In Memoriam: The Straight Block
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.
A-merckx. I rode a buddy’s fat bike with a 1×11 drivetrain last weekend before a relaxing 4 hour ride. I don’t know which I was more self conscious about being seen with, the dinner plate that was the smallest cog, or the fact that it was a fat bike.
Years ago, my LBS had a Suntour board full of cogs that you’d buy a body or two and build your block to liking – 6 cog block. Always the 13-18 and my favourite, the Alpine Cluster. 13-14-16-18-19-21, small ring was a 42.
Still have enough cogs and spacers in the old toolbox to build a couple of Suntour blocks.
Looking forward to spinning this up one day!
Yep, Letraset your own wheels!
11 speed 11-23, straight 11-19, + 21 and 23, comes with the mystical 18, and bring on disc brakes as well, they will improve road riding to the same degree as mountain biking. ( broken 2 dura-ace blocks so far).
I think a road bike looks better with a corncob cassette and short cage derailleur. But to lessen the ‘difficulty’ of the high gearing, I make use of a triple up front.
@sthilzy
I had the full Suntour Freewheel chart on the wall. I believe there were four different 16t cogs. The 16t and 15t cogs were always the center of any build. I swear to God, the weight of a complete FW was more than some frames these days. The front chainrings were always 53/42, although I did hear about some pussies from CO using 39t, back in the day. There was so much planning before race day. In addition, being a good shifter was such a huge tactical advantage in racing.
Yes, and yes! I am not aware of a straight block in 11 speed. 10, sure but 11?
So, I mourn the 18…
SRAM don’t even make an 11speed with an 18 in it so I am forced to put a shimano cassette on (which isn’t a big deal except I prefer to keep it all within the same OEM). They make a very lovely 12-25 11 speed which is defacto on all my 11 speed wheels.
12-25 gives single tooth steps through to 19, leaving 21, 23, 25 as the only doubles. I do have to spin at times in races when an 11 would be nice but it’s a small price to pay, swapping the 11 for 18.
No, it’s not flat around here. Sure, there is quite a bit of flat (no compacts on my bikes) but when the road goes up it goes up in grades with double figures. I like to think of it as strength endurance efforts.
@piwakawaka
In the name of decency – can we just agree that disc brakes look shit and have no place on road bikes?
@Resty
A triple!? How do you sleep at night man!
I ride a 10 speed and on my 50mm aero wheels I run 11-25 while my light wheels have 12-28
@Puffy
I think it was @Frank on another thread that posted a cartoon about a recumbent user banging on about their value, I feel the same way about discs. The people who go on about how they come in handy on long alpine descents in the wet I suspect will never face a long alpine descent in the wet…
13-18? You pussy, 12-17 all the way.
52 x 42 up front.
@Phillip Mercer
disc brakes are no gimmick or change for the sake of it, once you remove the brake force from the rim to the hub performance gains are exponential. The leverage applied to your contact patch from the rim of 700c is halved by moving it to the hub. I am of course using V science!!
Once again, I can relive the story of building [“blending”] a Campagnolo 10s straight 11-20 block. Two cassettes conjoined by at the 14A sprocket — 11-23 and 14-23 cassettes both share the same indexing with 14A. Removed the 14A [ lockring ] off the front and dropped 21, 22, 23 off the back, then added the 11, 12, 13, 14 to the front. This spoiled me entirely. Now I am looking to renew the 11-20 again and recently “blended” a 14-29 cassette to cross Pinnacle Mtn — gravel ride.
And Oli, 52 x 42 up front.
@piwakawaka
Well your V-science is flawed for a few reasons, but mainly becuase step one is “Does it make you/the bike look fantastic” where upon it fails miserably.
@Oli
54 x 44 in winter.
@Oli
Merckx didn’t ride a 12 until the very end of his career – possibly his last season? If they did that replica right, they’d have done a 13-18.
@Puffy
Here’s me and Brett talking to the guy who proposed road bikes with disc brakes. (I’m the taller one, he’s the balder one.)
@frank
You think Eddy drilled his own rings or asked Campy to do it ?? And love seeing his drilled out bars.
@TheVid
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.
