front shifts on changing terrain.

But it sounds like you love your triple, so probably this isn't the bike for you unless the shop would be willing to swap out the components for what you want.

[Triskeliongirl]

I just ran the numbers. A 50/11 is a higher gear (119.5)than a 52/12 (113.9)!! You can run the numbers easily yourself here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
I assumed you are running 700c x 23 tires.

52 50
11 124.2 119.5

12 113.9 109.5

[RolliePollie]

I just ran the numbers. A 50/11 is a higher gear (119.5)than a 52/12 (113.9)!! You can run the numbers easily yourself here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
I assumed you are running 700c x 23 tires.

52 50
11 124.2 119.5

12 113.9 109.5

Great link! Thanks!

[violette]

I would change to a triple. I bought a Roubaix comp and had to change the cassette. Hills or even rolling hills were almost impossible and I was getting discouraged. I had a triple before and I could do big hills with no problems.

[Pedal Wench]

Talk to your shop. When I bought my first road bike, they were willing to swap out whatever I needed. (I think it came as a triple, they put on a compact for me to try, then we went back to the triple.) To make the sale, they might be willing to do whatever you want -- they probably swap components all the time. Can't hurt to ask. Worse case, just take the triple and whatever else you need off your current bike and put it on the new one.

[NadiaMac]

I used a compact on the death ride, with a sram 12-28 cassette on the back. And saw plenty of compact cranks on the DR, many equipped with a similarly large cog in the rear!

This got me to within one gear inch of my granny gear on the triple with my old bike and I needed every gear inch towards the end of my death ride. That said, I lost the gear increments in the rear, as the cassette goes from 25 to 28. So if you like having incrementally close gear options (25, 26, 27, 28 in the rear), I'd say stick with your triple.

Regarding use of Mt bike bogs in the rear- this only works if the bike has shimano components. Campy and sram will not accomodate the larger cogs. It's pretty expensive to convert to a triple and many frames will not permit the conversion. If you want a triple, it's probably a better idea to buy a bike that comes with a triple.
good luck! the felt sounds sweet!