Best Gear Ratio for Hill Climbing Road Bike
[This article was last updated on July three, 2021]
If you find yourself wishing yous had a smaller, easier-to-turn gear to have the pain out of riding uphill, there are several ways you lot can alter your bike to make things simpler.
Follow our advice and you'll presently be spinning upward the climbs, and you might fifty-fifty learn to dear them!
For this article we're assuming that you lot have a bike with derailleur gears rather than hub gears.
Bike gear basics
If y'all accept a typical derailleur setup on a bike designed for the route, the chances are that you have two (possibly one or three) chainrings on the chainset (at the front), and somewhere between 8 and 12 sprockets on the rear wheel, in what's usually chosen a cassette or cluster.
The size of the gear is adamant by the chainring and sprocket combination that you lot utilise. Running the chain on the larger chainring gives you a larger (harder) gear that moves y'all further frontwards with every pedal revolution, equally does running the chain on a smaller sprocket.
That'southward unproblematic, right?
But what if yous're running the chain on the smaller chainring and the largest sprocket and the gear is nevertheless besides difficult? Y'all can work on your fitness, of course, but you can as well make changes to your equipment.
Changing your cassette
Cassettes come with diverse different combinations of sprockets. We'll accept Shimano'due south 105 R7000 groupset equally an case. Shimano offers a 105 cassette with an 11-tooth sprocket up to a 28-tooth sprocket – oftentimes written as 11-28T. It besides offers a 12-25T cassette, an 11-30T, a wide-range 11-32T cassette, and an even wider xi-34T.
All other things being equal, the 34T sprocket on the 11-34T cassette is going to give you the easiest gear. If your cycle is currently fitted with an 11-28T cassette, switching to an 11-34T cassette will brand climbing less of a struggle.
Swapping 1 cassette for some other is a straightforward task but you do need special tools: a cassette tool and a chain whip. If you don't have these, you tin inquire a bike shop to practice the job for you.
>>Read more: How to fit and remove a sprocket cassette
An 11-34 Shimano 105 cassette currently costs about £55.
SRAM kicked off the utilize of double chainsets and super-wide-range cassettes a few years ago with its WiFLi designs, which were the starting time systems to combine a l/34 crankset with an 11-32 cassette.
Shimano only goes to 11-34 with its 105 components, simply there are reports of people getting SRAM 11-36 cassettes to work in Shimano systems.
The very latest versions of Shimano's Ultegra and 105 GS rear derailleurs volition actually handle an 11-40 cassette, which opens up a range of possibilities for gravel bikes, touring bikes, and any other situation where you're not in a hurry.
In the last couple of years, Shimano has introduced xi-34 cassettes at Tiagra, 105 R7000, and Ultegra R8000 levels, so the old 105 5800 is now the only enthusiast-level groupset you lot're likely to discover on a new bike that doesn't officially work with 11-34, and there's not much 5800 left on bikes in the shops. You tin always upgrade the rear mech to R7000.
If you have a Campagnolo organisation, then for almost groupsets of a few years agone you're limited to a 29-tooth sprocket. Withal, the Potenza groupset launched in March 2016 offered an 11-32 cassette so Italophiles can too go low gears; the following year'due south Centaur groupset followed adjust. The 2018 launch of 12-speed Tape and Super Record components saw the introduction of 11-32 12-speed cassettes, though yous'll need a lot of new components to make them work: shifters, derailleurs, chain, and sprockets.
Campagnolo then launched a 12-speed version of the Chorus groupset with an option of 11-34 cassette and 48/32 chainset, offer the lowest gear range the Italian company has always made.
Meanwhile SRAM has turned information technology up to 12 also, with new Ruddy AXS, Force AXS, and Rival AXS groupsets that include innovative low-gear set-ups. You lot tin can use a 10-36T cassette and 46/33 chainset with SRAM Rival eTap AXS, for case. The upgrade path is painful as you'll need a new transmission and wheels with SRAM's XDR driver for the 10-molar sprocket, just if yous want high-tech shifting and low ratios it might well be worth it.
We're going to focus on Shimano systems in this article, as that covers the majority of bikes out there.
Rear derailleur capabilities
If you change your cassette, you need to bear in mind the maximum sprocket your rear derailleur will handle, and its total capacity. This is the total difference in chainring and sprocket sizes that it tin can handle.
Say yous have 50-tooth and 34-molar chainrings: the deviation betwixt the big 1 and the pocket-sized one (50 minus 34) is 16 teeth. And say your bicycle is fitted with an 11-28T cassette: the difference between the large one and the small one (28 minus 11) is 17 teeth. Add them together and you lot go a full difference (sixteen plus 17) of 33 teeth.
Shimano's short cage 105 R7000 rear derailleur takes a maximum sprocket size of 30T and a total capacity of 35 teeth. That means y'all tin use it with the setup described higher up. But you can't utilize that rear derailleur with the same chainset and an 11-34T cassette for two reasons. For a offset, information technology volition struggle to go on to the 34T sprocket, though it might work if your gear hanger is long enough.
Even if the derailleur will shift to the big sprocket, the total difference you're asking it to handle would exist 39 teeth, then either the chain would be too slack in the combination of smallest chainring and smallest sprocket or as well tight in the largest. That can crusade the manual to jam or even break.
If you wanted to fit an xi-34 cassette, y'all'd too need Shimano'south GS rear derailleur (the 105 version can be found for £49) which has a total capacity of 39T.
You'd besides demand to fit a longer chain (the Shimano 105 one retails at £25.60).
We've establish that this derailleur even works with a Shimano 11-40T cassette (£74), but don't tell Shimano nosotros said that.
Swapping your chainset
If you're on a road bike you'll probably take a double chainset – ane with two chainrings. There are three mutual double chainring combinations: a 52 or 53-tooth outer chainring with a 39-tooth inner chainring; a 50/34T pairing, known as a compact or a semi-compact 52/36T.
If y'all have a 53/39T setup, for example, and you notice the gearing besides hard, you tin buy a 50/34T chainset or fit smaller chainrings to your existing cranks (check that the new chainrings take the aforementioned bolt circle bore, BCD, as the old ones).
You lot'll besides have to modify the position of your front end mech and get yourself a new chain (or at least shorten your existing chain).
Like rear derailleurs, front derailleurs have a maximum capacity. Here it relates to the difference in size between the big chainring and the small chainring. So, say yous are using 50/34T chainrings: the deviation is 16 teeth.
The chapters of a Shimano 105 front derailleur, for case, is 16T and so it'll cover all of the mutual double chainset combinations.
If a meaty chainset isn't pocket-sized enough, y'all tin go lower nevertheless with a sub-compact like the FSA Free energy. These typically have 46T and 30T chainrings for a roughly ten percentage driblet in gears.
Shimano got on the depression-gear railroad train with its GRX components including 46/xxx chainsets.
Going for a triple chainset
One final selection for irresolute your gearing is to bandy from a double chainset to a triple chainset. A typical triple setup for the road has a 30T inner chainring compared with the 34T inner chainring of a meaty setup.
However, this is quite a complicated swap. You'd demand to alter your shifters, your chainset and probably your derailleurs too. Y'all're far meliorate off buying a bike that'due south already set up upwardly with a triple rather than swapping to it.
Over the past few years, the introduction of cassettes and rear mechs that provide a super-broad range of gears has meant that triple chainsets accept largely fallen out of favour for road use. That said, some people go on well with triples; it comes down to personal taste.
Proficient luck out there on the climbs!
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