Capricorn Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 (edited) Right, posed this question in another thread, but thought it might derail Mr Patches' topic too much.. Feel free to weigh in with the classic 'it's what the pros do' quasi-argument, but actually looking for personal experiences that dictate the usefulness, or uselessness of the 10-spd concept in DH racing.Personally, I dont see the logic of it, I'm rarely on the 9th sprocket, much less the 8th or 7th on my cluster during a run. I'm more inclined to a 7 or 6 speed setup and think what the Monster Energy team employed (6 spd DT SWiss hub + custom cluster) is the way to go. Maybe a more contentious question would be: why did SRAM go this way? Again, my stab at this is pure marketeering: leveraging sales of 10spd componentry taken from other markets (XC/AM) against the DH drawcard. Flamebait, probably, but lets hear your thoughts on this.. (still a gorgeous bit of kit irrespective!) Edited June 30, 2011 by Capricorn
Grebel Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 I don't see the point. I don't even use all the gears on my trail bike!
jimmy hardtail Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 The big advantage of 10 speed is a wider spread of ratios without big jumps between gears. It is great on a freeride bike where you need a granny gear to go up but still want to run one chain ring up front. On a dh bike it is pointless I reckon. I never use more than 3 gears in a dh race and thats mostly to get off the line. Then again the tracks we have dont have many 60 kmh pedally sections. . .
Capricorn Posted June 30, 2011 Author Posted June 30, 2011 yep, point baout the pedally sections, but if u going hammer and tongs into that section, i'd reckon a dropseat is of more value than a few extra gears, unless you bailed at some point on the flats and need to crank it up. Irrespective of the gearing, your racegoose is cooked.
TNT1 Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 I don't see the point. I don't even use all the gears on my trail bike! I don't (rarely) use all the 10 gears at the back on my road bike.
Capricorn Posted June 30, 2011 Author Posted June 30, 2011 Added a poll. Please expand on your choice.
TNT1 Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 another edit, I run 1x6 on my pre season road training bike. Sometimes 2x1, a delightful 40/44x16.
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 Just don't think you have the time, imho. I mean, imagine thinking you're in the right gear. Then, no, wait. I should be in 8th. Why am in in 9th? oh, feck! I'm actually in 10th! I think it's bad for the very same reason that it's good on road / xc bikes. On them, you need that infinite tuneability when you hit a slight incline, or you just need to pedal just that LITTLE bit harder or faster. With a 10sp DH cluster, you'd constantly be spinning out, then changing gear when in fact you need to pedal, change, pedal harder, change, jump. Coast. Pedal change pedal pedal pedal change. Just takes your finger away from either your brakes, or your thumb away from the position where it's acting as a supporting brace on your bars.
Capricorn Posted June 30, 2011 Author Posted June 30, 2011 mayhem: one of my sentiments exactly. For DH, less is more when it comes to gearing. In fact, it's one of the things the monster energy team stated as one of their objectives: reducing the number of shifts. Given SRAMs hard sell on this 10spd stuff, i'm pretty interested to know which gear Greg, Peaty or any of the other 10spd SRAM sponsored riders, start off with.... cos i'm pretty sure,that unless they bail on a flat section, they wont go higher. So why the rest of them cogs??
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 run 10 speed clusters but only use 5? Kinda stoopid, really. Only thing I can think of is that they'll adopt the 2:1 shifting strategy that Shim has, or insert some sort of a reduction / enlargement gear in the shift line... Thereby effectively only using 5 cogs! Change, shift 2. Change, shift 2. you know what I mean?
Capricorn Posted June 30, 2011 Author Posted June 30, 2011 with SRAM's stated belief in 1:1 actuation, not sure that's gonna fly. But they still wasting every 2nd cog in that cluster with 2:1 shifting. Also, given there not that much physical difference between the two rear mechs (XO DH and vanilla XO), it's pretty much the same bit of tech. Which again perplexes me on the push for 10-spd. I see the other big cycling forums overseas have similarly perplexed riders. Maybe hte answer is a simple case of marketeering, and maybe they see a big enough market amongst those who spend just cos they can, to justify all this hooplah about a 'new' product. Reminds me of the PC industry where, say the grpahics cards makers try and out-do each other to the point where the card sales eventually tell them to piss off and really go and innovate. Seems Shim has stolen the march on SRAM big time with that little switch of theirs...
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 Yep, my thoughts exactly. The market, after all, will buy whatever you say is good for them. Still a waste of gears.
patches Posted July 1, 2011 Posted July 1, 2011 I've found on both my bikes that I have my "favourite gears". I have about 3 on each bike. The cassette could be 15sp and I would probably only use those 3 90% of the time. So yeah... 10sp... not relevant for DH (don't really even think so for XC... but those guys fall for all sorts of marketing ploys (like the 29er one ).
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