About
Chadwick is a software developer living in Sugar Land, Texas, USA. He’s been working in the software industry since the 1980s and presently works for Zenoss, a provider of open-source systems management software. He spends way too much time bicycling or playing with cars.
Chadwick,
Googled ‘rear cog for Cottonwood Pass’ and this is were I landed. Great blog about the tour by the way. I am going to hit Cottonwood Pass in a few weeks and have been wondering about my gearing. I will be going up the east side from Buena Vista and have a 12-25 on my 10 speed. Did you end up swapping to a 12-27 or do you think 12-25 would have been good.
Thanks,
Dennis
merckx_13@yahoo.com
I’ve known people, even flat-landers, that do these climbs with a standard 53/39 crank and an 12-25 cassette, so it certainly can be done. I find my own lack of hills where I live make it pretty hard to have the leg strength to hold a climb with tempo power and a cadence of at least 70… below 70 you’re stressing your knees quite a bit. The 27 over a 25 won’t be a huge difference either way; your own fitness will make a bigger difference.
If you do find your cadence is below 70 on the climb, be sure to concentrate on keeping your knees in so they don’t get as much lateral stress, and consider lots of Ibuprofen to keep swelling down after the ride.
I did my ride this year there with a compact crank and an 11-28 cassette. It made a huge difference in my cadence and power delivery but it still wasn’t what I’d call easy…