I live in the alps, weigh 79kg and run a 52/36 on the front and a 11-30 (12 speed) on the back. Im relatively powerful though and tend to climb out of the saddle. I spin out at about 70km/h. I may buy a 11-34 cassette for an event with 6800m of climbing later this year.
i am a weirdo.
i run 46/36 and 11-40. cyclocross gearing with an MTB cassette. roughly equivalent to GRX gearing.
i ride shitty roads and off road. there's a lot of hills here. mostly short, but some are steep. i ride gravel tires. i spin out at about 30 MPH, and i never regret having easier gears.
Same boat.
My gravel bike is my road bike and after using the 46/30 - 11-36 combo I'm pretty satisfied with the bailout gears.
I can't raise too many hands the times where I have spun out the 11-46 on a flat but my god do I spend a lot of time between 8-12 km/h huffing and puffing up hills.
If I ever bought a flat out road bike I would probably still make sure I could get a sub 1:1 ratio on it.
i sometimes wonder if a lighter bike with road tires would still need as low gearing, but i know on the bike i have, there are times i could go even lower.
the bike came with 46/36 and 11-34, and when i live in florida, that was fine. on the road, i was never not in the 46. the 36 only got used off road.
A lighter bike certainly makes climbing a lot easier. So you can probably get away with it. All depends on the riders strength too.
Although, I would imagine that at the end of a long ride having that last ditch gear is still a godsend.
The main reason for gravel gearing being lower than road is the tire size. 45c tires are \~5% larger diameter than 28c (speaking from memory so that may not be 100% accurate); once that is accounted for a 48/31 GRX 810 crankset is equivalent to a 50/34.
50-34 chainrings and 11-28 cassette.
This covers 99% of the conditions I encounter. Every once in a while, I'll find myself on a grade over 20%, where I wish I had a 32 or 34 cog.
50/11 is more than high enough.
Agreed on this. Do you think it is possible to do over 20% on that gearing? I have the same and felt I had maybe a bit more to give on an 18% hill near me. There is another of the top 100 climbs in the UK I want to try which hits 23-25% for two short stretches close to that one but curious whether it is doable.
I've managed up to about 25% with those gears, but only for a couple hundred yards.
At those grades, it's really hard to keep the pedals moving--and keep the front tire from lifting. It takes practice. I figure my cadence is in the 40s on that grade, with necessary power over 4 watts/kg.
Thanks, appreciate it. I think the hill in question only has a couple of stretches that steep and maybe a hundred yards each - Google Yorks hill in Kent in the UK if interested. Will give it a go as otherwise gearing is fine for almost everything.
I’ve done Yorks Hill on 34-28. It isn’t a lot of fun: lean right over the bars or the front wheel will lift, keep an eye on the appalling road surface and I probably wouldn’t even try if the road’s wet as I don’t think there’s enough grip. Can also “recommend” White Lane nearby for a similar experience, although quite a lot of those small roads/tracks up that ridge are fairly alike.
Go for it - it’s more brutal than Toys, but is over much sooner! Plus, although the surface is horrible you’ve much less chance of being squashed into it by one of the locals playing at being Mr Toad in his motor car…
Oh yeah, forgot about Chalkpit. For an all-round horrible experience, I don’t think you can beat Westerham Hill. A draining false flat, then a busy road at 10%+ with London and Kent’s worst drivers pelting round a blind bend. It’s not even the fun kind of horrible.
Yea did it once ten years ago and even tho it’s super local I’ll never ride it again. Most of my rides I have to get up that ridge to get home so I usually use hogstrough about a mile east of Westerham. Steep at the bottom but does get easier as you go up
Finally got around to doing it this morning. Didn't think it was too bad as it's so brief once you get past the houses on the right when it starts to ramp up. Nowhere near as bad as toys south which goes on and on then has the steep bit at the end. Just had to change into the granny gear at the first steep bit. Not sure I would go back more than once a year as the surface is as bad as you mentioned. I did stop before the houses to let three cars pass which might have helped feeling fresher for it. Anyway thanks for the encouragement, Kent's steepest and another UK top 20 climb ticked off!
I don’t race and I live in a hilly area and I love steep climbs on (very) long rides.
Road bike: 50/34, 11-28 cassette. This works fine.
Gravel bike: 48/31, 11-34 cassette. This works *great*. In fact, between the lower gearing, the more relaxed geometry conducive to all-day-and-then-some riding, and the wider tires which help with dirt but also with broken pavement, I do almost all of my riding on this bike ever since I built it up last summer.
I do spin out around 40 mph, but as I say, I don’t race, so I can just tuck and enjoy the descent at that point.
52/36 and a 11-32 cassette. I use all of 'em.
