Categories: Accessories and GearBelgian AffirmationsIn MemoriamRantings from the V-Bunker

In Memoriam: The Straight Block

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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Ron says:

Aug 13 2015 at 7:14 am

Whenever such analytical talk of gearing comes up, I can't help but laugh at the "it's as easy as riding a bike." Yes, bicycles are simple machines, but there is definitely a lot going on if you are a serious aficionado of awesome bikes.

As a point of clarification: if a fella was to have four road bikes, is it okay to have one dressed with a compact? Instead of changing out gears, the fella can just grab that bike if he's heading for the mountains.
Teocalli says:

Aug 13 2015 at 7:20 am

@Ron

Whenever such analytical talk of gearing comes up, I can’t help but laugh at the “it’s as easy as riding a bike.” Yes, bicycles are simple machines, but there is definitely a lot going on if you are a serious aficionado of awesome bikes.

As a point of clarification: if a fella was to have four road bikes, is it okay to have one dressed with a compact? Instead of changing out gears, the fella can just grab that bike if he’s heading for the mountains.

I'd have thought that the last point was an essential part of the n+1 justification to the VMW.
Nate says:

Aug 13 2015 at 7:29 am

@wiscot

Campagnolo single replacement cogs are available.
Ron says:

Aug 13 2015 at 7:42 am

@Teocalli

Ha, yes, that is a great point that you make!

To be honest, my VMH is pretty supportive of my cyclo-habit and even likes nice bikes herself. We've been to two NAHBSs and we're headed to the Worlds next month. Oh, and we went to the CX Worlds in Louisville. I recently set her up on my former #9 bike, a nice steel De Bernardi. She's in heaven, was using DT shifters before, and now LOVES integrated shifters. Just got her some sweet Gaerne shoes so she can ride cliplessly.

I also played my cards right; I stocked up on bikes while we were dating and haven't bought any since we've been married. I know it's blasphemous, but I'm pretty happy with the current herd. I'm saving my Budgetatus to build a proper bike shed/workshop in our backyard, we've got an acre despite living downtown in a mid-sized city. The house is reaching maximum bike capacity.
wilburrox says:

Aug 13 2015 at 7:48 am

@Ron

Whenever such analytical talk of gearing comes up, I can’t help but laugh at the “it’s as easy as riding a bike.” Yes, bicycles are simple machines, but there is definitely a lot going on if you are a serious aficionado of awesome bikes.

As a point of clarification: if a fella was to have four road bikes, is it okay to have one dressed with a compact? Instead of changing out gears, the fella can just grab that bike if he’s heading for the mountains.

strd 53-39 with 11-25 on my alloy CAAD 10 and Jet wheels

mid-compact (?) 52-36 with 11-28 on my C Roubaix with Ardennes

Pretty straight forward which one I use for crits and short road races and TNW rides. And guess which one I use for the hills and centuries and casual Sunday club rides.

My daughter races Jr's gearing and can still stay under roll out using 11 sp cassette provide the CX front chain rings at 44-36. 44x12 works for rollout. She mostly likes the 12-25 cassette DA C35's combo but for races w/lotta climbing or steep TTs she wants the DA C24 12-28 combo.

12-25 is a great 11 sp cassette. For fun every now and then I'll run with her C35's just to get a welcome change of scenery from the HED +'s. It's a whole different vibe/feel from the narrow DAs vs fat HEDs and I love the tight ratio cassette.

I do have a 11-32 cassette mounted on a Stan's disc brake wheel set I'll use on my steel frame CX bike w/long cage 105 RD. That bike I run with 52-36 during summer on dirt roads and I'm swapping now the big ring (easy peasy on the Ultegra crank) to a 46 for CX season. 2nd Industry Nine wheel set is set up with 11-28. I'm not sure which way I'll go this season on cassettes. A 36x32 could be interesting but how often will need it? We'll see.

I guess the point of all that is why not have a bunch of different options/flavors if have a bunch of bikes? I don't see the point otherwise of maintaining a herd of bikes.

Cheers
wiscot says:

Aug 13 2015 at 8:31 am

@Teocalli

@Ron

Whenever such analytical talk of gearing comes up, I can’t help but laugh at the “it’s as easy as riding a bike.” Yes, bicycles are simple machines, but there is definitely a lot going on if you are a serious aficionado of awesome bikes.

As a point of clarification: if a fella was to have four road bikes, is it okay to have one dressed with a compact? Instead of changing out gears, the fella can just grab that bike if he’s heading for the mountains.

I’d have thought that the last point was an essential part of the n+1 justification to the VMW.

Agreed! And a bike of a different color should be a good reason to add another machine to the stable. "But honey, it's blue and I don't have a blue bike yet."
wiscot says:

Aug 13 2015 at 8:32 am

@Nate

@wiscot

Campagnolo single replacement cogs are available.

Alas, I'm a SRAM/Shimano guy these days. When I had my Colnago I tried to put as much Campag on there as possible.
unversio says:

Aug 13 2015 at 8:39 am

@KogaLover

@The Engine

What’s the Richard gear?

Richard Gear — The final sprocket on the back of a cassette deemed good enough for climbing.

“I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to g... I got nothin' else.”
Matt says:

Aug 13 2015 at 9:05 am

@frank

This 1x thing is just a fucking nightmare. I saw a 42T cog on a cassette the other day. I became instantly ill. Even for a mountain bike, that’s disgraceful.

The fucking insane thing about it is, as soon as the new XTR 11 speed came out, 3rd party companies released a 45t extension cog. FORTY-FIVE TEETH. What the fuck?! I could eat nachos off that. If you need a 45 tooth cog you're missing the point of Mountain Biking. If you happen to regularly ride hellaciously steep climbs, jump off the hype train and just put the front derailleur back on. The sport* is becoming too damn easy. FFS.

*Mountain Biking specifically, not Cycling.
Matt says:

Aug 13 2015 at 9:09 am

In other news, my 12-23 always treats me right.