MTB to Road gear ratio

[Andreas_187]

Hi,

New guy here asking silly questions about gear ratios. I bought my first full suspension 26er and I've been commuting 30km per day to work for the past two months. I'm looking for a road bike now for longer rides at the weekend.

My question is, I go up Kloof Nek Road every day usually on 24F 32R on my 26er... I've been looking at the classifieds and see the road bikes have ratios of around 50-34F and either 11-28 or 11-32 at the rear. What do you think are equivalent ratios I'll need to get up Kloof Nek considering the MTB to Road bike difference?

Thanks in advance

[Sparki 1]

http://gears.mtbcrosscountry.com/

 

Check this link out.welcome to the hub buddy.

[Andreas_187]

Thanks, I get the ratio calculations but since I haven't ridden a road bike since my Raleigh Banana 25 years ago I wasn't sure on the comparative 'effort' required between a 12kg 26er with knobblies vs an 8kg road bike with skinny tyres.

[madbradd]

Road cranks typically come in 3 options. Standard is 53/39, compact pro is 52/36, and compact is 50/34. Unless you're a race snake a compact is fine.

 

Then road cassettes go from 11/21 to 11/32. Most bikes come standard with an 11/25 and sometimes the bigger sizes come with an 11/28 cos bigger guys tend to go slower up hills.

 

So your current climbing gear is a 24F32R on a 26er, which I think is the second lightest gear you could find (I think you get a 22 chain ring as well). The 34F32R would be the lightest road gear you can find, and the 34F28R the second lightest.

 

So based on that I would say that purely based on manufacturers getting gearing efforts similar that the 28T cassette should be fine.

[Dicky DQ]

I used to do Kloof nek on a 39 21 without too much issue, but a 25 makes it way easier for my current 100kg.

[V12man]

I have climbed Kloof neck many times with my single speed mtb using 34/18 - but its about as big a ratio as practical for me - so anything shorter should be fine.