Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
For the past two Tech Talks, we’ve been discussing lowering the gearing on slightly older bikes (thanks for all the helpful comments with your tips on how you did it to your classic bikes). If you were so distracted following the Tour de France that you missed those articles, here they are: The Long Story of Lowering the Gearing on My Old Road Racing Bike and Your Feedback on Lower Gearing.
A Question Left Unanswered
While reading your comments and thinking more about my upgrade, I realized I didn’t answer a question that some of you might have. I said that I wanted to upgrade to a cassette with a 36-tooth largest cog because I noticed some riders in the Tour were using them.
I also said that one option would be buying one of the same bikes the pros ride to get the gearing I want. But I dismissed that as too expensive an option. So since you might be wondering, what I want to do now, is to look at a few bikes that come equipped with the 36-tooth cog cassette and that are more reasonably priced as well.
These won’t be as high level as the pro bikes but they’ll feature the same basic frame design as the Tour model and similar component features so they should provide nearly the same performance. And they’ll have the lower gearing.
Plus, the three bikes here that I found with a little searching are under 5K, almost a third the price of Tadej Pogačar’s Tour winning Colnago – well his actual bike is now surely priceless! [DISCLAIMER: Some of these bikes are currently showing sale prices, which will probably change once the sale’s over.]
The common denominator on two of these bikes is SRAM’s Rival AXS 12-speed groupset, which comes with a 35/48 crankset and a 10-36 cassette. That provides a lowest gear of 26.25 gear inches, which is lower than my upgrade (I only got it down to 29.25). Shimano does make a 105 11-36 cassette in 11- and 12-speed, however I did not find complete bikes setup with it in my search. The Cannondale on the list sports Shimano 105 components with a 34/50 crankset with an 11-34 cassette for a lowest gear of 27 gear inches, so almost the same as the SRAM Rival’s 26.25.
Here Are The Three Bikes
Trek Madone SL 6 AXS Gen 8 (marked down right now from $6,499.99 to $4,599.97)
This is similar to the Trek Madone SLR bikes the Lidl-Trek team rode in the Tour.
Specialized Tarmac SL8 Comp ($4,499.99)
This is similar to the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8s ridden by the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team.
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/tarmac-sl8-comp-sram-rival-axs-/p/4292996?color=5464716-4292996
Cannondale SuperSix Evo ($4,499)
This is similar to the Cannondale LAB71 SuperSix EVOs the EF Pro Cycling Team piloted.
https://www.cannondale.com/en-us/bikes/road/race/supersix-evo/supersix-evo-3
A Third Option
I didn’t dig deep enough to find accurate up to date pricing, but what I did discover suggests that there’s a good chance you could put together a SRAM Rival AXS group to get lower gearing plus upgrade to electronic shifting too. The best I can tell, the whole group for disc brakes will run about $2,000, which means less than half what the new rigs I found cost.
I believe it’s also possible to substitute the disc levers for cable levers if you wanted to upgrade a rim brake bike. That might save a few more dollars since you wouldn’t need the disc calipers or rotors that come with the full groupset. And that would upgrade a classic road bike to lower gearing options with SRAM’s eTap electronic shifting, which many riders agree is the most intuitive to operate.
If You’re Bike Shopping…
Please comment on the bikes you’re looking at and why if you’re in the market for a new ride. It’s always fun to dream about upgrading.
Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.
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