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Cranksets and Cassettes for Wimbleball

Am going down to do the course in a couple of weeks but wondered what set ups other people used last year. Were you happy with your set up or would you have preffered something easier for the hills??

I have a 39-53 crank and 11-23 cassette and am a little unsure.

Comments

  • TTX PROTTX PRO Posts: 225
    from my engineers point of view.That should be fine.if you do have a bit of doubt you could allways have a 11/26 butn personaly ide say thats a good setup.all you got to do is know your bike.select the right gears at the right time,get enough mementom and when you go up the hills you shouldn't have a problem and you know youve got what we call the after burner,that 11t on the back for rocketing down the hills.All you need is experiance and knowing your bike.
  • KiwiPaulKiwiPaul Posts: 46
    TTX PRO - have you ever actually ridden the Wimbleball 70.3 route ?? Does you "engineers view" offer any sage advice for the half marathon that follows ?? I too am looking for advice re gearing settings and am not a great climber - how about a compact ??
  • TTX PROTTX PRO Posts: 225
    no i havn't but i have seen the course.Heres where im comming from.Ime coming from years of experiance in cycle engineering and know a hell of a lot about gearing and bikes.Im am coming from 5 sucsesfull seasons as a time-trialist,I also live in devon which has a hell of lot of hills,ive also managed to get up 13% two mile gradiants using a 39/54 chainset and 11-23 cassette with a TT bike,i have managed to climbe up one of the most demanding hills in the southwest known as Telegraph hill,even cars struggle to get up it,Belive me wimbleball isn't as tough as you think,it may look tough but is isn't.I know lots of riders who have done that course and they prefer using 39/53 chainsets rather than compact.And they know what they can do,what there bikes can do and shear hard training and experiance which gives them the edge.they also apply the fast down,mementom up technique.If you dont know what your bike or what you can do then training should help improve on this.Compact chainset isn't really a good idia.By keeping your origanal chainset but when going up hills drop down into the 39 chainring and this will ensure you can get up hills easier and anyway changing your casstte to a 11-26/12-26 will be cost effective for doing that race.as soon as youve done the race you can allways swapp them round.You cant do that so easily with a chainset.
  • domtdomt Posts: 2
    Artik and Kiwipaul, unless you're a pro use a larger cassette. I'd suggest a 12-27.

    I've done Wimbleball twice, I live nearby and ride the course a lot. And I kid you not I've ridden past dudes on their Cervelo P3 Carbons on the 14% hill and watched them topple over whilst clipped in...........on their first lap.

    If you brave it on 11-23 you'll cook your legs and shuffle the run. Yeah you can fly downhill on 11 but there's more climbing than decent.

    Check out the run course when you're there as well - not a walk in the park.



    Don't say I didn't warn you.



    see you on the start line.

  • HI domt,



    I've not ridden the 70.3 course but I have ridden up Haddon Hill in an other multisport event. I've also read the UKIRONMAN70.3 bike course report.



    Your advice seems to be spot on with the feedback given elsewhere and I shall be using a 12-27 rear (did they used be called cogs?) and the standard 2 ring front.



    The course apears to be an equal 1/3 flat, up and down distance-wise but of course most time is spent going up....



    all the best

    SR
  • KiwiPaulKiwiPaul Posts: 46
    TTX PRO - you're clearly a machine and could belt around the 90km's in sub-2 hours........



    domt - think I'm closer to your advice with a clear mind on saving the legs as much as possible - as yo9u said, see you on the start line!!
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