Chainrings and Gearing

[pedaldancer]

I've been riding my 53/11 gearing since last summer and have dealt with it pretty good albeit with a pretty slow cadence when things get steep. I am ok on most climbs but it is a lot of out of the saddle stuff.

Hearing Magnus Backstedt commentate on Eurosport the other day he was saying he only ever used this gearing at the start of the year for strength training - so think maybe I could be giving myself a bit of a break! Don't get me wrong it's awesome on the flats and I have no major complaints with it, just maybe I could be climbing more efficiently if I can stay in the saddle longer. I rode a friends bike the other day and it was way too small but not a compact, I guess whatever the standard gear ratio is.

Main question is what size do you think I should drop down to? I want to go down enough to see a substantial difference in my climbing but I do TT aswell so don't want to kill off my average speed on the flats.. And do I change both the chainrings and the cassette or just one of the two?

The other thing is I just cannot lose any weight?! My legs just seem to be getting bigger and bigger and although my upper body is still pretty slight, I wonder if the huge gear is contributing to the hypertrophy of my legs (by the way I have no aesthetic desire to have sprinters legs, I just want to get up the climbs as quick as posisble!) after what Backstedt said about strength training...

Cheers in advance for any help and advice you may have.

 

[bc_hills]

Just to clarify, you have a 53/39 crank setup and maybe a 11-23 cassette, and you find your easiest gears to be a little too difficult (too low a cadence) on steeper grades. Is this what you mean? If so then a new cassette is probably a good way to go. That way you could switch out cassettes depending on what event/terrain you'll be riding.

What you wrote sounds like you ride a 53/11 single speed bike. Is that what you ride? Is your name Chris Hoy? Anyway, get a gear table and find a chainring/cog combo that gets your gear inches down from 130 (53/11) to something in the 80's.

And do all of this before you exclude yourself from off the rack pants ever again!
cheers.

 

[pedaldancer]

Yeah sorry, 53/39 chainring and 11/23 cassette - I am far from being Chris Hoy - thank god! It's a wonder how he even walks to the velodrome I'll give the cassette a go then.

Cheers.

 

[dolophonic]

11-26 good for the back (SRAM)
52-38 good for the front.

 

[brianf7]

Ounce upon a time all we had was a 56x48 with 14 - 28 rear.
that was the 1958-1968 era

Used to use the 56 it some racing untill a few years ago with the theory that the big ring creates more power out put but alas that was just a theory.
what happens when you are knackered and need to twiddle home.

 

[bc_hills]

56/14 is "only" 105 gear inches, where 53/11 is 126... at 53/13 pedaldancer is already pushing a bigger gear than 56/14... the hills were probably steeper in 68 though.

48/28 is 45 inches and 39/23 is about the same, so the higher gearing is maybe comparable?

I wonder if there's a different feel to a big chainring big cassette combo compared to a smaller combo even where the both have the same gear inches? I notice that I generally prefer to be on my big ring even if it's in a smaller gear, although I have no idea why. It feels like I have more leverage if I want it.