Originally Posted by
Wasp
Thank you for all the great responses and advise
I got the idea to change the gearing on the Dolce once I started riding my Mtn bike which has 11-36. With that gearing I no longer walk up hills and I very seldom redline. Plus I usually crest hills with 2-3 gears left. When riding the Dolce up any substantial hill I've always run out of gears by 1/3 to 1/2 way up the hill. My speed drops to the point where I have to ziz zag up the steeper portions of the hill, and I'm usually mashing the pedals trying to get up the hill. Mashing up hills leads to knee pain which is a topic I'll leave for a different thread.
After some reflection, I think I need to start working on my cardio as I realized that cycling is pretty much the only consistent exercise I do that increases HR. I do Zumba and use a treadmill but it's intermittent use as life and work tend to interfere with getting any consistency doing them. It probably would not be a bad idea to work on building more leg muscles, however I think it's more of a cardio issue that I'm experiencing.
I started thinking about a Surly LHT bike because of the gearing. I figured a touring bike would have much lower gearing than the average road bike. My Dolce fit wise is very good. The only issue I have with the Dolce is climbing with the current gearing which is 12-30. If I could get similar gearing as my mnt bike (11-36) on the Dolce somehow I think that would solve the problem. One I idea I had was...If I got the double compact changed out and replaced with a triple that would get me some lower gears, but I'll have to find out if doing that is actually possible.
Anyone have any simple ideas how I can add lower gears? Love to hear from you
Thanks again to all of you that responded with such awesome advise.
I'm far from an expert on gears, but I don't think a triple is necessary. When I compared my old road bike with a triple to my new one with a compact double using Sheldon Brown's gear calculator, the lowest gears were pretty much identical. So possibly a new cassette (and/or new chain rings) would address your problem.
FWIW, the cassette I have is 11-28 with 50/34 on the front.
- Gray 2010 carbon WSD road bike, Rivet Independence saddle
- Red hardtail 26" aluminum mountain bike, Bontrager Evoke WSD saddle
- Royal blue 2018 aluminum gravel bike, Rivet Pearl saddle
Gone but not forgotten:
- Silver 2003 aluminum road bike
- Two awesome worn out Juliana saddles