11-32 Ultegra Cassette.

[Le Mong]

Unless you sit on the rivet you do. It's a bail out option only. The 34-28 is good to keep from getting into a demoralizing grind tho

[Joeblogs]

Climbing a hill in a 34-32 at cadence 60 = 8kph
Are you sure you need a gear that small?

You ever done the back of Falls Creek from W.T.F corner??. Definetly go with a 32 if you are Doing big hills much easier to spin up those steep hills than standing and grinding away.

[A.Jeffrey]

If its of use you can use this site to work out what gearing you should use.
Plug in your wheels size, gear range etc.. and then look at the speed you would generally go up the hill to get the cadence you would be riding at, or vice versa.

http://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[singlespeedscott]

When your down to a 28/32 on the rear your no longer climbing out of the saddle, unless your on dirt . Gearing that low is your PTO for when your tired, climbing up a wet 20% hill.

Don't skimp on the derailleur upgrade either. Manufactures make GS length derailleurs for a reason. Why skimp on a $150 upgrade when your forking out several grand to ride the hills in Europe. I could think of nothing worse then munting my rear derailleur and hanger because of a poorly timed shift after being advised by some forumite that a SS rear derailleur would work. A great way to wreck a riding holiday IMO.

[dalai47]

From your other topic I would suggest to focus on your fitness rather than worry about going even bigger on the back.

I've done a number of OS trips and there has only been two climbs where I was I wishing for a gear lighter than 39*29. Pikes Peak CO where it hits 10+% at around 4000m so your FTP is only around 72% that at sea level and back home on Baw Baw!

Most French Alps climbs are not much steeper than 7% average. The Italian climbs can be steeper especially if you include the smaller but steep climbs like the Mortirolo where I must say I was happy my rental bike has 34*28. Though there it was very wet so couldn't get out of the saddle except where it dipped under 12%...

[LG]

I have 11 speed 105 compact cranks, medium cage rd & 32 tooth cog on the cassette and love the options it gives. Just because the 32 cog is there doesn't mean you have to use it, but if you find a 28 cog not low enough for the hill you're riding it's great to have a bail out gear (beats stopping or walking).

[Le Mong]

I have a 6800 11-32 here with <300km on it if someone has a near new 11-25 they dont need.

[kenwstr]

I don't think it's worth changing out an 11-28 for an 11-32 The reason is that if 28 T is not low enough, then I seriously doubt there is any benefit to having an 11 T. The problem with going to a wider range is you have greater average % increase between gears so it gets harder to find the right gear for any particular hill. Close spaced gears are great for optimizing endurance/speed by picking the most efficient speed and cadence through changing terrain. So I think it's best to consider if both ends of the range are where you need them to be and maybe change out chain rings to shift the whole range up or down accordingly. I found that a little SE training has pretty much made 28 T redundant and improved my climbing and average speed more than any amount of kilometres. I am no expert, pretty average really but just find the best gains are made by improving the engine.

Ken

[singlespeedscott]

Personally I think the close space ratios is pointless once your sprockets get past the 24 tooth. When climbs get beyond this ratio your starting to grind up 15%. At this pint your not looking for tight gaps your looking for much larger jumps. Close gaps matter at the pointy end of the cassette.

[kenwstr]

Spacing should be worked out on a percentage basis so the effort between gears is about the same. This means that the step in teeth increases with sprocket size. Of course you can't get this precisely as you have to work in increments of whole teeth so every cassette is a compromise.
You can work out the the average increase by:

(large/small) ^ (1/steps)

11-28 = (28/11) ^ (1/10) = 1.098 or 109.8%
11-32 = (32/11) ^ (1/10) = 1.113 or 111.3%

So the 11-28 steps about 10% while the 11-32 is by about 11%. I guess it could be argued this not much but it's just a rough guide comparison between cassettes. You then need to look at the spacing between each gear change. The small sprockets will be exactly the same as you need to keep to a 1 tooth change for a while but that means you eventually get a larger % change somewhere in the big sprockets. I haven't looked at these 2 cassettes in detail for a while but if memory serves, I thought the 11-28 offered the most consistent progression (least deviation from average).

To highlight an extreme example, I had a 6 sp freewheel with a megagear for climbing. The problem was that the gap from the megagear to the next sprocket was too far to progress strength training. I could never make that jump but just one 6 week SE program with 11-28 go me over that hurdle. Also I change contently with the 11-28 to take optimum advantage from small changes in gradient. If I have a larger gap in the gear progression, I can get stuck in a lower than optimum gear which is slower.

