Category Archives: Triathlon

Bicycle Gearing for Normal Humans

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I signed up for a gran fondo this summer that will have more climbing over 100 miles than I’ve ever done on a ride. I’m seriously concerned that I might not make it to the end, given the number of cat 1 and HC efforts required. So I decided to see if I could do something about the gearing on my bicycle. I have a OneNote page filled with interesting thoughts and links to products that might support this effort, but where I landed I think makes better general sense than what’s on most road bicycles today. So let’s start there.

The gearing on most road bikes today follows the Shimano pattern of 50/34 chain rings with cassettes ranging from 11-28 to 11-34. From a climbing perspective, your most powerful ratio is 1:1 (34/34). At the top end, you have the 50/11 combination. So what’s wrong with this? Originally, I had my triathlon bike and my road bikes configured this way (tri-bike 50/34 and 11-30, red road bike 50/34 with 11-28 and yellow road bike with 50/34 and 11-30). What I observed is that when I’m “on the flat” (which is never truly flat), I’m operating at barely in the middle of the cassette when I’m in the large chain ring and rarely do I ever use the small cassette cogs.

I always joke that the cleanest cog in my cassette is the 11T cog. Maybe I’m just not a fearless enough descender to really take advantage of it, but frankly having it is a waste. And the jumps between the cogs when I’m in the big chain ring are so large I find myself constantly struggling with a gear selection that’s a little too easy or a little too hard. So after a bunch of research, I’ve changed the gearing on one of my road bikes to see if it improved things.

I’ve updated my yellow road bike with FSA K-Force Light 46/30 cranks paired with an 11-34 cassette. The first question everyone will ask is – what did I lose by going with such a small set of chain rings? Only one thing – the equivalent of the 50/11 combo. The gear ratio of 50/11 is 4.55. The gear ratio of the 46/11 is 4.18, essentially the same as a 50/12 combination. It turns out that an 11-34 cassette jumps from an 11 to a 13 (there is no 12 on most of them), so the sacrifice is really small. But the benefit from the smaller 46T chain ring is that all of the gear ratios are closer making it easier to find the optimal gear to be in. For an 50T chain ring, the ratios for the top cogs are 4.55 to 3.85 to 3.33 to 2.94 to 2.63. With a 46T chain ring, the ratios are 4.18 to 3.54 to 3.07 to 2.71 to 2.43. While the numbers don’t look to dramatically different, the jumps are smaller with a smaller chain ring (the numerator is smaller) leading to a better road feel when trying to get into the ideal gear. With this setup, I find it easier to hit my power targets while spinning at a comfortable cadence.

On the climbing side, there’s the addition of a the 30/34 combination for a 0.88 climbing ratio. On an 11-34 cassette, the next cog up is a 30T, which is 1.0. The smaller chain ring leads to closer gear ratios for climbing as well, so instead of a jump from 1.0 to 1.13 to 1.26, I’m jumping from 0.88 to 1.0 to 1.11 to 1.2. Everything is tighter and better. And the extra climbing gear is great for when the grades go over 10%. Last weekend I did a ride with some unexpected climbing and plowed my way up a 10% hill with a crescendo of 13% at the finish. The gearing really helped and I wasn’t trashed at the top. Similarly, I did a really nice 60 mile ride yesterday with rolling hills and I never used the small chain ring until near the end where there was an actual climb. The entire ride felt strong.

So, in a sense, I’ve traded the 50/11 for a 30/34 but I actually think I got a whole lot more. I’m way more comfortable pedaling now and not finding myself stuck between too easy and too hard. Given my cycling strength (probably average for a dude my age), it’s not clear to me why Shimano persists in putting gearing on bikes that’s really not well suited for most riders. Strong riders will always find ways to move up but average riders will usually just stick with what they bought and be miserable. I think they are making the wrong choices here. SRAM is doing a better job with this – they are offering a wider variety of chain rings and cassettes, targeting their 46/33 chain rings and 10-33 cassette (12-speed) for someone like me. The new Roubaix Comp is equipped with SRAM 46/33 and a 10-36 cassette, which makes it similar to my bike, although I’m not sure why they decided 33 was a better number than 30 for their small chain ring.

As I continue to tinker, I may opt to go with an 11-36 cassette instead of the 11-34. The Shimano R8050-GS derailleur capacity is 37T, so a 46/30 and 11-34 cassette is 16 + 23 = 39T, so I’m already a little over spec but it’s working just fine. I actually think the capacity is incorrectly stated on the Shimano site since they indicate support for 11-34 cassette with this derailleur and they only offer cranks with a 16T delta. Wolf Tooth offers a derailleur extender to allow me to move to an 11-36 cassette. I’m a little concerned about pushing the derailleur capacity but I might give it a try since it’s an inexpensive change. The 11-36 cassette doesn’t match up exactly with the 11-34 so I’ll have to decide if I like the ratios I currently have:

11-36t: 11-12-13-15-17-19-   22-   25-   28-   32-   36
11-34t: 11-   13-15-17-19-21-   23-25-27-   30-   34

But two sub-1.0 ratio climbing gears might be nice.

WIth my success here, I may also move my tri-bike to the same gearing, again driving for the same benefits I’m seeing on my road bike. I’ve already ordered the cranks for the red road bike and can’t wait to get it set up. To circle back, for the normal humans that are reading this, I encourage you to consider this setup as I think you’ll ultimately be a happier and more successful rider. Ride on!

What Distance Is A Good Starter Triathlon?

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I’ve often see prospective triathletes ask about what distance they ought to pursue for their first event. Most of the time the question is tied to concerns about the swim; everyone can sort of imagine that they will be able to bike and run (or walk) but the swim always seems daunting. The reason it’s daunting is because most swimmers don’t ever do distances like those in a triathlon. if you watch the Olympics, most of the races are far shorter. And if you’ve goofed around with your buddies in the pool, you probably didn’t race more than a length or two. So it’s hard to imagine a long swim.

Nonetheless, my answer to this question is almost always Olympic.

I was in a similar place with the swim when I did my first triathlon (it had been many years since I was really in the water and I never was a swimmer). 6 months is plenty of time to get accustomed to the distance and to get some open water practice in as well so you know what it’s like when it’s time to race.

Funny story – when my older daughter decided to do a half-IM, she jumped in the swimming pool and swam like a fish. When she was in elementary school, she was on the community swim team. That experience left her with swimming “muscle memory” and, even though she wasn’t a top swimmer as a kid and hadn’t been swimming in ages, it came right back and she was easily outpacing me.

Olympic is a good distance to start with because it’s long enough that you’ll be serious about training and it’s an endurance distance which means you’ll focus on moderating your energy throughout the event. I’d only recommend sprint triathlons to those athletes who aren’t looking for endurance events; most of the folks who ask this question, though, are endurance athletes.

While this isn’t a totally fair comparison, I tend to think of sprint vs. olympic the same way I’d think of a 100m dash vs a half-marathon. Sprint triathlons are not “starter” triathlons – they are short distances meant to be done hard and fast, kind of like a 100m dash. Olympic distances are long enough (especially for age group athletes) to become endurance events and your training will reflect that. FWIW, I’m not a “sprint” kind of athlete, so I’ve only done Olympic and longer distances.

Given my lack of real athletic talent, I think that triathlon is mostly about commitment to training. If you are willing to commit to train, the Olympic race should be a great place to start and you’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment when you finish.

Triathlon

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One of the things that happened in the break between posts (after 2013) is that I became a triathlete. I started this journey in 2016, first completing Ironman 70.3 Augusta in the sweltering September Georgia humidity and escalated from there to complete two half-IMs and my first full Ironman (Coeur d’Alene) in 2017. At this point I’ve finished 3 full Ironmans and several half-IMs. The COVID pandemic slowed things down in 2020, but I managed to do three half-IMs in 2021 and was planning on another full in 2022 until a bike crash left me with a separated shoulder.

I’m sure there will be plenty of blog posts from here talking about my various triathlon activities, but it occurred to me today that I posted three long answers to questions about cycling, swimming and triathlon that I should preserve. I’ll follow this post with those questions and answers for the future reference of others.