Gearing-up! - Gears

The standard gearing on a Boardman Team Carbon is 50/34 (called a compact chain-set as it gives a wider gear range than the standard 53/39 and almost as wide as a triple which has 3 cogs) on the front and 12/25 10 speed on the rear.

As many cyclist will have found out (especially in a hilly area such as Cornwall) this gearing is plenty hi enough, and for those of us over 40 probably a bit too high!  with is in mind i have equipped my machine with a 11/28 cassette on the rear, this gives me essentially an extra gear at either end of the original range, easier to peddle up the hills and fast down hill... win win...   well there is a little trade-off, the changing is not quite as smooth as there is a greater tooth difference between gears but its worth it as even if its only psychological knowing there is one more gear really makes a big difference.

New shifters

Well the new shifters are all installed and working great, just got to wait for some reasonable weather to try them out...!

Feels really nice shifting and braking, its probable got quite a bit to do with having new cables as well.

2012 last training ride... not quite to plan!

Well 2012 didn't quite finish as i had hoped! On one of the last planned training rides this happened! Its not meant to do that!

My SRAM RIVAL rear gear lever snapped off!!!!

After doing a bit of searching i found I'm not alone as quite a few others have had the same thing happen. Grrr, not a happy bunny as a new lever set will cost about the same as the gopro action camera i wanted to get for the trip.  Arh well no point in having a nice camera on a cycle ride if you bike isn't working!