Yes and no.

I think 11speed is wonderful if you want to run a 1x11 set up.
It's nice that a compact crank + 11speed can get close to a triple without the extra chain ring and resulting chain line.

But does anyone need a 3x11, I think that's kind of pushing it. Campy built an Athena group with this option, so clearly, someone is using it.

I'd personally rather run everything with a nine or ten base... for durability, for reduced finicky cable adjustments, for wheel dish and strength, for the sake of using a quick-link (and reusing it). Unfortunately, the industry forces us onto the next thing so that they can sell more products... and it becomes more and more difficult to go the other way.

 

Per your post you are still riding 2x7, if you haven't ridden the other cassettes you really can't make a call about it.

 

True.... So, I may not know what I'm missing out on. I guess I'll have to build a 33 speed bike.

It just doesn't seem as I'm missing any gears in the middle of my cluster. At this point I don't need any higher gears, and the only place I really need a lower gear is about 30 feet in the middle of my driveway, which is good exercise like it is.

Is the greater gearing to help match speeds when travelling in a large group?

 

You seem to be wanting the extreme, at this point you seemingly are running a 14, now you are talking a 3x11, I'm beginning to think you are just trolling.
Figure out how to use this
http://www.ritzelrechner.de/#
and decide for yourself.

As others have mentioned 2x11 doesn't yield 22 effective gears for me I concentrate on 18. 3x11 won't yield 33 effective gears either. While you can do 1x11 you would be cross chaining full range, while you can do it and it works, it does wear things out faster.

 

So much is decided by what kind of riding you do and what your expectations are.

Personally I could live with a single 50t front ring and a 10 or 11 rear cassette, something like a 12/28 range. That combo wont make me the fastest or most efficient rider but so what, I am just a recreational rider. BUT....if I lived in a different area and the terrain was different, if I was a racer, if I was terribly out of shape, if I was always trying to set PR's, if I was a mountain climbing goat....my feelings about gearing may be different.

If you get creative you can make your bike pretty much how you want it, single, double, triple, fixed, 10/11 cassette, whatever. But from a bike manufacturers perspective they want to build a bike that appeals to as many buyers as possible, that's why there are so many gears, so Johnny Cat? can race the bike in the morning and then his wife can use it in the afternoon to ride in the park.

But that's just my opinion.

 

Unless you've tried the extra gears you won't know what you are missing, and for your style of riding, you may not see any benefit of added gears.

I prioritize my gearing into needs and wants. I pick the highest gear and lowest gear I need and then fill the rest with gears I want.

Pack riding is one area where proper gearing really helps me. A while back I replaced my 10 speed 12-27 cassette (that has a 16t cog) with a 11-28 cassette (without the 16t cog). I wanted to try the 11t cog to lead the pack during the descents instead of coasting/drafting and saving energy (and I still needed the 27t to climb hills where I live). After a few rides I determined the 11t was of no benefit to me at all and I really missed the 16t. I replaced my cassette. Others will have other reasons.

I guess a simple analogy would be (if you had a small car with a 5 speed transmission) to start shifting from 2rd gear to 4th gear (without 3rd gear).

 

I guess a simple analogy would be (if you had a small car with a 5 speed transmission) to start shifting from 2rd gear to 4th gear (without 3rd gear).

Except it'd be more accurate if the car had a 10-speed transmission, and you skipped from 5th to 6th.

I do like the one-tooth shifts. They're nice - especially at higher speed. It feels great. But, I think it'd would've been interesting if the companies all agreed to stop at 10 (yes, I know - the world doesn't work like this). If they'd channel their energies (R&D $$$) into something else, no telling what they'd come up with.

Our bikes are the blenders of the '80s. Hamilton Beach, Oster, Sunbeam... they'd all run out of ideas. So what did they do to one-up the other... added speeds. Soon, we had 11 speed blenders. Funny that years later, the higher-end blenders went back to fewer speeds - or a single variable speed knob.

 

One of my own bikes still has 8 rear sprockets. When I go out on hard rides with my friends riding the 11's, they have a distinct advantage. I often have to ride in a gear that is slightly higher or lower than I'd find ideal, the extra effort catches up with you after a while.

 

I'm also old enough to have started out on 5-speed doubles.

Then I had the dubious benefit of 35 years between bike rides. My next bike was an 8-speed triple. I found that even with the extra 14 speeds, I still had the same complaint--too big a jump between gears. And I only used five of the eight in back. It seemed like no improvement at all. Then my LBS introduced me to close-ratio cassettes. That was exactly what I'd been searching for.

