The 11-27 Project
With the hills in Wisconsin coming soon (despite my doubts, it looks more and more like it’s going to happen) as well as some more hilly rides that I have scheduled, I’m looking at swapping out my current cassette (11-23) with something with a little bigger. Shimano doesn’t make an 11-27 cassette for whatever reason, and I’d like to not have to use a 12-27 if I can avoid it because I do end up using that 11t cog quite a bit when I’m going downhill.
So… I think I’m going to try and piece together half of my 11-23 cassette with a new 12-27 cassette and have the mother of all cassettes that will get me up and down anything that I’ll be riding on. I’ve read this is doesn’t work all that well for 9-speed setups, but that 10-speed setups spread things out just enough so the gaps aren’t too large and shifting is still smooth. I suppose the worst case scenerio is that I’ll use the 12-27 and just won’t have that extra gear to hammer with downhill. Certainly whatever cassette I have on for Wisconsin, you can be rest assured that I’m going to use every single gear that I have on the back at some time over that course.
Not much else to report. I ran early this morning before it got too hot. It’s amazing how much faster I can run when it’s 20 degrees cooler out! I think I clipped off my first mile at 7:45 pace and my HR barely got over 140. On my death run on Tuesday, my HR was pushing 160+ and I was probably barely under 10 min/mi pace. The last two days have also included a pair of 30 mile rides. Tomorrow it’s another day of masters and probably another 30/3 brick. Then it’s another five hour ride on Saturday. Only four more of those to go. Yikes! We’re getting close…