That would be ideal, yes.

The job of a pro team mechanic is not an easy one. It is not uncommon for the mechanics to finish their work at 10 or 11 in the evening after a stage. They don't get to even start until the riders finish which is what, 5pm or so for most pro stage races? Add in the time to get the bikes to the team hotel they probably start at about 6pm. Unless of course there is a transfer after the stage... Then it's later. First step is to wash ALL of the bikes, even the ones on the cars. Though the bulk of the time is spent on the bikes that were actually ridden that day, the bikes on the cars have to be at least inspected to be sure that nothing happened to them. Then they need to inspect for issues, wear, damage if there was a crash, etc. The mechanics also wash the team cars and buses. Though I'm not sure if that is an every day thing or as needed, but it is required as sponsorship and presentation are important at that level.

Basically, they have a lot to do and every new task you throw at them makes it hard to get it all done in a timely fashion.

I found this article that outlines the daily tasks of a pro mechanic.

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

I agree. 1x11 is close, but just a little gappy for me. 1x12 is closer still. 1x13 with well-thought-out steps in a 360-390% range? And no more faffing with trim? You can have my FD, I'll never miss it.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I saw a 10-36 12spd cassette on the road the other month. In fact, the entire drivetrain was prototype: shifters, derailleur(s), cranks, chainring.

The only words I received from the rider was “No comment”.

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Alex Arman

Strava

A little of this, a little of that. Same cogs/chain/spacing as 12 speed. Rotor 13 speed freehub has the same spline shapes/orientation as traditional Shimano/SRAM 11 speed, but it's 3mm wider. The offset is obvious adjusted accordingly. Biggest cog is cantilevered over the inside, 10T cog sits outside and is secured with a special lock ring.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Cyclenutnz had gear use distribution calculations in his models a decade ago. As you say - it's not hard to know these things.

However, I wouldn't get quite so excited about 13s yet. The cassette is wider than 11 or 12s so it may not be that viable on the road until we get boosted in a couple more years when Trek/SBC need to find a way to sell road bikes again.

Just threw in 4 of my last TT's on Di2stats.com - see attached. I think these are decently representative of usual TT's I do in Denmark. For some seriously hilly ones like worlds the stats will of course be different. I think my gut feeling about which gears I am in was not off the mark.

Tough job. Tubular gluing between races has to be the worst. 4-5 layers per tire. They probably have to go through a huge % of tires after a Grand Tour. Just day after day of gluing to get 4-5 layers of glue for dozens of wheelsets.

Again, my question is not against 1x, it's about the 9T cassette.

I don't have Di2 so I can't get exact statistics, but I raced IM Frankfurt, on a particularly shit day body wise (20w under power target) on a 52/36 and 11-28. I shifted into the small chainring twice or three times per lap, and in all those cases I would be just as well-served with a 32T cog in the bag and the big chainring. I did, however, use the 11T for extended periods of time, since there's nearly 25km of each lap are on a mild downwards trajectory, with a gentle backwind this year.

So if anything, I would be looking at a 50 or 52t front, with an 11-32, or 11-36 cassette to cover almost all my racing needs - with a 12-speed setup the gaps would be good enough for me. The problem is training, where sometimes I need a wider range (no big mountains around here, but the hills can be steep), and that pesky winter HIM I keep signing up for that starts with 1000m of elevation gain in the first 30km of the bike course.

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer