Thanks to SRAM’s recent releases, my bike build is becoming a little more defined. My first thought was that, however rough the surfaces may be around Florida, it’s still flat and a 1.00 lowest gear should be low enough for me. But then I spent a little time this morning with Bike Calc’s “Cadence at Speed” page and realized that even the 43/30 has far more top end than I’m likely to need in the next 5 years (e.g. 43x11 @ 100rpm = 55kph).
The new 43/30 sub-compact crankset gives me all the speed I’m likely to want, greater flexibility on the low end, a lower bottom gear (0.91x), and makes the jumps between gears even smaller when I’m going at road speeds… clearly the best choice for me, though I didn’t think so at first.
What I think I “know” I want is:
- Open U.P. frameset
- SRAM Force AXS groupset (43/30 front, 10-33 rear, narrow crank to avoid increased Q-factor)
Wheels are where I’ve got the least knowledge and experience. I’d like to set up two wheelsets for this bike: 700x40 and 650x47. What brands/models would you suggest I check out?