Cyclists: how do you shift your compact chainset?

ritzvin

that hill looks so lonely..some friends from yesterday morning..

(I can pretty safely say I won't be doing any hill repeats on these anytime soon).
Clumsy shifting is pretty moot on these (and the one posted above at first glance) though anyway... a few seconds of the grade change and gear shifting followed by (for most people anyway) at least 5 minutes of being in your very last gear at less than optimal cadence. Now a road with a long stretch of somewhat-more-than-rollers (if enough to need the small front ring) might be good practice playing with new gearing.

heybales

Shoot, I sure felt like I was doing hills while in the ride. But on reflection now I guess not!

amandaeve

@sijomial thank you for your advice. I think I'll go for a ride, wait until I hit a spot where I don't like how I shifted, and just do drills over that same spot until I shift in a way that feels good. I only have the problem where I need to make a subtle change in gearing, so it will probably take several blocks to prep to get to the same spot.

If that doesn't work...perhaps I should look for a different rear cassette like @NorthCascades brought up.
My old bike is: crankset Shimano 105, 30/42/52; 9-speed, 12 - 27 cassette. My new bike is: crankset Ultegra 50/35; 11-speed 11-34 cassette. It looks like I have all kinds of options for a different cassette...I wonder which would be most similar to my old bike?

11-23T (11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,21,23T)
11-25T (11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,23,25T)
11-28T (11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23,25,28T)
11-32T (11,12,13,14,16,18,20,22,25,28,32T)
12-25T (12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,21,23,25T)

12t / 25t (243 grams): 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25.
11t/ 28t (251 grams): 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28.
11t / 30t (269 grams): 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, 27, 30.
11t / 32t (292 grams): 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, 32.

heybales

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Rogus1

[quote="amandaeve;c-45145786My new bike is: crankset Ultegra 50/35; 11-speed 11-34 cassette.
[/quote]

I think you have a typo. Isn't your chainring combo a 50/34?

NorthCascades

I was going to ask if you had an 11-34T. That's a lot of range, seems to come with most compact doubles. The down side to all that range is big jumps between gears, so you're usually forced into a cadence that isn't where you want to be.

I changed to a 12-28T and prefer it for the smaller jumps. Very rare to miss the 11T.

pridesabtch

I’ve have similar struggles. When I was stronger and screwed up my shift I could usually just muscle it. After talking 5 years off and gaining a substantial amount of weight, I’m finally learning to shift more wisely. This thread is helpful. Thanks guys and gals!

cowbellsandcoffee

When I had a compact, this is what I usually did. If I were in the 50/25 and the road started to climb, I would drop to my 34 in front and drop to the 17 or 19 in back and adjusted from there. I'm a spinner and not a masher. Cadence is usually 80-90 for me.

Since going to a 1x on all my bikes, I just worry about the rear shifting.

cwolfman13

11-34T is a lot of range...that's what I have, and the benefit is that it's great for climbing, especially if you have a lot of long steep climbs at 10% or more which we have in NM. The downside is big jumps between gears, especially when you're shifting your chainring.

I shift into my small chainring before I get to the top of my cassette...I usually have to muscle it a bit when I start to climb to maintain my cadence, but I can usually time my shift into my small chainring to where I don't lose too much momentum or cadence.