gear ratios

Question
Hi Scott,

I've been road riding for a few years now in flat New Jersey.  My problem is that I am using only my top few highest gears and sometimes wish I had even higher gears.  I am constantly on the largest front bracket even when I hit the occasional bridge ( my only hills around here).  Is it possible to switch from my Shimano 105s to something that gives me higher gear ratios or should I just work on my peddling speed?  Any info or direction would be great.  I ride a Klein Q carbon racer if that helps.

Billy

Answer
The first thing you need to do is make sure of the gearing on your bike. How many teeth on the chainwheels in front and what are the cogs in the rear. It is highly likely that you can just replace the rear cluster and/or the front chainwheels within your 105 system. The question is whether they make the parts to give you higher gearing.

Generally, front chainwheels top out at 52 or 54. Rear clusters usually start at 11 on the higher end. A racing cluster of 11-23 is fairly common.

But if you already have a 52 large front and an 11 small rear, then you don't have much to change. But if you have a 48 large front and a 13 small rear, you can make some significant changes.

HTH
Scott<>