Gears of More

The silver lining of my Wildflower bike experience keeps looking better. I recently learned (thanks again to Rand Libberton and PK Racing) that for nearly two years, since the start of my auspicious road-biking career, I have been riding with a crazy gear ratio setup; or at least one that is highly inadvisable for anyone biking in the hilly Bay Area or attempting Wildflower's Nasty Grade.

My Felt 65 had a 53/39 chainring and an 11-23 cassette (standard setup details). I should be riding with a 12-27 cassette to allow me to keep a reasonable cadence while climbing.

Rand & PK Racing ordered and installed a new Shimano Ultegra cassette, chain and derailleur and fixed the derailleur hanger; the latter two were necessary as my bike is still banged up after a crash coming down Conzelman Road in the Marin headlands at the end of 2005 (in spite of post crash repair work and several tune-ups at other locations since...)

The result? My bike rides even more smoothly and shifting is much better. The headlands repeats on Saturday May 19th were almost fun... :P