Rizal Philippines
April 11, 2016
I regeared my SARS road bike, inspired by the Mt. Province, Banawe Sagada ride last June to lower gears. I had 3 x 10 set up, with Deore triplet 44 32, 22 set up with 11 to 36 rear cogs, medium cage rear derailleur. It had so many issues though. When at 44 x 32 the chain jumps to 32 without provocation resulting in loss of timing or failed climb. It wont go down to 22 when asked for. So it was better to use a mt. bike.
But you have issues with MTB: it is heavy (none can match the lightness yet of road bike even the wt of iron bikes. And the friction with wide tires easily tires you out. So the ideal is the road bike that has low gears when elevation gets high.
The solution according to experts and mechanics is to go to 2 x10 or 2 x 11. But such are expensive proposition even for a MTB. Your 2 x 10 crank, xt will set you back by 7t. And you are not even sure.
So I experimented with putting back the original chainwheel/cranks set of FSA 53 39. I hope it will fit the chain. Fortunately I had to buy a new chain for `10 speed. The mechanic said that the chain was pretty worn out (I could see the clearance of the chain in some section of the chain wheel to be from 0.5 to 1.5 mm.) That was after 4 years of use and long distance riding to Laguna loop, Real, Atimonan,
