650c wheels
dillan
Posts: 2
in General Chat
[:@] hi
Been doing triathlons now for around 4 years mainly standard distance with a few sprints. Been using a fairly cheap bike and decided to upgrade recently! Got myself a second hand kestrel500sci which is brilliantly comfortable. looks great (come on thats important) but....... the wheels are 650c. I have big sprockets on the front 49/52 and have just changed the rear cassette to a 11/12 etc. the shifter won't hit the last 2 gears and i am spinning out down hill. The bike goes reall well generally and especially uphill which is great as most of the tri's i do seem to be windy and hilly. the wife would be a bit pissed if i got another bike....any ideas how i can get the best out of the new one (great carbon HEd front and back wheels also) i am not a fabulous cyclist but i know i can improve from a poor 1hr 20mins for 40k (albeit hilly and windy) to maybe 1hr 10?? I go better uphill but what goes up must come down!
other than sell the bike, any ideas
Been doing triathlons now for around 4 years mainly standard distance with a few sprints. Been using a fairly cheap bike and decided to upgrade recently! Got myself a second hand kestrel500sci which is brilliantly comfortable. looks great (come on thats important) but....... the wheels are 650c. I have big sprockets on the front 49/52 and have just changed the rear cassette to a 11/12 etc. the shifter won't hit the last 2 gears and i am spinning out down hill. The bike goes reall well generally and especially uphill which is great as most of the tri's i do seem to be windy and hilly. the wife would be a bit pissed if i got another bike....any ideas how i can get the best out of the new one (great carbon HEd front and back wheels also) i am not a fabulous cyclist but i know i can improve from a poor 1hr 20mins for 40k (albeit hilly and windy) to maybe 1hr 10?? I go better uphill but what goes up must come down!
other than sell the bike, any ideas
0
Comments
sounds like you just need your gears setting up properly. i assume it's the smaller spockets you can't change onto? there's no way you should be spinning out with an 11, even if you do have 650c wheels.
if i've got the wrong end of the stick, how about upping the size of the outer chain ring? a 53 or 54 will give you a slightly bigger gear, but not a real knee cruncher.
also with a 49 inner, either the courses you're riding aren't that hilly, or your turning a huge gear. i suspect it's the huge gear, in which case you need to learn how to up your cadence. you should be aiming for about 90rpm. any slower and the gear's too big, any higher and it's too small.
hope that helped a bit.
matt
will stick with the bike and get it looked at by a bike shop. it is the 11 and 12 that i can't hit will try to stick to 90cadence. didn't know that
regards