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| I'll stop riding a 46/36T crank set for gravel when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. |
I've written a LOT about gearing. You can see that HERE or HERE if you want a couple of good, recent examples. It's a subject that creates a lot of discussion because there is no perfect gearing. I'll say that again- There is no perfect gearing. Why? Because......humans, that's why. We vary. There is too much variety.
You cannot manufacture a bicycle component that will be "right" for everyone, much less a large percentage of the population. This is one of the main reasons why making any bicycle component, or style, or clothing item, or whatever....based upon, let's say road racing, is a bad idea. That's because only a fraction of a percentage of riders would ever fit into that small box of "road racing". But not to pick on road racing......it could be gravel riders just as easily.
That's why it is dumb not to make components easily customizable. Especially ones related to drive trains. No.....we have to make it proprietary, so you have to use our "ecosystem". Gah! If I hear anything about "system integration" again it will be too soon. Proprietary, "system integration" is anti-human. It flies in the face of who we are as a species. It doesn't make any sense at all. yet, the bicycle industry is hell bent for leather on making things not customizable.
My SoCal friend, Grannygear, wrote a post for Riding Gravel about this subject. He is struggling with gearing and his specific riding terrain. However; both he and I remember a day when you could simply go to your local bike shop, procure a set of chain rings that worked for you, and be happily not thinking about gearing while pedaling your favorite trail or road. Of course, now days you have SRAM, Shimano, FSA, and a few others all hawking their own, component/standard specific chain ring styles with very limited options.
Like I say, the current situation is inhuman. It sucks, and at best, you can only find "near misses" in terms of crank set/cassette options. What is out fits a few, but not most, and proprietary, "system integrated" approaches are not the best options for most riders.
7 comments:
I just say the heck with all of it & stick to single speed, I'm always in the wrong gear 😄
Vendor lock-in for the sake of profits. They'll get a bit of money out of the consumer but at what long term cost? 4 and 5 bolt cranksets with fairly standard BCDs have been around for a long time. Single piece double chainrings don't really help anyone, but the manufacturer. Would be nice if we could customize our cassettes as well (ala Miche) but that's another issue entirely :)
AMEN! If we could have commonly available road cranks that could be set up with a wider variety of double chainrings than any single BCD allows. So the same crank could work for the strong roadracing guys on flattish roads who want 53/42 and for the average conditions rider who wants a 50/34 compact as well as for the old guy hauling bikepacking gear up gravel road hills and wants something like 42/26 and other options ad infinitum. Just give us a range of interchangeable spiders and let aftermaket suppliers make a wide variety of compatible chainrings. That's all I'm asking. ;)
It would be fantastic to be able to build a crankset with tailored gearing. I often wonder why the majority of our customers take their stock gearing without question. As I sit here with my cross bike within arms reach, I look at the mods we did to it before it left the build stand. I've always found spinning to be my happy place and this bike uses a RaceFace Deus triple mountainbike crankset and 11-32 cassette, handled by XTR derailleurs. Sure, it raises a few eyebrows, but hey, it's my bike. As far as KC's comment on SS, I'm just putting the finishing details on my new road build..... a brand new Cannondale Synapse with all of the "junk" stripped off of it. That should raise a few eyebrows too, lol. All in the name of fun.
32x10-42 on a hardtail mtb got me through to a trans iowa finish last year.
I'd definitely do gearing again.
(My 2 cents)
I've settled on the White Ind. crankset on my gravel rig and have two gearing options that work for me. A 28/46 for most days of riding and a 24/40 that I can swap out to when loaded down, those work for my area of riding and the GR30 crankset has been flawless.
@julian cole - "I often wonder why the majority of our customers take their stock gearing without question"
I'm sure part of it is cost. Who wants to put another bunch of money into an expensive bike they haven't even ridden yet? (This also begs the question why more shops don't suggest that people order frames and build bikes up exactly how they would like) I'm sure the other part of it for many people is experience. It's hard to figure out gearing for gravel if you've never ridden gravel hills before, and also if you've never really studied gearing before either.
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