The triple gave me the range I needed, and the 13-23 close-ratio cassette gave me the smaller jumps I craved. Since then, I've gone with all 10-speed 12-23s in back. My commuters remain triples, simply for hauling a week's worth of groceries uphill, and because the studded snow tires in winter are so damned heavy. My roadie is a standard double.

My club is over 40 years old and has over 500 members, so I see a huge variety of bikes and cycling styles on every ride. I've found that many other old-timers who stayed with cycling, have maintained the same pedaling style we had no choice of using back in the day. Find a gear that works and vary cadence and power output with terrain, shifting only when absolutely necessary.

The newer systems permit a completely different cycling style, just the opposite of what we had to do in the 70s--find a cadence and power output that works, and change gears with terrain, shifting as often as required.

So as with everything else in cycling, it comes down to personal preference. If you prefer a 7-speed double, then good golly, that's what you should use. I'll continue to use 10-speed doubles (and triples on the grocery getters) and be grateful for the choice.

Personally, I come from the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" tradition. Between that and wanting the same drivetrain on all my bikes to keep the parts bin easier to stock (and so as not to confuse the rider), I won't be changing to 11-speed very soon. Ten-speed works for me and my terrain. It's not broke, so no need to fix it. If I lived somewhere hillier, I could understand the need for a 25 or greater at the low end out back. But presently, those solve a problem I simply do not have.

 

Another old timer here, I also had a 2x5 with a 52/42 and 14/21 (I think) and upgraded to a 2x6 also with a 52/42 and 13/24 (I think). Hard to remember. I ride 2x10 with compact gearing now and it is a huge improvement over the old days in pretty much every way. Lower and taller gearing with much closer ratios in between. Progress is a good thing.

 

Statement - More gears make you slower. I'm livin' proof. I started out in the early '60s with 2x5 and after about ten years I settled on a 14-18 freewheel with a small ring of 42t and even 44t in mid-summer. I was a 24-25mph time-trialer on that setup. Then I went to 6-spd with a 21t big cog, then to 7-spd with a 23t big cog. Then through 8 & 9spd with 23t cogs going to (gasp!) 25t big cogs. And all the time I went slower & slower.

Now I've "progressed" to 10-spd (with 25t cog but a 27t cassette waiting in the wings) and I'm the slowest I've ever been. I'm NOT going to 11-spd because I'll be so slow on that I might as well go for a walk or take up (ptoooeee) golf.

I guess it's the weight of the extra cogs that's doing it eh?

 

Damn it! So that is what has been slowing me down all these years? I'm going back to my 10 speed. Im sure I could still do the steep climbs with the 42/21 gearing.:nonod:

 

Need? No. I don't even 'need' a road bike. Need has very little to do with riding a bike for pleasure.

 

They're just different tools. If your 7-speed x 2 is good enough for you, cool. My road bike has a 9-speed cassette, and I don't see any need to upgrade, at least until something wears out or breaks.

BTW, if you get a bike with a triple and an 11-speed cassette, it won't really be a "33-speed". Counting only the useable non-duplicative combinations, you really would have somewhere around 22-23 different gears.

I do much of my riding (probably 60% of my yearly mileage) on fixed gears. If I lived in a really flat place, it would probably be 90%. But the additional gears make hilly rides a lot more fun.

 

I don't see any harm in 11 speed and a lot of upside. Someone already mentioned the promise of 1x11 for the road, I think this is a great idea as I personally despise the FD. Secondly, allowing for finer gradations between gears is always a good thing. Thirdly, an extra cog allows for one more bailout gear, very useful for loaded touring or mountain biking. Lastly, I'll bet that x11 drivetrains prove to be just as durable as other setups.

Obviously, the downside is that upgrading to x11 is a relative pain and will require new wheels for most people currently on x10 or less drivetrains. However, if you're buying a new complete bike or buying new wheels, go for it.

 

A 10-speed drivetrain is fine for me since it's a nice even number.

I'm so heavly invested in components and wheels for three bikes that chasing the 11-speed plus group game isn't a priority anymore.

Don't even get me started on electronic shifting or road disc brakes

 

^^^^^this^^^^^

 

I got into it when it was 6-speed. Used a 52/42 with 21 as my biggest cog. I upgraded to a 7-speed drivetrain and thought that was a definite improvement. Eventually I got a completely new setup at 9-speed. I liked 9-speed a lot, and held out from going to 10 as long as was practical. I finally moved to 10-speed because parts availability was starting to become an issue.