Having said all this, I recognize that people are at different levels and riding different terrain so there is no 1 best solution. All I can do is offer some suggestions, ways of looking at things which may or may not apply for others. They have to decide that themselves.


Regards,
Ken

[LG]

Personally I think the close space ratios is pointless once your sprockets get past the 24 tooth. When climbs get beyond this ratio your starting to grind up 15%. At this pint your not looking for tight gaps your looking for much larger jumps. Close gaps matter at the pointy end of the cassette.

Agree with this, and if you're using 11 speed it's just the same as running a standard 11-28 10 speed cassette with a bonus bail out gear tucked on the end. By the time I'm looking for a gear lower than the 34-28 I couldn't give too much of a rats about ratios, just looking for anything that will get me up the hill prior to passing out .

[Calvin27]

Personally I think the close space ratios is pointless once your sprockets get past the 24 tooth. When climbs get beyond this ratio your starting to grind up 15%. At this pint your not looking for tight gaps your looking for much larger jumps. Close gaps matter at the pointy end of the cassette.

Second that. Anything after 25t on the compact crank and cadence, form and whatever else everyone preaches goes out the door. If I had a bail out 36t gear I'd probably use it.

We're talking about recreational cyclists here on a tour, not trying to pb climbs. I think comfort is the goal and lower gears provide that. You don't want to put all your focus on climbing the hill, you want to have enough on reserve to appreciate the sights too.

[kb]

Also I change contently with the 11-28 to take optimum advantage from small changes in gradient. If I have a larger gap in the gear progression, I can get stuck in a lower than optimum gear which is slower.

Given the OP is on 11 speed, 11-32 includes your 11-28 setup. Maybe he'll be content too

[kenwstr]

Also I change contently with the 11-28 to take optimum advantage from small changes in gradient. If I have a larger gap in the gear progression, I can get stuck in a lower than optimum gear which is slower.

Given the OP is on 11 speed, 11-32 includes your 11-28 setup. Maybe he'll be content too

No it doesn't include my 11-28 as we are both on 11 sp. I am just offering another perspective for consideration along the way. Not saying it's right for everyone.

Anyway, I have done a bit more of a comparison between the 11-28 and 11-32 11 sp cassettes, draw your own conclusions.

Teeth increase%
11
12 109.1%
13 108.3%
14 107.7%
15 107.1%
17 113.3%
19 111.8%
21 110.5%
23 109.5%
25 108.7%
28 112.0%

11
12 109.1%
13 108.3%
14 107.7%
16 114.3%
18 112.5%
20 111.1%
22 110.0%
25 113.6%
28 112.0%
32 114.3%

Ken

[Machoman121]

Personally I think the close space ratios is pointless once your sprockets get past the 24 tooth. When climbs get beyond this ratio your starting to grind up 15%. At this pint your not looking for tight gaps your looking for much larger jumps. Close gaps matter at the pointy end of the cassette.

I fully agree - when you are starting to reach for the granny gears - you're no longer worried about keeping up your max speed - you just want to survive the ascent - and the bigger the jump available the bigger the benefits - of course we're talking about big mama hills - or mountains - not your average Jells park hill/Beach road hills. On a terrain like Beach Roads with few undulating hills - yes a closely spaced cassettes is nice - you'll want a gradual differences so you can the perfect cadence producing a good enough speed. But on real mountain ride like BawBaw, Lake Mountains and parts of Mt Dandenong - especially when you're tired -you'll wish for the big jumps to the biggest granny you can have to still keep you on the bike and pedalling. Otherwise you'll either bust a kneecap or over work the heart.

[kb]

Also I change contently with the 11-28 to take optimum advantage from small changes in gradient. If I have a larger gap in the gear progression, I can get stuck in a lower than optimum gear which is slower.

Given the OP is on 11 speed, 11-32 includes your 11-28 setup. Maybe he'll be content too

No it doesn't include my 11-28 as we are both on 11 sp.

Sorry Ken, I got your steps count confused with gear count. Definitely prefer 11 speed 11-28 but 10 wasn't too bad for me at least.

[kenwstr]

No it doesn't include my 11-28 as we are both on 11 sp.

Sorry Ken, I got your steps count confused with gear count. Definitely prefer 11 speed 11-28 but 10 wasn't too bad for me at least.

No problem, it's easy to miss that one. Based on some of the comments, perhaps an 11-33 design like this would be a better ultra wide range solution than the existing 11-32 which has large jumps from the 14T cog and larger.

11
12 109.1%
13 108.3%
14 107.7%
15 107.1%
17 113.3%
19 111.8%
21 110.5%
24 114.3%
28 116.7%
33 117.9%

Ken

[singlespeedscott]

I'd just go the 34 and be done with it