Gravel Gearing....again

[bluebus200]

The way I see it is the bike carries my lard..I’m not bothered about the speed. If I was bothered about the speed I would spend a lot of time being bothered...

[bluebus200]

My lowest is a 30/40 combo front/back....yes you spin. But If you can get a fully loaded bike up the hills where I live (Asturias, northern Spain, think Cornwall x snowdonia) you deserve some kind of meddle and probably a knee operation. Yes you could walk, but spinning is more energy efficient and imo much easier. It all depends on your terrain...

3BFA3009-DE1E-4FB8-9B96-DC5F08C7BDED by Chris Harris, on Flickr

Lovely place to live. I went on holiday there in 2015 and loved it.

I am hoping to setup some kind of touring company there...the tracks are endless. Now if could just get back from the UK that would be nice!

[BigdummySteve]

cheers for the maths - was going out riding or i would have done it

At 90rpm your doing 5 1/2 mph, faster than I walk uphill and for me more comfortable

Still reckon its more energy than walking but I will give you your 1 1/2 mph advantage

https://www.bikecalc.com/gear_inches



The really annoying thing is both the major drivechain manufactures have missed the mark. Eagle by not having mechanical shifters and grx by way of range, it was interesting to see on Bikepacking.com that GRX Di2 can cope with a 40 cassette on 2X with some work. AXS Eagle is great but only because it’s one of the few options on drops. Even then I’d like a little more range and I’d like it from a system which is designed to work rather than cobbled together, surely there are enough people riding drops off-road to make it viable?

[ScotRoutes]

cheers for the maths - was going out riding or i would have done it

At 90rpm your doing 5 1/2 mph, faster than I walk uphill and for me more comfortable

Still reckon its more energy than walking but I will give you your 1 1/2 mph advantage

Dunno about you, but if it's steep enough to get off, I won't be walking uphill at 4mph (Naismiths Rule is 3mph on the flat), especially not while pushing a, potentially loaded, bike.

[Jurassic]

I was talking to a friend recently who is a dyed in the wool "pannier tourist" and he's still running 3x to get the range of ratios he wants. They resort to non mainstream equipment suppliers like Spa Cycles to provide "touring" chainsets. You'd think between tourers and gravel riders there would be enough demand for a low gear, wide ratio set up without resorting to DIY options. I think the UScentric view of gravel bikes as race bikes (for gravel) is partly to blame. I'm currently toiling to get my mtb front mech to work reliably with the new GRX shifter that I've just installed.

[ScotRoutes]

it was interesting to see on Bikepacking.com that GRX Di2 can cope with a 40 cassette on 2X with some work.

There's a few folk running 40x cassettes on 2x systems (me included). I use 50/34 105 cranks and a Ultegra rear mech. It's very likely that GRX cranks and rear mech would work too, I've just not tried it.

Shimano are notoriously conservative with their specifications.

I was talking to a friend recently who is a dyed in the wool "pannier tourist" and he's still running 3x to get the range of ratios he wants. They resort to non mainstream equipment suppliers like Spa Cycles to provide "touring" chainsets. You'd think between tourers and gravel riders there would be enough demand for a low gear, wide ratio set up without resorting to DIY options. I think the UScentric view of gravel bikes as race bikes (for gravel) is partly to blame. I'm currently toiling to get my mtb front mech to work reliably with the new GRX shifter that I've just installed.

My current 2x system replaced a 3x plus 11/34T one I was using previously.

[Lazarus]

Cheers for the link was going to use Sheldon

Dunno about you, but if it's steep enough to get off, I won't be walking uphill at 4mph

I am running mate

It would have been more prudent to say the speed difference wont be that much

[BigdummySteve]

With a 40t cassette I want a 26t chainring to get near the low gear I’d want, could you with Di2 then spec a bigger, potentially chain snapping chain ring then tell Di2 not to use those ratios?