9-speed was a sort of "sweet spot" for me, because you could actually get away with Shimano/Campy cross-compatibility better than with any other drivetrains. Not really a big thing (I generally used Campy), but sort of nice little value add. But in general I was really happy with how 9-speed worked and performed.

10-speed Campy works just fine, but one thing I've always found to be slightly annoying is dealing with 10-speed chains. 9-speed chains still worked with the good old-fashioned chain tool, whereas the 10-speed chains are more difficult to deal with if you want to shorten or lengthen them.

I have no desire to go to 11-speed at the moment.

 

The big advantage of a 9, 10, or 11 speed drivetrain is the ability to easily keep your cadence in the optimum rpm range no matter what the terrain (for the most part). I recall back in the day of 5 speed freewheels we used to have to either push harder to climb a hill in the gear we were in or shift down to a gear lower than we wanted to use - so we all tended to forgo shifting and just increase the strain on our knees.

I know that my knees are much happier in my old age with a nine and ten speed cassette. I constantly shift to maintain my preferred cadence. I will readily admit that I don't like the extra noise of the 10 speed rear end - more chain angle makes for a noisier drivetrain - but it is a trade-off I am willing to make for ease of performance.

 

Perhaps one could go with a single chain ring, and a bit of a relaxed stepping between cogs on the cassette. Thus, utilizing the entire range on the cassette, and not worrying about cross-chaining. It would make shifting easier.

Already done that in mtn biking and cyclocross.

 

I've ridden a 10(5 by 2) , 18 (9 by 2) and 22( 11 by 2), and not once when riding the former did I not think I had enough gears but in all fairness I never did the kind of riding I do now with the Schwinn ten speed of my teen years and early 20's. For most riding the tighter gear spacing is of marginal benefit, but one could argue it better allows you to optimize cadence. On my current bike, I still feel there are more gears than I need and I will spend the majority of my time in a subset of the choices, but Shimano , Campy and SRAM must have all watched Spinal Tap in their youth and seem intent on increasing the number of gears every few years as if that's some form of achievement. 9, 11 or 11 gears it's all good by me.

 

The only gearing a real cyclist needs is whatever 53/39 and 11-23 in the back combinations are available.

 

I'd say that a 10 speed drive train is of much more importance than any carbon frame will ever be. There's a lot to be said for a close ratio drive train that goes 11-23, 12-23, 11-25 or 12-25. All the gearing you need at a cadence of your choice.

A light frame is just a light frame.

 

I was just looking at my cluster tonight. Fairly tight ratio 7 spd.

12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 23.

It does jump a bit when I get to 23, but I go up most of the hills in the 19 cog. It is just my own driveway that slams me with the 42x23 combination, and that is just fine, as it is like ending a ride with a hard sprint.

When I was younger, I found myself riding in the top gear most of the time. Now a few years and a few pounds later, I find myself using more of the gears. I've been cruising in the 13/14 cogs quite a bit lately, but after two 100+ mile rides recently, I am just now feeling strong enough again to start hitting the 12 a bit more.

Anyway, I thought I'd look and see what is available in replacement parts.

An 11-23 just does not seem to exist in 7 speed clusters, with the most aggressive gearing available being: 11-28 with 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 24, 28. Whew :rolleyes5:

Hmmm, a couple of 12-20 & 12-21 7 spd clusters available, but I can't give up the 23 cog.

I may end up with an upgrade, not because I need all the extra gears, but because I just can't find the proper gear ratios for sale...

Or, I'll have to figure out how to build my own clusters.

I'm seeing a few 8 spd clusters with good gear ranges for sale... The 7 is pretty crammed for space back there already.

I've carried panniers in the past, but if I do bike camping again, perhaps I'll have to look for something a little easier to push up the hills. It looks like the smallest chain ring for my 144 BCD crank set without drilling the spider is a 41 tooth ring, if I can find one.

 

I've read that Shimano has a patent on a 14 speed cassette (or was it a 14 speed freewheel?) At any rate, it probably won't be long before we're up to 50 speeds!

My commuter is 2x9sp, my roadie is 2x11. Need all the gears? Not really, but they are what the bikes came with when I bought them.

 

How many gears do we need?

Let's assume that I want to pedal over a range of speeds from 5-40mph (a ratio of 8:1), and that I'm happy to pedal at a cadence between 60-100rpm (a ratio of 1.7:1). 5 gears would cover that. Any more is a luxury!

 

So, are you saying that you're running a 1x5?