Gearing Advice For The Mountains.

I live just up the road in Virginia and ride the Blue Ridge Mountains often. What I have found to be effective is to make a custom cassette by tossing on a MTB 28 tooth cog on the back of a 12-25 or 12-26 9 speed cassette while taking out something like the 15 tooth cog. This will give you plenty of spin up even the toughest grades in 39-28! You can do the compact route, but that involves more cash and a committment to that setup.

Changing the rear gearing is easy and temporary. Either install someting like a 27 or 28 cog or keep a 'climbing wheel' handy with its' own freewheel set up for long uphill drags with two or three ratios you can spin/recover in and an 11 for those screaming descents.

f1943r said:

Let me start with a little information. I’m 63 years old, 6ft 2in and 190 pounds. I’ve been cycling for over ten years and have some road race experience. I also have two road bikes one is a 10 speed with the standard 53/39 crank set and a 12-25 rear cassette. The other is a 9 speed with the same gearing. I just moved to Asheville NC and love it. My problem is I’m not able to get into a good spin on some of the long climbs they have in the North Carolina mountains. I’m thinking of converting one of my bikes into a triple 52/42/30 or maybe a compact 50/30. I’ll leave the other bike as is, probably my 10 speed, it’s a newer bike. It may not make me climb any faster but should help me get up and over a littler more comfortable. Any suggestions?? Thank you

If you are using a ROAD crank with a 130BCD, you can get a 38t chainring ...

Many Shimano ROAD rear derailleurs can often handle a 30t rear cog.

I opted for XTR rear derailleurs (950 & 952) because it is what I had + 12-34 & 11-32 cassettes ... it doesn't hurt to have the "extra" (32t or 34t) cog to bail out onto unless you are a weight weenie OR don't like the look of a pancake-cassette on the back.

Generally, the cassette with the 34t will give you 30t & 26t cogs ... and, the cassette with the 32t will give you a 28t & 24t ... so, select the one which gives you the better "intermediate" low gears if you go this route.