Recommend drop bar STI shifters and 700cc wheels with <20 gear inches setups

[nickbroon]

Can anyone recommend bikes or setups with drop bar STI shifters and 700cc wheels that feature less than 20 gear inches.

I'm looking for low enough gears to deal with loaded touring and have in the past found 24 gear inches not sufficiently low enough.

Thanks.

[ElCani]

Don't know of any specific bikes (although they may well exist), but it should be possible to build one up. As an example:

Shimano Sora R3030 STIs (or any older 9 speed triple STIs)
Stronglight Impact triple chainset (46/34/24)
Shimano Sora R3030 front mech
9 speed 11-36 cassette
Shimano 9 speed MTB rear mech (eg XT M772)

Assuming 35c tyres and 170mm cranks, that gives a bottom gear of 17.8 inches, according to the Sheldon Brown gear calculator.
You would need to install an inline cable adjuster for the M772 rear mech, unless you choose shifters that have them built in.

[Brucey]

you can also get low gears in a 2x11 format by using a 'supercompact double' chainset and current 'road 11s' mechs/shifters. The RD will need to be mounted on a hanger extender (eg wolf tooth) if very large sprockets are to be used. You can go to 42T sprocket this way and even larger ones (50T) are sometimes possible. 24/42 gives a ~15.6" gear

eg

http://ritzelrechner.de/?GR=DERS&KB=24,38&RZ=11,13,15,17,19,21,24,28,32,37,42&UF=2185&TF=90&SL=2.6&UN=MPH&DV=gearInches

Not quite my cup to tea since I'd spend a lot of time running in 38/15 and this would wear out pretty quickly, but folk do this. With larger chainrings maybe you can get a compromise that works for you.

Another route is to use ST-4703 10s shifters in a 3x10 system; these will work with 4700 RDs as well as current 11s 'road' RDs too.

cheers

[nickbroon]

I've done a little more searching and so far the only bike I've found is the Trek 520 which mixes 9 speed Shimano Alivio 48/36/26 11-36 with Shimano Sora shifters, to give suitable low gearing.
Most nearly everything else uses standard road triples 50/39/30 11-34, which only does down to 24 gear inches, which I find is not suitable for loaded touring on even moderate climbs.

[Brucey]

if you want to buy an OTP bike and then to do the least amount to it to revise the gearing, might I suggest buying a different chainset for a bike with a triple chainset? For example a Spa cycles triple chainset will not cost much and will do the job. This will easily get you a 24/34 or a 24/36 gear

cheers

[rmurphy195]

My Heritage has 8-speed claris brifters, an 11-32 rear sprocket and a Spa XD-2 touring triple with 26/36/46 rings giving me 22" - 112" and it all works perfectly. I stuck with 8-speed so I don't need the thinner chain!

Some experimentation with chainring sizes may be necessary, I originally had a Tourney 22/32/42 on the front which it didn't change very well (and looked dreadful!), and the tail of the front cage was almost touching the chainstay, problems were fixed by fitting the bigger chainrings (and the bigger rear sprocket). However this was all down to the bike frame, yours may be slightly different - you may need to experiment a bit. NB its the biggest chainring that defines the height of the front changer, and therefore the clearance against the chainstay.

A lower gear may be achievable with the above kit but using 24/36/46 or various combos but beware of the front mech capacity, front mech height and the overall capacity of the transmission you are using.

[Tigerbiten]

The other questions are around what top end are you aiming for, sub 100" or plus 100" and how close do you want the gears ??
A total range of around 5.5X is fairly easy for gears of ~17.5" to ~95", where as a total range of 6.5x is more tricky for gears of 17.5" to 115".
Plus the wider the range, the more likely you'll get a big step between gears somewhere.

Luck ........

[NickJP]

For that setup I use sub-compact double cranks, and SRAM rather than Shimano shifter/derailleur, as SRAM have maintained (at least for 11-speed cassettes) compatibility between Road shifters and MTB derailleurs, so you don't have to use any cable pull adapters or device such as a Roadlink to move a road derailleur lower to clear large cassette cogs, and in my experience using a Roadlink leads to hesitant shifting on the smaller cogs, as the top jockey pulley is too far away from the cogs. See https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/technologies/exact-actuation for a list of the components that can be mixed.

Here's one of my bikes that uses SRAM Force 22 road shifters and MTB X9 rear derailleur. With 42-29 chainrings and an 11-40 11-speed cassette I have gears from 102" down to 19". That bike is using Middleburn Duo chainrings, which I think are no longer available, but you can put the same size rings on a 94BCD crank. I used a Shimano front derailleur with the SRAM shifters because I've found that with only two chainrings there is no need at all to match the derailleur and shifter.

