LONGER CRANKS

[Delgado]

Mid point of BB axle to midpoint of pedal fitment hole....

[Slave]

Hey Porky, aks Delgado and the other Colnago trio members. They have seen the 11 / 21 and 52 /42 and I get up all the hills in SBR. Delgado calls it my "close ratio box."

 

What can I say, before I joined this nut house (as the biggest nut), I used to grind hills in heavy gears. I am now training myself to spin, but still lapse into the odd grind every now and then.

 

Admittedly, I do a lot of standing on the pedals riding SBR, but I've done it twice now.

 

JB. The cranks that were on the bike when I got it: 170 mm. My legs appear to be of a normal length. Not too long or too short.

 

Speed devil, I tried a 39 t chain ring up front and all it did was hurt. I didn't try and stay / persist with it at all. Had one ride and hated the 39 t. I am more than happy staying with a 42t small chain ring.

[NotSoBigBen]

I still think the 39 is the way to go. You never 'lost' anything ..... I am sure the geeks amongst us can like to show the gear ratios that overlap between 42/52 and a 39/52 x your 11/21.

 

You just gained some extra 'easy gears' that you didn't have to use till you needed (or could spin) them so it doesn't mean because you have a 39 you 'must' ride in the 21 and spin more than you want to ...... I hope I'm making some sense here!

[Slave]

I get the gist BB. 39 is supposedly the way to go and maybe when I learn to spin more, the 39 will hurt less.

 

First time I went on the long loop with the fast bunch, I got dropped at Walkerville. Second time, I manage to stay with them as fas as Walker fruit farms.

 

Then when I tried the 39 t, I got dropped on the Lido hill. So, back to the 42 and last Sunday, even with a Sat SBR ride in the legs, I hung on until De Deur before getting dropped.

 

With the 39, it just felt like all my gears were wrong. Either too easy or to hard. Nothing that felt "right".

 

I am obviously used to the 42 and comfortable with it. I'm kinda hoping that I can spend more time sitting in the saddle doing SBR with slighty longer cranks and staying with the 42 t blade.

 

 

 

 

[Andyr249]

Slave, I didn't see how you were riding SBR but if you are more comfortable with pushing heavier gears than the spinning ones then keep the 42. Maybe you could even go for a 23 while keeping your 42. That would make it a bit better. I use an 11-26 at the back. Made SBR a breeze!

[Slave]

Andy, SBR was not easy on a 42 to 21 combo with 170mm cranks, but it is doable. The first time I did SBR, I had to stop up that last long climb becuase it hurt my back more than anything else.

 

This time around, I did not stop. (Yeah, I know we stopped to regroup just outside the second gate, but we did that last time as well. I'm talking about not being abe to complete the climb in a single go. Also, 1st time around Jow Louw stopped just over the top of the ride to regroup hwich I also didn't do this time around.)

 

I feel confident that next time, I will be able to go faster without any need to stop at all. Just depends on how I can adapt to 175 mm cranks. I may hate them like I did the 39 t blade and chuck it after one ride.

 

Thunk I will try and do some hills today to get a feeling of the lnger cranks and then I will have experience. No opinion in world like experience.

 

It is all a question of economics really. Changing blades was a cheap experiment because the parts are available (lying in my garage not currently being used.) Similar to the cranks. Easy experiment.

 

Changing casettes tho' is entirely another ball of wax. IDeally, I would like to custom design my casette. 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23.

 

It would be closer to my 11 / 25 eight speed I had before. I needed to do Camaro on the 25 at the back. I may go out this afternoon and give it a bash with the current experimental setup. It can't hurt that much can it?

 

Who knows, tomorrow I may have a  half chain for sale. Stretched to double the length.

[Roders]

Slave, I seem to remember you being pretty much my hight. If like me you like pushing bigger gears 170 cranks are no good for you. Walkerville hill should not even be climbed in small blade, 53/17 or 19 would be more like it. I Reckon you want 53/39 at the front and 11/21 or 11/23 for the odd serious climbing ie SBR at the back. But you want 175 cranks at least, I've just gone from 175 to 177.5 and to me it feels better. On my mountain bike I run 180's.

[Slave]

Thanks Roders. You seem to understand my dilemma.

 

I think with bigger cranks, I am probably going to go back to big blading pretty much everything except the meanest of hills.

 

Will try out the 175's this afternoon and it should give me an idea of how it will all work out.

 

Pronise, if anyone ever wants to see me NEVER use a small blade, put a 39 on the front of my bike. H3ll even up til last year, my 42 blade never got used by me, ever. I set the grub screws so it never moved except to get rid of the chain rub when in the upper or lower  gears.

 

When I still ran 6 speed, I also only ever used the bottom 4 gears unless climbing hills like Camaro.

 

But then again, I only used to manage 16 up Lido hill. Now at least I can get 18 to 20 with relative ease.  

[Matchstix]

I wonder what you will do on compact cranks

personally if you can ride the hill in those gears. .  its not a real hill but an illusion of one.

What is SBR?

 

[CycleJunkie]

Suiker Bos Rand

[Slave]

Have a speedwobble at 25 and moer off.

 

SBR is the Suikerbosrand Nature reserve. Apparently it is the place to train if you want to do hills and you don't live in the berg (As in Drakensberg) or the Cape.

 

Eish, not to get into any wrangle about illusions, but I will try and get someone to post the route profile of the reserve from Saturdays ride.

 

(Help, Trubie. The mean man wants to beat me up.)(Nahh, just pulling the p1ss man. Will get Trubie to post the route if he still has it. Those illusions were pretty tough, but like that's just my opinion.)

[Andyr249]

Roders, I think that you may have a better chance at winning the TdF than there is of Slave going to a 39. He likes, and feels better, using his 42. Try the 175's and if you have parts lying around experiment with the cassette. Try various setups and then you will eventually find what works best for you.

 

SBR is Suikerbosrand. 52km with 1065m of ascent and starting with a 2.5km 8% hill for a warmup.

[philippe484]

Ah w- w - whatever !   &

[Roders]

To me the 39 ring is for emergency's, like getting up the steep climb in SBR. That is why I feel if Slave is set up properly He would have no need to change out of the 53 ring unless the gradiant really kicks skywards.

Slave, I've hung on to a bunch up walkerville hill with Daryl Impey driving and saw 55km/hr !!

[bored girl]

beginner's question. How do you measure the crank? is is from the mid point of the nut to the end or from end to end? when I measure mine it gives me 200 - but that just cant be right.

.

 

 

 

Is there nothing stamped on the crank arms?

[Andyr249]

Slave, I will post the profile in a few minutes.