@sthilzy
Pure sex. And loved those old Sun Tour blocks. So sad that company went out of business. The grace and passion of Campa at the price point of Shimano. The happiest I ever was as a kid was when I upgraded my steed to have Scott Drop-Ins, a Regal saddle, and Superbe Pro.
@piwakawaka
You had me, then you lost me, then you had me again.
But that middle comment almost has you out of the club.
@Resty
This is a joke, right?
What you’re saying is the equivalent of posting this to an OCD Therapy thread.
@piwakawaka
They improve road riding like a windshield sticker improves the performance of a Civic.
@mauibike
Which is also why we resisted index or “click” shifting as we called it. You’d push the shifter it was like a giant spoiler alert to everyone in the group that you were planning to attack.
In the Alps one year, I saw a bunch of guys riding around on 7 speed blocks that were half “mountain” and half “flat” – the first few gears were smallish, maybe topping out at 26 if they came that big, and the biggest gears were straight 12-13-14 or some such – with a MASSIVE jump in between. Sound familiar?
@Phillip Mercer
I am 10 speed around the house so I can change wheels between all bikes. (I’m now also mostly carbon so I don’t also have to change rim blocks)
I prefer the 12-25 for my daily riding in Seattle and have done OK with that on the mountain roads as well. I like that its just a little smoother and around here if I’m spinning out the 12 I’m going fast enough; I’ve hit over 100kmph so that’s fine with me. I do a “climbing” cassette of a 13-26 which basically trades the 12 for the 26 and have a “flat” cassette of 11-23 which is so smooth it makes me want to ride it all the time.
@Resty
You’re also opening that bike up to possession by demons — the triple is evil.
@OJ
Its a really oddly specific circumstance where discs give a clear advantage, otherwise they just look ugly as hell. Once the peloton unfortunately adopts this industry run change, I can’t wait a rider is on the side of the road on a climb with a neutral service vehicle having to give more information that Campag or Shimano/SRAM gearing. What disc width? what size? and then watching them try and slot the new wheel in as the racer’s chances disappear up the mountain…
@Phillip Mercer
Fucking class. +1 badge to you.
@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.
@Oli
Of course, real men rode a 53 or 54, and Kent Bostick turned a 55. And I… Was not a real man. Sigh….
@frank
Sorry, I got carried away by the photo caption – I wasn’t talking about the bike, just in general back in the day.
We used to refer to the classic Regina Oro (gold colored) in 13-17 as a “corncob cluster”.
That photo gave me the vapors.
Allez le douze.
@Oli
Totally knew that and totally indulged in the fantasy of telling you what’s what about Eddy.
@Nate
Allez le fucking douze, motherfucker.
@frank
Allez le douze, coont.
Disc brakes are awesome…. Disc brakes on road bikes will be awesome…. They will look awesome, perform as well as they look, and more importantly provide that much needed industry sales boost that bike makers look for.
Lets face it we are suckers for new gear…and if you are a sucker for retro…you will still be partaking in the that concept of having someone, at some time, make you pay for something that you want !
Tell you the truth I couldn’t tell you what ratios or whatever I ride…that might not be V enough for most here…but I know one thing… I know how to harden up and just fucking pedal whatever gear I am in.
@Resty
Triple? Turn in your man card!!!
I have to come clean. Late last year I got tired of spinning out my single speed MB and converted it to 1×10. Having a little self-respect, I went 11-25. Totally pleased with the results.
A couple months later my RB front derailleur completely crapped out. Dead frozen in the middle of a long ride. Emboldened by the MB conversion, I stripped the front end, centered and bolted on an Absolute Black narrow/wide chainring, and switched the 12-25 cassette for an 11-28. The conversion gives up 20% on the top and 10% on the bottom.
I have about 3000 miles on the converted bike, and honestly I really like it. Lighter, simpler, cleaner appearance, and less to clean up after rain rides.
470 miles of the ~3000 was riding the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway back in May. Plenty of time was spent in the lowest gear, but I never needed lower. The question of how it would do in fast pacelines was put to rest on Cherohala Challenge. It works fine except my pulls have to be on the flats or uphill.
Odd, I admit, but it might make sense for some riders. FWIW, this setup has not changed my average speed at all. Slower on downhills, but rested and faster on the climbs.