Depending on your bike strength, the race you’re training for, and the terrain you have to train in, it may be worth looking at changing the size of the chain rings and cogs on your bike. Most bikes will come fit with the standard 53 tooth big chain ring and a 39 tooth small chain ring. On the rear of the bike you’ll typically see a 12/23 cogset. If you live in a mountainous area, you’re probably best sticking with this standard set up. Even so, there are some pretty good alternatives that you may want to try.
Some may find that the 53 tooth chain ring is just too big, or too hard to ride most of the time. And rightly so. How often do you find yourself in the 53 tooth front ring and the 12 tooth cog a the back? I would wager not very often at all unless you have some long descents in your training grounds. Even then, you’ve got to be going over 60km per hour to spin that gear out. Then there’s always the situation where you hit a hill that’s not quite long enough to bother switching to your 39 tooth chain ring so you just grunt it over the top in your big ring. Or the dreaded, ‘oh crap I’m not going to make it in my 53, I need to switch half way up but can’t because I have to keep pedaling and I’m not going fast enough.’
Anyway, enough about the problems of a 53/39, here are some alternatives that you may want to think about.
