Going to the Bay Area for a wedding next week and was wondering if I can get by with a 12-23 in back and a 39-53 in front. Am I ludicrous, or will the grades kill me? My other option is to run a 12-27 in the rear. Thanks for the advice!
-Pete
You can do it, but you’ll wish you had the 27…
I get along fine here in San Francisco with an 11/23 rear cog and a 53/39 chain ring.
The thing is, you can survive with a 23, but you’d need to do some route mapping and apply some common sense to where you ride and how long you ride. If you go with the 27, you can just enjoy riding.
second Stevie K and…
Don’t ever call our town “San Fran,” - never, ever, - seriously. Even if you have to abbreviate, - say “SF.”
There are people who will kill you…
Thanks to everyone’s suggestions. I rode a 12-27 on some good 15%+ grades and was happy I had one. Actually what killed me were some MTB climbs out at Tahoe. Yikes! It was more the altitude than the grade though…
A 22-34 even wasn’t enough for my lungs…
SF hills in my opinion are sort of overrated. Yea if you like Filbert,Lombard,Twinpeaks, Broadway and Taylor streets you can knock yourself out. My friend who lives there rides her cruzer one speed all over town. She just knows how to avoid the above monsters and their cousins. We walked up a couple monsters on our journeys, but I bet in my granny gear on the mtb I would have been going about the same speed as pushing the cruzer up the monsters. I agree if you wanted to buzz the town you are under geared, but don’t be afraid of The City because you only have a 23. I would put mtb pedals and cleats on the roadie so you can get off and investigate some of the cool little shops or coffee joints. And please support the 3 million local coffee shops instead of the Corporate Giants. In San Francisco you can drink expresso in the same joints the Beats and shapers of our society did 50 years ago. If you have never been, check out City Lights Book store and start your on cultural revolution.
Enjoy the hell out of one of the greatest places on the planet, and bring your bike to save a zillion dollars on parking. My last several visits we didn’t even rent a car, Muni and bikes rule in SF. And even if it is 100 degrees in Northern California, always have a sweater handy in SF. Or you will be one of those guys buying a I “heart” San Francisco sweatshirt for $50. Enjoy
just a note substitute “FRISCO” for San Fran; people love that one.