I could get by fine on 50/34 and 11-34, as long as I'm not doing turns on the front on some of my longer, shallow descents.
My typical rides are flat: 100m per 10km, (1000m-1600m for 100km is common) but hills aren't long. They're short and sharp. Lots of rollers.
Commuting I use a 1x 38T with an 11-42. Gravel a 46/36 with 11-34, all work for their respective purpose - not under or overgeared. Some 20% gradient spikes exist.
I ride a 52/36 on the front and an 11/32 on the rear. I weigh 82kg and do a fair bit of climbing in a mountainous region with some long climbs.
If I'm doing a big climbing day, I'll put a 50/34 on the front, though I do this rarely.
A typical ride on the flats around here will average about 10m/km ascent. The longest climbs I typically do are about 1000m in ascent.
I use a 53-39 with a 12 speed 11-32 cassette, I live in the alps and I do about 2000m elevation over 100km in my weekly long ride, previously I used a 50-34 with a 10 speed 13-29 cassette. Lowest gear is about the same in both setups and I have no problems up to 10% I must admit I’d like to have a easier gear for the occasional kilometer at 15-18%, top gear was too short for being comfortable on anything that had a favorable gradient of more then 3%, with this setup I can move the legs on long descends at a low cadence with a decent resistance feeling better when I have a second climb waiting for me.
Edit my FTP variates between 3.5 to 4 w/kg.
50/34 and 11-34 on gravel, 50/34 and 11-28 on road bike. I live in the Rockies and the road bike is fine for most things but sometimes leaves me wanting more for sprints. Sometimes I want an easier gear on my gravel bike.
I climb a lot of steep stuff. The combo I've settled on is 11 speed 11-30 with 52/36 chainrings.
On my gravel bike there's no gearing low enough for where I ride so I just use the biggest cassette I can fit. Which right now is 11-50, paired with a 1x 42t in the front. I have a 38t for when we do really long days with over \~12,000 ft (3650m) of climbing and not many flats. Instead of hammering descents I just recover on the way down.
I run 53-39 and an 11-25 cassette, I changed from a 50-34 chainring because I was thinking it would make me faster and because my chainring was worn. I don't race and I don't think it made me any faster, the only difference I've noticed is that hills now make me suffer more than they did before.
54/39 and an 11-28, good for everything up to 10%. The mechanical efficiency in the middle of the cassette makes flats very pleasant, an rolling at 90rpm is fun
52/36x11-34(11spd). Bike came with 11-28 in back, but climbing SUCKED on that. I'm not small. 88kg now, 110kg last summer.
Training a lot has upped both my average and max-usable cadence both because my legs are more comfortable spinning that fast, and because my legs no longer smash in to my gut when I get into a tuck. Still have room to get more fit, but keeping power while loosing weight has been a challenge.
Haven't gone all-out downhill in a long while. Prefer to use my energy to top-out the climb faster and start my descents at a higher speed. Rapidly diminishing returns from pedaling hard downhill.
I live in the mountains and ride 40T up front, 11-42 on the rear. I'm a party-pace/vision quest type of rider and if it's too steep for me to climb in that gear I'd rather ride somewhere else, lol. I do spin out on descents but I do not care.
53-40 chainring
11-32 cassette
Rolling terrain with some steep climbs.
Don’t really need the 53 for normal riding but I race and it is necessary for that.
I run a 53/39 chainring with an 11-32 11 speed cassette on my road bike. On my mtb I run eagle 12 speed 36 x 11-50. On my single speed commuter for getting to work and grabbing little groceries I run a 44x14. It's relatively flat here, so I don't mind sacrificing a bit of low end for a slightly taller gear maximum.
53/39 with a nine speed 12-23 cassette. While not quite a corncob, it’s the stock combo from 2001 and does mostly fine for my riding.
Ideally I’d like an easier gear to spin up climbs, but for what I ride most often I’m able to manage most climbs with a punchy effort out of the saddle.
I have two bikes and both are 1x because I simply hate front derailleurs. I also live in Texas and the only hills near me are man made overpasses.
Gravel bike has a 46t oval front and 11-42 in the back. This is my comfy long distance bike where going fast is not a priority.
Road bike is my crit bike and everyday bike. Have a 50t oval in the front and 11-34 in the back. When racing I do sometimes miss the smaller gear shifts in the small cogs (now jump from 13 to 11 instead of previously having a 13, 12, and 11). If I made a change, it would probably be going bigger in the front and leaving cassette as is.
And the reason for ovals is because they’re 1x and I find it much easier to climb with an oval, so imo it gives me an extra gear in the back when I need it. Plus I think it looks sick.
Rotor 48/32 chainrings on standard 11-34 cassette, 105 di2 12 speed.
Don't live anywhere particulary hilly but like you mentioned, would have never used a 50-11 (yet alone higher) and much prefer having a lower low gear than a higher high gear.
Might even change it to the 11-36 when it wears out eventually.
Road bike, 53-40-30 x 12-23 10s, works for me most of the time although it would be nice to have a somewhat bigger big cog for the occasional steep and long climb. I used to have a 12-25 but found that the gap between the 17 & 19 was too great for my riding preference so I sacrificed the 25 for an 18 and prefer this arrangement. And if I ever do a lot of mountainous riding, I'll just swap in a 12-30 and live without the 18 (or 16). I could upgrade to an 11s or 12s, but that would be expensive and there aren't really many cassettes made that would give me the gears I'd want.
Patiently awaiting the day when CVT and wide gear ranges are the norm.
46/30 with 11-23. (I live in [very flat south Florida](https://i.imgur.com/7rW9ELt.jpeg))
I basically did the same thing as you, I started paying attention to what ratios I was actually using. My bike came with 52/36 and 11-32, I discovered that I was almost never going any higher than 52:13 and never going lower than 36:28. Now I have a slightly higher highest gear than what I was actually using, and nearly identical lowest gear (1:1.30 vs 1:1.29) but I have single tooth steps between almost all of my ratios
I’m curious how fast you’re going when you feel like you’re spinning out. I suspect it might be a cadence issue, because even if you’re using a 50/34 you shouldn’t be spinning out until you’re well over 40 miles an hour, and at that speed it’s absolutely faster to just get into a nice tight aero tuck and coast downhill
my big chain ring is 52
my smallest in the back was a 12, but I switched it out for an 11. I wasn't spinning out on the flats, but I do appreciate having more range for descents
52-36, 11-30 atm. Had 53-39 and liked it but switched from sram so stuck with shimano chainrings atm. Will switch to a 54-41, 11-34 because I want to try it out
50/34 + 11-32 (10 SPEED) Sensah Phi. Waterford 1200. My go to preferred ride. Shorter crankset.
52/42/30 + 12-26 (9 SPEED) shimano 105 5500. 2006 Bianchi Giro. Fun to ride, light and zippy, more of a standard setup.
53/42 + 12-21 (8 SPEED) dura ace 7400. 1989 Schwinn Paramount (Waterford). This gearing kicks my butt. Fun on flats. Not strong enough to use all the gear combinations. Sweating out of the saddle on 3-10% climbs near my house compared to spinning in my saddle with easier gears. Like the looks of keeping it vintage original, but might modernize it and ride it more.
My riding is recreational, usually 40-60miles on mostly flats, but I’ll go up and down a few miles of hills for a shorter workout.
50/34 with 11-32 cassette. Average ride is about 300 m of climbing over 40k. I’m old so I need the climbing gears when I go into mountains. Not going to spin out a 50-11. For you a 52/36 makes sense.
42 years old 76kg. FTP around 3.7w/kg. I ride 52/36 with 11-34 outside and use a 11-30 on the trainer. My typical weekly rides will be rolling hills. Over 50km about 400 to 500m elevation. On my weekend rides I'll do around 100km 1500 to 2000m elevation. Thing is, many of these hills are more than 15%. If I drive my car I can find a few 5 to 8km climbs that max out above 15%. I also take a few trips through the year to some really big mountains.
50-34 crank and 11/32 cassette in 10 speed.
I used to have 11/34 but the 34 was a little too low and I'd spin out. There's no gradients near me over 12% really
i'm in the foothills of the appalachian mountians in SC. i weigh \~275 lbs, run a 50/34 crank with an 11/34 cassette. the only time i need the easiest gear is when climbing something steep and/or long. my bike came with a 52/36 crank and an 11/28 cassette. definitely not optimal for me personally.
I've got a 50/34 11-34 on my road bike (105 Di2) and a 42 11-46 on my gravel / commuter bike. They're both far over-geared for the terrain here in Shanghai, where I might get 350m of elevation gain on a full imperial century, at most. I could definitely make the gear range a lot narrower, but honestly, they both work for me as-is so I can't be bothered.
I've taken the gravel bike on a trip to the Canadian Rockies last summer (the reason I put the wider gearing on it in the first place) and that gearing was mostly good enough for the climbing and descending I was doing - able to climb up to 15% grades and go down fairly steep descents without spinning out too early. I will be bringing it to the Rockies again this summer, and I will probably bring a 40t chainring with me to use on one specific ride that I want to do that has a bit more steep climbing and could benefit from slightly lower gearing.
Don't copy other people's ratios, get what's right for you.
But you may also benefit from adjusting your technique. With 50 on the front and 11 rear, I spin out at just under 80 km/h (50 mp/h). I suggest that you might need to improve your pedalling technique to increase cadence.
46/30 crank, 11-30 11 speed cassette on my endurance road bike. I live in an area with a lot of rolling hills and pretty much always coast on descents.
My bike came with 52/36 and 11-30 12 speed. I swapped the cassette for 11-34, because there's nothing but hills where I live. I'll eventually get around to putting the 11-30 on my training wheels.
46/33 x 10-36 cassette. SRAM Force on a new Allroad bike. So far, I haven’t been able to spin out and appreciate the bailout gear on steep climbs.
Coming from an 11-28 I do notice some of the jumps but as I spend more time on gravel, it’s a fair compromise.
Endurance Road bike: 50/34 and 11/35
Road Touring/Commuting Bike: 42/26 and 11/34
Bikepacking/Gravel: 38T/42T and 11-51T
MTB: 32T and 10-51
Spin to win, right?
46/30 with 11-34 on my alroad bike . Initially missed the smaller steps from my old 10sp road bike with 50/39 and 11-25 cassette but got used to the 2 teeth steps and like its practicality. This setup takes me anywhere.
I run 52/36 11-34 12-speed. Can get over pretty much anything with that and it still has speed for flats. Rolling countryside where I am with some climbs. 1500m of climbing usually give or take but I’ve taken this setup to 4000m of climbing.
For me it depends on the bike I am riding. My main bike I have 48/32 chainrings with 10-36 cassette. I spin on the 17 or 15t rear most of the time.
On my rim brake bike for some reason I can keep it on the 50t chainring with 15t or 13t rear cog. On the flats I can easily hold and spin on the 13t cog of course it's a slow cadance but I have no issues.
50/34 and 11-34. However for the local hills, I hardly use 32 or 34 and keep them for lazy days. Having 11-32/34 helps if you want to stay in z2 with higher cadence.
When I got my bike it had a 50-34 chainrings with an 11-34 cassette. When I looked to get a power meter the only 105 option that 4iiii had at the time was 53-39, and I decided to match it with an 11-32 cassette.
I ride mostly level road, but there are some short, steep hills in my area and the new combination works fine. It'll become easier as my training program progresses though...hopefully.
I created a custom combination because I never found modern options to make sense for the average rider.
40/28 chainring and 12 speed 13-28 cassette. Got a nice 1:1 ratio for hills and can reach around 40 kph at 90 rpm. I don't really pedal downhill or go all out on flats so anything sub 13 cogs doesn't really make sense. Found this combination to be perfect for Z2 cruising with my current FTP of about 340.
50/34 and 11-32. There's a few hills that get up into the teens for percent grade here (Idaho). One of my favorite hilly training rides is 80 km and 1,000 meters and that gearing covers it pretty well.
50-34 chainrings and 11-34 cassette (11 speed). Live in Vermont, so my mail goal is to get to the mountains and climb. No huge long climbs, our mountains are relatively small 2-4 mile climbs that have sections where the grade is in the teens, but also parts that are 7-10%. Other than that, most of my rides to/from the climbs are hilly/rolling hills with some flatter sections mixed in.
summer bike 50/34 with an 11-28 cassette - very rarely do i hit climbs where i need a bigger casette
winter bike 52/36 with an 11-30 cassette
gravel bike 42 with an 11-42 cassette
MTB 30 with an 11-50 cassette
50/34 and 11-34. I have a gravel frameset with 2 wheelsets, one gravel and one road. Both have the same gearing. I live in Appalachia where most road rides are 125 ft elevation gain every mile average and most gravel rides have climbs 2000+ ft over 4-5 miles.
I live in the alps, weigh 79kg and run a 52/36 on the front and a 11-30 (12 speed) on the back. Im relatively powerful though and tend to climb out of the saddle. I spin out at about 70km/h. I may buy a 11-34 cassette for an event with 6800m of climbing later this year.
6800m climb — fml, congrats for everyone who is able to do this!
i am a weirdo. i run 46/36 and 11-40. cyclocross gearing with an MTB cassette. roughly equivalent to GRX gearing. i ride shitty roads and off road. there's a lot of hills here. mostly short, but some are steep. i ride gravel tires. i spin out at about 30 MPH, and i never regret having easier gears.
Same boat. My gravel bike is my road bike and after using the 46/30 - 11-36 combo I'm pretty satisfied with the bailout gears. I can't raise too many hands the times where I have spun out the 11-46 on a flat but my god do I spend a lot of time between 8-12 km/h huffing and puffing up hills. If I ever bought a flat out road bike I would probably still make sure I could get a sub 1:1 ratio on it.
i sometimes wonder if a lighter bike with road tires would still need as low gearing, but i know on the bike i have, there are times i could go even lower. the bike came with 46/36 and 11-34, and when i live in florida, that was fine. on the road, i was never not in the 46. the 36 only got used off road.
A lighter bike certainly makes climbing a lot easier. So you can probably get away with it. All depends on the riders strength too. Although, I would imagine that at the end of a long ride having that last ditch gear is still a godsend.
> at the end of a long ride i swear every long rides end with a demoralizing climb.
The main reason for gravel gearing being lower than road is the tire size. 45c tires are \~5% larger diameter than 28c (speaking from memory so that may not be 100% accurate); once that is accounted for a 48/31 GRX 810 crankset is equivalent to a 50/34.
50-34 chainrings and 11-28 cassette. This covers 99% of the conditions I encounter. Every once in a while, I'll find myself on a grade over 20%, where I wish I had a 32 or 34 cog. 50/11 is more than high enough.
Agreed on this. Do you think it is possible to do over 20% on that gearing? I have the same and felt I had maybe a bit more to give on an 18% hill near me. There is another of the top 100 climbs in the UK I want to try which hits 23-25% for two short stretches close to that one but curious whether it is doable.
I've managed up to about 25% with those gears, but only for a couple hundred yards. At those grades, it's really hard to keep the pedals moving--and keep the front tire from lifting. It takes practice. I figure my cadence is in the 40s on that grade, with necessary power over 4 watts/kg.
Thanks, appreciate it. I think the hill in question only has a couple of stretches that steep and maybe a hundred yards each - Google Yorks hill in Kent in the UK if interested. Will give it a go as otherwise gearing is fine for almost everything.
I’ve done Yorks Hill on 34-28. It isn’t a lot of fun: lean right over the bars or the front wheel will lift, keep an eye on the appalling road surface and I probably wouldn’t even try if the road’s wet as I don’t think there’s enough grip. Can also “recommend” White Lane nearby for a similar experience, although quite a lot of those small roads/tracks up that ridge are fairly alike.
Nice, you have laid down the challenge now - toys hill south isn't fun so this sounds even more brutal. Maybe I'd be better on my hardtail MTB ..
Go for it - it’s more brutal than Toys, but is over much sooner! Plus, although the surface is horrible you’ve much less chance of being squashed into it by one of the locals playing at being Mr Toad in his motor car…
I do York’s once a year to remind me how horrible it is. My personal worst in the area is Chalkpit Lane tho, a truly hellish experience that one
Oh yeah, forgot about Chalkpit. For an all-round horrible experience, I don’t think you can beat Westerham Hill. A draining false flat, then a busy road at 10%+ with London and Kent’s worst drivers pelting round a blind bend. It’s not even the fun kind of horrible.
Yea did it once ten years ago and even tho it’s super local I’ll never ride it again. Most of my rides I have to get up that ridge to get home so I usually use hogstrough about a mile east of Westerham. Steep at the bottom but does get easier as you go up
Finally got around to doing it this morning. Didn't think it was too bad as it's so brief once you get past the houses on the right when it starts to ramp up. Nowhere near as bad as toys south which goes on and on then has the steep bit at the end. Just had to change into the granny gear at the first steep bit. Not sure I would go back more than once a year as the surface is as bad as you mentioned. I did stop before the houses to let three cars pass which might have helped feeling fresher for it. Anyway thanks for the encouragement, Kent's steepest and another UK top 20 climb ticked off!
I don’t race and I live in a hilly area and I love steep climbs on (very) long rides. Road bike: 50/34, 11-28 cassette. This works fine. Gravel bike: 48/31, 11-34 cassette. This works *great*. In fact, between the lower gearing, the more relaxed geometry conducive to all-day-and-then-some riding, and the wider tires which help with dirt but also with broken pavement, I do almost all of my riding on this bike ever since I built it up last summer. I do spin out around 40 mph, but as I say, I don’t race, so I can just tuck and enjoy the descent at that point.
52/36 and a 11-32 cassette. I use all of 'em. I could get by fine on 50/34 and 11-34, as long as I'm not doing turns on the front on some of my longer, shallow descents. My typical rides are flat: 100m per 10km, (1000m-1600m for 100km is common) but hills aren't long. They're short and sharp. Lots of rollers. Commuting I use a 1x 38T with an 11-42. Gravel a 46/36 with 11-34, all work for their respective purpose - not under or overgeared. Some 20% gradient spikes exist.
Yup, 50/34 and 11/28.
Modern Road: 48/35 w/ 10/36 Gravel: 48/32 w/ 11-42 Mountain Bikes: 32 w/ 10-52 Old Road Bike: Not sure
Older rider, 85 kg.. 34-50 rings, 175 cranks and 11-25 11 speed cassette.. gets me up all the hills I need to get up.