[Alh14]

it was interesting to see on Bikepacking.com that GRX Di2 can cope with a 40 cassette on 2X with some work.

There's a few folk running 40x cassettes on 2x systems (me included). I use 50/34 105 cranks and a Ultegra rear mech. It's very likely that GRX cranks and rear mech would work too, I've just not tried it.

Shimano are notoriously conservative with their specifications.



My current 2x system replaced a 3x plus 11/34T one I was using previously.

Just literally installed a 50/34 chain set with a Ultegra r8000 rear derailleur, 11-40 cassette, runs fine.

[jameso]

https://bikerumor.com/ask-stupid-question/

BikeRumor talking to Shimano Gravel soon and they want rider's questions. Feel free to use this form ^ to ask Shimano about gearing. Main topic intro article here - https://bikerumor.com/2020/05/18/aasq-c ... gear-more/

Good luck... I've been asking for a super-compact chainset for drop bars for over a decade now, since before the first Shimano drop-bar disc brakes appeared on the Croix de Fer In that time we've gone from 32-50T to GRX 30-46... clearly I have zero influence there so maybe you can help me/us all out. All I want is a 28-42 and a side-swing front mech to go with it.

[Al]

Good luck... I've been asking for a super-compact chainset for drop bars for over a decade now, since before the first Shimano drop-bar disc brakes appeared on the Croix de Fer In that time we've gone from 32-50T to GRX 30-46... clearly I have zero influence there so maybe you can help me/us all out. All I want is a 28-42 and a side-swing front mech to go with it.

James I run 42/28 on an slx chain set using a cx series front mech and it works great with road shifters.

[Bearbonesnorm]

This is why I use non indexed bar end shifters, it removes much of the messing about and allows infinite mix and match combinations of mech, cassette, chain and rings. They really don't take much getting used to and there's nowt to go wrong.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I've just read a quote in the 'Off road' magazine from someone riding a loop round the Matterhorn - "I was already in my lowest gear 38/50 and my legs were struggling" or something like that. This was riding well surfaced gravel roads with an average of 11% gradient on a light gravel bike and unloaded.

Makes you think, well, makes me think but most things do

[jameso]

James I run 42/28 on an slx chain set using a cx series front mech and it works great with road shifters.

Yes it can be done, I have an option of XTR 30-42 or XT 28-40 chainsets here and use bar-end shifters to free up my options, but both cranks are MTB wider Q-factor. Not a massive problem but not what I'd take out of choice, esp for longer road trips. I just think it's well past time that there were better options in that area that are optimised for road / gravel bikes. Too much of the Billy Big Ring bollocks in road riding..

Makes you think,

It does.. but if I commented would I be Billy Big Ring talking bollocks? Also to be fair 38-50 on a gravel bike is still a few gears higher than 22-36 on a 26" bike.

[bluebus200]

spa cycles are doing some interesting super compacts... Cheaply too..

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s109p33 ... cral-Rings

[The Cumbrian]

This fella's done an interesting experiment with GRX:

https://youtu.be/sRgLG1uP_uo

[jameso]

spa cycles are doing some interesting super compacts... Cheaply too..

That's good, the trick of using a road triple with a guard on the outer ring position. I've wondered about using some of those aftermarket tabs to finish it off neatly i/o the chainguard. I rode with a guy for a few hours on the TINAT 600 who used a 30-42-52 105 HT2 set up that way minus the outer ring. Think I've mentioned him before here RE gearing, a really strong climber who'd ridden a sub-50hr PBP and was going for it again last year, his take was that the further you ride the less you want big gears. I was quite inspired by that, been a fan of the rev-limiting approach for a while but hadn't seen it used on a fast audax bike before to that kind of effect. 42 is OK for me on road but most will want a bit higher.

[boxelder]

Don't know if it's useful and/or has already been covered, but I've been using Ultegra Di2 shifters with an XT rear mech for a few years. Currently using 36 x 11*40, but may go to 38 or 40 x 11*46.