13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. That's a corncob Popeye would make a pipe of.
Disc brakes and 1x drivetrains. These are the sort of things that belong on mountainbikes, are questionable on cross bikes, and should make an immediate trip to the rubbish bin when it comes to road bikes. Change for the sake of change; gimmickry masquerading as innovation. And to make matters worse, the appearance of 11-speed blocks has killed the last vestige of the complexity of our sport: block composition and size.
The question of gear choice was once one of the most critical decisions a Cyclist could make when tackling a course. In The Rider, Tim Krabé describes his gear choice and those of his competitors; throughout the book, he fixates upon which gear he is riding in. José Manuel Fuente used to use higher gears that the other climbers to intimidate them. Andy Hampsten famously rode only odd-numbered gears because obviously even-sized gears made his palms go sweaty.
Sean Kelly belabored his choice to use a 13-25 block versus a 12-23 for the 1989 World Championship Road Race. He knew he couldn’t climb as well as the other favorites and wanted a 25 to save his legs over the final climb. If, however, he managed to get over the hill, he would surely need the 12 in order to win the sprint. It was a classic catch-22; use a block that he could win the sprint with but get dropped on the climb, or get over the hill and lose the sprint. The race lay in the balance of a single tooth on a cog.
We used to build our blocks, not buy a complete cassette on ebay. The idea was to keep the gears as close together as possible with a straight block being the holy grail and the relative smallness of the biggest gear being a declaration of your status as Hardman. Every tooth beyond a 1 tooth jump was a sacrifice; every step beyond a 21 or 23 tooth cog was a silent admission of your sissiness as a Cyclist. The Pros today are riding 11-28 blocks on every kind of terrain, every day. Even at Paris-Roubaix, one of the only races flat enough to still require little more than a 19 even for us mortals.
Committing to nothing lower than a 19-tooth gear requires a suitcase of courage, poor planning, or both. And it looks tough as nails, that tight cluster of gears at the back wheel. Not like these big dinner plates we see riding around all over the place these days. You could serve a nice helping of Steak Frites on some of these modern blocks. Disgraceful. And while I’m not building my blocks anymore, I’m certainly still choosing a cassette for the terrain and plan to continue doing so until I’m pushing up daisies, thank you very much.
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@frank
11-20 begat my current 11-23 which I will stay with this winter. I did use a 13-26 to blend a 14-29 to keep extra insurance for climbing with 52/42. Your quote stuck in my mind, "The large gearing is more efficient if you can turn it."
@unversio
I would love to see a photo of that corn cob!
@Puffy
Yes, also, is it the brakes or the tire that is the limiting factor in stopping distance? In road biking, the answer is unequivocally "the tire".
@unversio
I bet it was Julien DeVries, the right man for the job.
@frank
Beware the spacers though! No blending unless the spacers agree on the back and sometimes at the front.
Julien DeVries, another way to lose my self with cycling — even further.
@Phillip Mercer
They don't ask ANY questions now. Campag 11 works flawlessly with Shim & SRAM groupsets. They sets of one wheelset with a Shimano cassette of one description or another.
During our training ride today we were discussing some of the happenings in the pro peloton, like riders changing teams and the fact that they are going to "trial run" disc brakes in some upcoming stage races. This also brought up the topic of gearing. I was riding my #3 9 speed Dura Ace equipped today and mentioned how I did not mind missing the extra gears on my #2 10 speed or my #1 Red 22. Someone brought up the "old days" of straight blocks and the fact that the pros raced them in the high alps. That was the technology of their day and they were badass for having that ability. Today, the pros have 11 speed cogs with "pie plates" in the rear, compact cranks, electronic groppos and they are racing faster than ever before. However, they also have the best "recovery methods", some very questionable.
So, how long will it be before we see 12 speed cogs on the road? It took nearly a decade to go from 10 speed to 11. The future is a gear box replacing the bottom bracket and a belt replacing the chain. Unsure if the UCI will ever approve of that technology, but you will see road bikes with it as soon as they can lower the weight and production costs. Frightening to think about. Sorry for the nightmares.
- Sparty
@Puffy
Cool, I wasn't aware of that. I'd noticed neutral vehicles with both green and yellow sidewalls which I assumed indicated to the neutral mechanic which cassette type he was grabbing. Also I figured no questions were actually asked as the mechanics would like know who was on what.
Thanks for the update @Puffy
@Puffy
Absolutely agree, even if the do work better, i'll have none of that round here thanks.
@Sparty
I won't say it can't be done, but the width of the cassette is at it's limits now with the drive side spokes getting close to vertical. It would require a significant reduction in the width of the chain to fit the 12 cogs into the same space we have 11 now. Either that or some new breakthrough technology with spoke/wheel deisgn to allow more dish but I can't see that happening anytime soon. Gear box's are complicated and so are heavy but still possible but again, isn't happeneing anytime soon.