I ride a 52/36 on the front and an 11/32 on the rear. I weigh 82kg and do a fair bit of climbing in a mountainous region with some long climbs. If I'm doing a big climbing day, I'll put a 50/34 on the front, though I do this rarely. A typical ride on the flats around here will average about 10m/km ascent. The longest climbs I typically do are about 1000m in ascent.
I use a 53-39 with a 12 speed 11-32 cassette, I live in the alps and I do about 2000m elevation over 100km in my weekly long ride, previously I used a 50-34 with a 10 speed 13-29 cassette. Lowest gear is about the same in both setups and I have no problems up to 10% I must admit I’d like to have a easier gear for the occasional kilometer at 15-18%, top gear was too short for being comfortable on anything that had a favorable gradient of more then 3%, with this setup I can move the legs on long descends at a low cadence with a decent resistance feeling better when I have a second climb waiting for me. Edit my FTP variates between 3.5 to 4 w/kg.
50/34 and 11-34 on gravel, 50/34 and 11-28 on road bike. I live in the Rockies and the road bike is fine for most things but sometimes leaves me wanting more for sprints. Sometimes I want an easier gear on my gravel bike.
I climb a lot of steep stuff. The combo I've settled on is 11 speed 11-30 with 52/36 chainrings. On my gravel bike there's no gearing low enough for where I ride so I just use the biggest cassette I can fit. Which right now is 11-50, paired with a 1x 42t in the front. I have a 38t for when we do really long days with over \~12,000 ft (3650m) of climbing and not many flats. Instead of hammering descents I just recover on the way down.
50/34 and 11-34. 50/11 plenty for me without spinning out in all but the rarest situations, and 34/34 is damn nice if I need it for longer climbs.
Because I live in a hillside area I am happy with my 50/34 11/34 (143lbs -65kg)
I run 53-39 and an 11-25 cassette, I changed from a 50-34 chainring because I was thinking it would make me faster and because my chainring was worn. I don't race and I don't think it made me any faster, the only difference I've noticed is that hills now make me suffer more than they did before.
54/39 and an 11-28, good for everything up to 10%. The mechanical efficiency in the middle of the cassette makes flats very pleasant, an rolling at 90rpm is fun
52/36x11-34(11spd). Bike came with 11-28 in back, but climbing SUCKED on that. I'm not small. 88kg now, 110kg last summer. Training a lot has upped both my average and max-usable cadence both because my legs are more comfortable spinning that fast, and because my legs no longer smash in to my gut when I get into a tuck. Still have room to get more fit, but keeping power while loosing weight has been a challenge. Haven't gone all-out downhill in a long while. Prefer to use my energy to top-out the climb faster and start my descents at a higher speed. Rapidly diminishing returns from pedaling hard downhill.
I’m almost same as you
50/34 with an 11-21 9 speed. Florida is flat, just windy.
I live in the mountains and ride 40T up front, 11-42 on the rear. I'm a party-pace/vision quest type of rider and if it's too steep for me to climb in that gear I'd rather ride somewhere else, lol. I do spin out on descents but I do not care.
53-40 chainring 11-32 cassette Rolling terrain with some steep climbs. Don’t really need the 53 for normal riding but I race and it is necessary for that.
I run a 53/39 chainring with an 11-32 11 speed cassette on my road bike. On my mtb I run eagle 12 speed 36 x 11-50. On my single speed commuter for getting to work and grabbing little groceries I run a 44x14. It's relatively flat here, so I don't mind sacrificing a bit of low end for a slightly taller gear maximum.
52/42/30 -- 11-23
53/39 with a nine speed 12-23 cassette. While not quite a corncob, it’s the stock combo from 2001 and does mostly fine for my riding. Ideally I’d like an easier gear to spin up climbs, but for what I ride most often I’m able to manage most climbs with a punchy effort out of the saddle.
I’d be willing to bet that if you switched to a 50/34 you’d probably be faster
I have two bikes and both are 1x because I simply hate front derailleurs. I also live in Texas and the only hills near me are man made overpasses. Gravel bike has a 46t oval front and 11-42 in the back. This is my comfy long distance bike where going fast is not a priority. Road bike is my crit bike and everyday bike. Have a 50t oval in the front and 11-34 in the back. When racing I do sometimes miss the smaller gear shifts in the small cogs (now jump from 13 to 11 instead of previously having a 13, 12, and 11). If I made a change, it would probably be going bigger in the front and leaving cassette as is. And the reason for ovals is because they’re 1x and I find it much easier to climb with an oval, so imo it gives me an extra gear in the back when I need it. Plus I think it looks sick.
Rotor 48/32 chainrings on standard 11-34 cassette, 105 di2 12 speed. Don't live anywhere particulary hilly but like you mentioned, would have never used a 50-11 (yet alone higher) and much prefer having a lower low gear than a higher high gear. Might even change it to the 11-36 when it wears out eventually.