[MikeDee]

For that setup I use sub-compact double cranks, and SRAM rather than Shimano shifter/derailleur, as SRAM have maintained (at least for 11-speed cassettes) compatibility between Road shifters and MTB derailleurs, so you don't have to use any cable pull adapters or device such as a Roadlink to move a road derailleur lower to clear large cassette cogs, and in my experience using a Roadlink leads to hesitant shifting on the smaller cogs, as the top jockey pulley is too far away from the cogs. See https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/technologies/exact-actuation for a list of the components that can be mixed.

Here's one of my bikes that uses SRAM Force 22 road shifters and MTB X9 rear derailleur. With 42-29 chainrings and an 11-40 11-speed cassette I have gears from 102" down to 19". That bike is using Middleburn Duo chainrings, which I think are no longer available, but you can put the same size rings on a 94BCD crank. I used a Shimano front derailleur with the SRAM shifters because I've found that with only two chainrings there is no need at all to match the derailleur and shifter.

That's a sharp photo. What camera did you use?

[NickJP]

Photo taken with my phone - a Google Pixel.

[nickbroon]

The other questions are around what top end are you aiming for, sub 100" or plus 100" and how close do you want the gears ??
A total range of around 5.5X is fairly easy for gears of ~17.5" to ~95", where as a total range of 6.5x is more tricky for gears of 17.5" to 115".
Plus the wider the range, the more likely you'll get a big step between gears somewhere.

Luck ........

I'm not too fussy about having a high top end as I'll not be going anywhere quickly. It's low end for loaded climbing that's important.

[nickbroon]

For that setup I use sub-compact double cranks, and SRAM rather than Shimano shifter/derailleur, as SRAM have maintained (at least for 11-speed cassettes) compatibility between Road shifters and MTB derailleurs, so you don't have to use any cable pull adapters or device such as a Roadlink to move a road derailleur lower to clear large cassette cogs, and in my experience using a Roadlink leads to hesitant shifting on the smaller cogs, as the top jockey pulley is too far away from the cogs. See https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/technologies/exact-actuation for a list of the components that can be mixed.

Here's one of my bikes that uses SRAM Force 22 road shifters and MTB X9 rear derailleur. With 42-29 chainrings and an 11-40 11-speed cassette I have gears from 102" down to 19". That bike is using Middleburn Duo chainrings, which I think are no longer available, but you can put the same size rings on a 94BCD crank. I used a Shimano front derailleur with the SRAM shifters because I've found that with only two chainrings there is no need at all to match the derailleur and shifter.

A mixed SRAM setup definitely seems better than a mixed Shimano setup due to common cable ratio across their components.
I wonder if there are any bikes that come with this sort of setup, as I'm reluctant to have to buy a new bike just to have to immediately here the drivechain swapped?

[pwa]

You should contact one of the specialist touring bike outfits. Spa Cycles of Harrogate and Thorn Cycles of Bridgewater are the best known examples, and either could sell you a bike that has the very low gear you want.

Just one example, this one a standard tourer with a Reynolds 725 steel frame: https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s21p298 ... eel-Tourer
Spa also do more expensive bikes with titanium frames. Alternatively, they do disc brake bikes and Audax (light tourer) bikes. Thorn are about a third dearer but offer a huge range of options. Either will put the gears on that you want. You just need to ask them.

[Brucey]

A mixed SRAM setup definitely seems better than a mixed Shimano setup due to common cable ratio across their components.
I wonder if there are any bikes that come with this sort of setup, as I'm reluctant to have to buy a new bike just to have to immediately here the drivechain swapped?

I wouldn't worry about it; a good bike shop will change the parts out at a reasonable cost and even if not the parts you change are consumables anyway. Remember that a SRAM setup just makes it a bit easier to get the gears you want, when modifying the bike. I don't think there is an OTP touring bike with this exact setup on it, and even if there was it'd be unlikely that it would meet all your other needs too.

Traditionally when looking at a new OTP bike the things are (in order of importance)

1) the frame
2) the wheels
3) the transmission
4) eveything else.

This is based on the way the bike works and in part on the cost and difficulty of changing those things to suit you. It is easy to be blinded to this by flim-flam such as the absurd cost of modern STIs/Ergos but IMHO this order of priorities still holds true.

If you are putting the transmission as your first priority then you are putting the cart before the horse somewhat. As i mentioned earlier a new triple chainset with smaller chainrings is potentially a £50 fix to a bike with stupidly high gearing; cheap really.

cheers

[nickbroon]

Thanks @Brucey, that's great advice.

If we take an example: https://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bike/tour-de-fer-10
The Genesis Tour de Fer 10, is available in a couple of my local bike shops so I can test ride it, but it has 50/39/30 11-32 gearing, which I know from past experience is simply not low enough for loaded touring in even moderately hilly locations. The bike is at the upper limit of what I can spend. What would be the minimum and hopefully not expense change that I could have done to this bike to get the gearing down to < 20 gear inches?