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Gears Set Up help

I currently have Campagnola Athena set up on my Canyon Road Bike 52/36 on front and 11/28 on back, I have recently climbed Mont Ventoux twice, I was told I could have made my life easier by changing my set up! (I'm new to this cycling lark so went with what I had) without changing from Campagnola what could I change to in order to make my next Mountains slightly easier? I realise Campagnola don't make larger cassettes, but is there anything compatible and will I need to get new chain or anything else?

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 9 years ago
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You may not need to change a thing, depends on your pedaling style and fitness/power. If you made it up twice without dying I'd say it can't be too bad.

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mike the bike | 9 years ago
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I'm not a youngster and not especially fit, and I would think your set-up is about right. Maybe when your chain-rings become worn you could swap them for a 50/34 compact but you might not even notice the difference.
As Rod says, mountains are supposed to be hard. Ventoux in particular.

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Rod Marton | 9 years ago
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Firstly, it isn't necessarily true that you could make your life easier by changing your set-up - too low a gear can be just as tiring as too high a gear. My rule of thumb for big climbs was to find a comfortable gear at the bottom, then change down a couple of sprockets and that would be comfortable all the way up. If you could do this, you don't need to change anything. If not, it will have to be a smaller chainring or bigger cassette.

Secondly, mountains aren't easy, whichever set-up you have.

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fukawitribe | 9 years ago
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You can also try a slightly bigger cassette with the compact - Miche do at least a 12-30 for Campag, although 2T more may not be worth it on its own, and I think IRD do higher (although they're bloody expensive).

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sergius | 9 years ago
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I'm not a Campag man, but I'd assume you could replace the semi-compact chainset with a compact (hopefully just the rings themselves) pretty easily. I.e. get a 50/34 rather than 52/36.

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