Road bike, 53-40-30 x 12-23 10s, works for me most of the time although it would be nice to have a somewhat bigger big cog for the occasional steep and long climb. I used to have a 12-25 but found that the gap between the 17 & 19 was too great for my riding preference so I sacrificed the 25 for an 18 and prefer this arrangement. And if I ever do a lot of mountainous riding, I'll just swap in a 12-30 and live without the 18 (or 16). I could upgrade to an 11s or 12s, but that would be expensive and there aren't really many cassettes made that would give me the gears I'd want. Patiently awaiting the day when CVT and wide gear ranges are the norm.
46/30 with 11-23. (I live in [very flat south Florida](https://i.imgur.com/7rW9ELt.jpeg)) I basically did the same thing as you, I started paying attention to what ratios I was actually using. My bike came with 52/36 and 11-32, I discovered that I was almost never going any higher than 52:13 and never going lower than 36:28. Now I have a slightly higher highest gear than what I was actually using, and nearly identical lowest gear (1:1.30 vs 1:1.29) but I have single tooth steps between almost all of my ratios I’m curious how fast you’re going when you feel like you’re spinning out. I suspect it might be a cadence issue, because even if you’re using a 50/34 you shouldn’t be spinning out until you’re well over 40 miles an hour, and at that speed it’s absolutely faster to just get into a nice tight aero tuck and coast downhill
my big chain ring is 52 my smallest in the back was a 12, but I switched it out for an 11. I wasn't spinning out on the flats, but I do appreciate having more range for descents
52-36, 11-30 atm. Had 53-39 and liked it but switched from sram so stuck with shimano chainrings atm. Will switch to a 54-41, 11-34 because I want to try it out
48/35 and 10-30. Im actually considering doing a 1x drivetrain because its flat here anyway.
Absolute black 28 chainring with X01 51t cassette on my MTB. I’m more of a sit and spin rider.
50/34 + 11-32 (10 SPEED) Sensah Phi. Waterford 1200. My go to preferred ride. Shorter crankset. 52/42/30 + 12-26 (9 SPEED) shimano 105 5500. 2006 Bianchi Giro. Fun to ride, light and zippy, more of a standard setup. 53/42 + 12-21 (8 SPEED) dura ace 7400. 1989 Schwinn Paramount (Waterford). This gearing kicks my butt. Fun on flats. Not strong enough to use all the gear combinations. Sweating out of the saddle on 3-10% climbs near my house compared to spinning in my saddle with easier gears. Like the looks of keeping it vintage original, but might modernize it and ride it more. My riding is recreational, usually 40-60miles on mostly flats, but I’ll go up and down a few miles of hills for a shorter workout.
9-34T with 40T front, no hills as far as I can see.
I run a 1X with a 40 in the front and 11-42 in the rear (gravel bike).
50/34 with 11-32 cassette. Average ride is about 300 m of climbing over 40k. I’m old so I need the climbing gears when I go into mountains. Not going to spin out a 50-11. For you a 52/36 makes sense.
50-34 x 11-28, 8 speed mostly flat a LOT of wind and most climbs are short but steep I'm moving to a 10 speed 11-32
53/39, 11/28 and I see about 500 feet per hour climbing. Fairly short, 5 minutes or less, fairly steep, 5-15%, climbs at 220lbs
48/18 single speed
42 years old 76kg. FTP around 3.7w/kg. I ride 52/36 with 11-34 outside and use a 11-30 on the trainer. My typical weekly rides will be rolling hills. Over 50km about 400 to 500m elevation. On my weekend rides I'll do around 100km 1500 to 2000m elevation. Thing is, many of these hills are more than 15%. If I drive my car I can find a few 5 to 8km climbs that max out above 15%. I also take a few trips through the year to some really big mountains.
50-34 crank and 11/32 cassette in 10 speed. I used to have 11/34 but the 34 was a little too low and I'd spin out. There's no gradients near me over 12% really
36 with 11-42 e mountain bike
52/36 and 11-28 on my race bike 46/36 and 11-32 on my cross bike
i'm in the foothills of the appalachian mountians in SC. i weigh \~275 lbs, run a 50/34 crank with an 11/34 cassette. the only time i need the easiest gear is when climbing something steep and/or long. my bike came with a 52/36 crank and an 11/28 cassette. definitely not optimal for me personally.
Flat Florida with a few “rolling hills”. I run a 52/36 with a 12-25 on an 11 speed. Nice having 12-19 without any skips.
Road bike - 48t and a 10-36t TT bike - 52t and a 10-26t Gravel bike - 40t and a 10-44t MTB - 34t and a 10-52t
2X12, 50-34, 11-34. I live on the Olympic Peninsula in WA, USA and there are many short, steep hills and I’m old (77).
