Upgrading my Road Bike to an 11-40 Cassette

 I recently upgraded my road bikes cassette from a 12-30 to an 11-40 set up.  The thing is that lots of people are jumping on that band wagon, so why did I join the ranks?

To answer that question I need to take you back to the early 80s.  Back in the day the bike to have was the Raleigh 10 speed.  This was a race bike.  You knew it was a race bike because it had ten gears.  Two on the front and five on the back. So a compact chainset.  However, another breed of cyclist around at the time was the tourer.  The tourer needed to carry tents and bags and various other things that mean that you can tour the country and camp over night.  Because of this the tourer carried a triple chainset up front. I have one in my garage.  Reynolds tubing and a 3 x 7 set up.

Today we have several types of bike that are in between this set up.  You have pure racers and you can still get tourers.  However, you can also get endurance bikes that are designed to do sportive events.  That is the bike that I have.  A Giant Defy 1.  This has a compact chain set and an 11-30 cassette on the back.  It also has a bit more of an upright geometry and various other bits that mean that the bike is more about comfort over long distances and not about getting aero over the bars.  So it has less aggressive styling. So I have done a few sportive events and the bike has coped fine.  However, I recently did an audax and that was not as easy.  Because of the effort of getting up the hills I found myself wanting a gearing system that will allow me to replicate a touring triple.  However, I have a compact.  Hmmm.

A sportive will have various lengths, usually 30 miles, 60 miles and 100 miles.  This means that the most you are going to be in the saddle for is about ten hours.  This is doable.  However, most will do the 60 to 70 mile event.  You also get feed stations and things tend to be mapped out for you with signs.  There is also a place for tea and cakes at the end. So I can cope with my current set up, since I don't need to carry quite so much kit.

Below is an audax map that you have to follow:

An audax is slightly different.  There are places where you can stop, but these are petrol stations and post offices.  Also, rather than having road signs, you have a gpx file that you can download onto your phone or device.  This means that you can follow the route.  The distances also vary.  You can have the same distances as the sportive, but you can also have 200k - 600k.  These have to be completed within a time limit.  You also have checkpoints, which are just signs with a number or code written on them. You have a score card where you write the number.

So what does this have to do with gearing Alex?  Its quite simple.  I have to travel further.  With the existing gear set up I can manage most hills, but have to power down on the peddles to do so.  This can be a bit of a crippler after 160k, but absolute murder on the 200k + rides. So to save my legs I thought I would try a bigger cassette.  

Fitting the cassette is easy.  However, to make it work with my existing derailleur I needed something that would extend the rear derailleur hanger.  Wolftooth do an extender for about £20, although I got a cheapy from SJS cycles for £5.  This extender puts the derailleur into a position that will allow my 105 short cage to accept the bigger cassette.

  So this is my new set up.  It is a bit of a monster, but it does the job.

So what does it do exactly?  I took it out in anger on a club ride and what I found is that while the hills were still hard, I was able to up my cadence and spin more, rather than relying on just pure muscle to get up the hill.  It does not make it me a better rider.  I am not faster, although the 11 sprocket can be a bit harder to peddle, but since I will only use this on the flat, it is not such an issue.  So I am not getting up the hills faster, but I am able to get up smoother.  By spinning smoothly, rather than using force, I am still using the same amount of power, but crucially I am not wearing out my legs.  This means that I should be able to handle the bigger distances without feeling like I will never walk again.

As for the actual handling.  It is not forgiving of poor gearing technique.  My last cassette was quite forgiving.  If I was in the higher front gear, I could go down to the granny gear on the back and, other than a slight noise alerting me to my poor choice in gear, there was not a problem.  However, I tied that while climbing a hill and found that my gear would jam, or at least the chain would.  I ended up throwing a chain.  So now I go down to the lower gear while the rear cassette is still on the middle.  In this way I am able to use all of the ratios, without stretching the chain into weird angles.  However, overall it did what I wanted it to do and I am more confident, after Sundays 40 mile stint, of being able to handle larger routes.  As I said, it doesn't make me faster, it just saves my legs.

Is it worth it?  A lot depends upon what you want to do.  If you do not have many hills where you ride, or if you only do one or two hour rides, then no.  However, if you suddenly get the urge to move to North Yorkshire, or you want to do longer rides, like audaxes, then yes I would recommend it.

Until next time.

Alex