Do the majority of you ride 20 speeds?

Do most of you ride 20 speeds? I'm oblvious to roady gearing.

Also, what is a good weight for a road bike? 17.5 decent or heavy?

 

I ride 16 speeds myself..as to weight I'd say thats decent touch heavier than my road bike and quite a bit lighter than my TT

Peg

 

I run 14 and honestly couldn't see myself needing more... I don't even use all of the gears I have now. Remember, extra gears means more rotating mass, wich is where weight affects you the most... so personally I'd opt for less sprockets, and no triple chainrings.

 

Having more gears gives a better choice for things like hillclimbing. More importantly it gives a better choice for getting the ideal cadence for you.

I found a good improvement of 9 speed over my 8 speed when I made the change about 4 years ago.

Re rotating mass - most of the quality 10speed cassettes are lighter than the previous 9 speed cassettes and for those who are really fussy there are Dura Ace etc and Titanium cassettes.

Me - I train on a SingleSpeed(freewheel not fixed) and my other training bike and my race bike are double 9 speeds.
Í'm slowly building up a 10 speed for next season(I guess - when I have enough $ for some better wheels).

Paul

 

- really agree.

- it lessens the 'holes' in the ratios.


.

 

Proven wrong I guess...

 

Most ride 10, as it is the latest. Many still have 9 (as I do), and fewer have 8,7,etc.. 9 is fine, but a generation old for Shimano. So 9 Ultegra is more akin to 10 105. And 17.5 lbs is decent; the best (most expensive) bike of course are in the 15-16 lb range.

 

i used to run 30 gears but switched out to 20, i figured i dont need the other ten gears i never use.
and my bike weighs 20.5, fairly heavy.

 

Been riding 20 speeds since 2004. Prior to that rode 14 since 1991. Big difference in terms of gearing choices and when I ride my 14 on the indoor trainer I can tell the difference.

17.5 lbs is fine. Not the lightest but not the heaviest. I would say what is more important is the feel. You could ride a 15 lb bike that does not have the qualities you want and the 17.5 lb bike may be heavier but have the qualities you are looking for. My bike weighs in at 17 to 18 lbs and is fine for my riding - the extra 2 to 3 lbs could easily be made up in my losing weight

 

Here in Italy we're very snob, if you do not race with a 20 speed (or 18) bike they'll laugh at you... very sad also because nobody use the 11 when sprinting...

 

I have a new bike, so it has 20. It was a gift from my wife this year for Christmas, so I can't complain.

 

I have a 20 for my road bike and a triple eight(24) for my indoor training bike. I did not realize how spoiled I had become. I started with a triple eight 5 years ago or so when I started riding and thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Several upgrades later I can not believe the difference. The smoothness of the shifting makes having a 20 worth it. Anyway I have never weighed my bike, but the easiest way to make your bike lighter is to loose 5 pounds from your stomach.

 

20. I really like, now that I moved from a 14 to it, the fact that I can hone in my cadence at almost all times. I like to be at 105-112 kind of range and in most cases can hit exactly that iwth all of the options of gears.

 

Just curious, how much weight savings, if any, there is between a DA 9 speed , 8 piece gruppo---that is brifters, calipers, front derailleur, rear derailleur, 53-39 cranks, bottom bracket, chain versus and 12-25 cassette versus a DA 10 speed, 8 piece gruppo with the same items? If anyone happened to go through this updgrade recently, and as a result happens to have this information handy, I would appreciate it.

 

Shimano's website has the weight of all of their components listed. You can compare a DA or Ultegra 10 to their 8 speed Sora stuff.

 

Yes, but as my question noted, I was looking to compare DA 9 speed gruppo weights, 7700 stuff, with DA 10 speed gruppo weights, 7800 stuff, and the older DA 7700 stuff is no longer listed on the Shimano website, only the current offerings. Nonetheless, I got the information from various sources, and the aggregate weight savings for 10 speed 7800 DA compared to 9 speed 7700 DA for the 8 piece gruppo that I listed above is roughly a whopping 70 grams. The aggregate weight savings for 10 speed 6600 Ultegra compared to 9 speed 6500 Ultegra for the 8 piece gruppo that I listed above is roughly 102 grams.

Obviously these insignificant weight savings would not be a reason to upgrade from 9 to 10. I guess other reasons might be stiffer crank and bottom bracket, one more sprocket on the cassette and possibly slightly smoother shifting, none of which sound compelling enough to me to make me want to upgrade. Are there any other possible reasons to upgrade that I missed? For me personally, I probably won't be using 20 speed until such time I am in the market for an entire new bike, probably a couple of more years from now.

 

I ride Ultegra 9 on my newest rig, 2001 Trek 5200. I also run some ancient 6 speed stuff on my late 80s Schwinn Traveler. I mostly just commute on it, and it was what I trained on before I got a real bike. Ironically other than smoother shifting, lower bars, better ride, and lighter weight for better climbs, I am not much faster on it. I will probably upgrade to SRAM Force eventually. I love the double tap, and it weighs less than anything else out there until the Red comes out. I also prefer the hidden shifter cables too. For now the Ultegra 9 works great, and is gonna see it's first race on Saturday. I have ridden new Ultegra, Rival, and Force, they all work as good as the Ultegra I have now. I actually can't tell the difference other than the extra gear when it came to the Ultegra. I rode a 2008 Madone 5.2 with the Ultegra Compact, and it worked great, but I ran out of gear easy.

 

Well, I guess I'm still old school. I still ride my Malliard Helico-matic, 7 speed 26-12 (precursor of the current cassette) a Sun-Tour derailurer (front and rear) and a 42-52 Nervar crankset/chainrings.

Of course It's on a steel Pinarello frame from 1977!

(those on the fourm who raced at the Road Nationals @ Seven Springs saw it. I was the reporter bombing around on that old beast)

Having missed a few generations of tech, I'm kind of new to the whole Ti/Carbon fiber/ brakehoodshifting world. In a way, I prefer the Old School of downtube friction shifters and steel frames that I can fix myself....

 

I do.

What is 17.5 in KG (unless that is kgs, then yes your bike is very heavy!!!), we are all new fangled over here in OZ, 20 speed, kilograms, what's next????

 

17.5 lb is just under 8kg.
In other news, I ride a 27 speed. I think I'm the only one in my club that has a triple chain ring.
Having said that, last weeks race was over a decent hill (for us anyway), and I actually used my granny gear which enabled me to finish second in the KOM for our grade!!!
Also, because I have the extra chain ring, I've changed the rear to a 12-23 (9 speed) from the original 12-25 and I've noticed that there are less gaps when searching for the right cadence. I'm very happy with the setup.
Having said all that, if I was to buy a bike tomorrow, I think I'd get a 20 speed.