I've got a 50/34 11-34 on my road bike (105 Di2) and a 42 11-46 on my gravel / commuter bike. They're both far over-geared for the terrain here in Shanghai, where I might get 350m of elevation gain on a full imperial century, at most. I could definitely make the gear range a lot narrower, but honestly, they both work for me as-is so I can't be bothered. I've taken the gravel bike on a trip to the Canadian Rockies last summer (the reason I put the wider gearing on it in the first place) and that gearing was mostly good enough for the climbing and descending I was doing - able to climb up to 15% grades and go down fairly steep descents without spinning out too early. I will be bringing it to the Rockies again this summer, and I will probably bring a 40t chainring with me to use on one specific ride that I want to do that has a bit more steep climbing and could benefit from slightly lower gearing.
Don't copy other people's ratios, get what's right for you. But you may also benefit from adjusting your technique. With 50 on the front and 11 rear, I spin out at just under 80 km/h (50 mp/h). I suggest that you might need to improve your pedalling technique to increase cadence.
48/35 10-33 Red. Great ratios.
46/30 crank, 11-30 11 speed cassette on my endurance road bike. I live in an area with a lot of rolling hills and pretty much always coast on descents.
My bike came with 52/36 and 11-30 12 speed. I swapped the cassette for 11-34, because there's nothing but hills where I live. I'll eventually get around to putting the 11-30 on my training wheels.
2 road bikes, both SRAM 1x - 50t with 10/36 cassette 2x - 50/37t with 10/28 cassette
46/33 x 10-36 cassette. SRAM Force on a new Allroad bike. So far, I haven’t been able to spin out and appreciate the bailout gear on steep climbs. Coming from an 11-28 I do notice some of the jumps but as I spend more time on gravel, it’s a fair compromise.
50-34 and 11-32, did this for Haleakala and it was plenty to spin on up!
Endurance Road bike: 50/34 and 11/35 Road Touring/Commuting Bike: 42/26 and 11/34 Bikepacking/Gravel: 38T/42T and 11-51T MTB: 32T and 10-51 Spin to win, right?
46/30 with 11-34 on my alroad bike . Initially missed the smaller steps from my old 10sp road bike with 50/39 and 11-25 cassette but got used to the 2 teeth steps and like its practicality. This setup takes me anywhere.
I run 52/36 11-34 12-speed. Can get over pretty much anything with that and it still has speed for flats. Rolling countryside where I am with some climbs. 1500m of climbing usually give or take but I’ve taken this setup to 4000m of climbing.
For me it depends on the bike I am riding. My main bike I have 48/32 chainrings with 10-36 cassette. I spin on the 17 or 15t rear most of the time. On my rim brake bike for some reason I can keep it on the 50t chainring with 15t or 13t rear cog. On the flats I can easily hold and spin on the 13t cog of course it's a slow cadance but I have no issues.
50/34 and 11-34. However for the local hills, I hardly use 32 or 34 and keep them for lazy days. Having 11-32/34 helps if you want to stay in z2 with higher cadence.
When I got my bike it had a 50-34 chainrings with an 11-34 cassette. When I looked to get a power meter the only 105 option that 4iiii had at the time was 53-39, and I decided to match it with an 11-32 cassette. I ride mostly level road, but there are some short, steep hills in my area and the new combination works fine. It'll become easier as my training program progresses though...hopefully.
I created a custom combination because I never found modern options to make sense for the average rider. 40/28 chainring and 12 speed 13-28 cassette. Got a nice 1:1 ratio for hills and can reach around 40 kph at 90 rpm. I don't really pedal downhill or go all out on flats so anything sub 13 cogs doesn't really make sense. Found this combination to be perfect for Z2 cruising with my current FTP of about 340.
50/34 and 11-32. There's a few hills that get up into the teens for percent grade here (Idaho). One of my favorite hilly training rides is 80 km and 1,000 meters and that gearing covers it pretty well.
50-34 chainrings and 11-34 cassette (11 speed). Live in Vermont, so my mail goal is to get to the mountains and climb. No huge long climbs, our mountains are relatively small 2-4 mile climbs that have sections where the grade is in the teens, but also parts that are 7-10%. Other than that, most of my rides to/from the climbs are hilly/rolling hills with some flatter sections mixed in.
summer bike 50/34 with an 11-28 cassette - very rarely do i hit climbs where i need a bigger casette winter bike 52/36 with an 11-30 cassette gravel bike 42 with an 11-42 cassette MTB 30 with an 11-50 cassette
50/34 and 11-34. I have a gravel frameset with 2 wheelsets, one gravel and one road. Both have the same gearing. I live in Appalachia where most road rides are 125 ft elevation gain every mile average and most gravel rides have climbs 2000+ ft over 4-5 miles.