Mountain Bike Gear Ratios

Rick has a great bike that he is mostly pleased with, except that the gear ratios are not what he wants. His question is; how can he get the chain rings and cassette sprockets that he wants? We think he will have problems to do exactly what he wants, so we have given him some alternatives

Question: Dear Samuel, I recently purchased a second hand DaBomb (Cherry Bomb) mountain bike. The bike has been tricked up with some good gear and I love the bike. It is awsome in the rough stuff.

The problem, the previous owner had legs like tree trunks and push the low gears. I can't. It has Triple Chain Rings in the front (22,32,44) and an 8 speed cluster on the rear (12,14,16,18,21,24,28,32). It's all top quality Shimano gear but out of the 28 speeds, I would only use 8. Unless I continually split shift I am either spinning like an egg beater or loading my legs up.

I worked out the ratios I wanted only to be told, it can't be done. I wanted 32,40,42 Chain Rings with a 13,14,15,16,18,21,24,28 rear cluster. No dealer here in the Northern Territory (Australia) can help me. Any suggestions?

Hi Rick,

It's a great feeling when you find the bike for you. With many things you have to tweak the small things to get it just right and bikes are just the same, your bike sounds great, but your problem with the gearing is going to be a hard one to resolve.

The Cranks

Your chain ring choice is not main steam, if you can find chain rings to fit your cranks then that is the only way you will get exactly what you want and as you have found out it's not going to be easy, possibly try the French company TA, they make chain rings to fit many different cranks. For the chain set I suggest you go for 48-36-26 toothed rings as these are as close as you will get to your choice and it is easily available from many manufacturers.

The first problem here is finding an 8 speed cassette, they are a bit scarce, but have a look on the internet for 8 speed Shimano cassettes and you will find a few. Looking at what is available the closest to what you want would either; 13-15-17-19-21-23-26-30 or 13-14-15-17-19-21-23-26. Seeing as you can't get the chain set that you desire then the 13 to 26 could fit the bill for your needs.

The 13 to 26 cassette with the 48-36-26 chain ring set up is fairly close to what you want, with an 8 speed cassette and a mountain bike triple chain set you are going to get big jumps between the gear ratios. On a road set up with a double chain set and a 10 speed cassette there are not the same jumps, but this is more important on the road than off-road. So your answer is look around for 8 speed, but don't expect to get exactly what you want.

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