How's life with a 11-32 cassette?

[Shrike]

Trying to decide between regular SRAM and SRAM WIFLI for the missus at the moment. Ideally a 32 would be brilliant for weekends away tackling climbs, that said, not sure what it would be like in regular weekly riding. Have visions of a chain slapping around, and massive clunky gear changes. Any thoughts?

Guess the best would be to go WIFLI, but not use a 11-32 cassette, or chain of appropriate length for that until actually needing it. So that leaves a long cage RD. Any issues with that?

What would you go for? Where I live, in regular rides, a 11-28 (and compact) does it all for her. Cadence at worst drops to 50ish in some hills, but they're so short so..

[topflightpro]

I put on a 32 and WiFli RD when I go out to the mountains. I usually put it on a week or two before I go, and I left it on for a few weeks after my last trip. It was fine.

The shifting is OK - there are big jumps, so you should expect not perfect shifting.

[moonoi]

Being lazy I went with a 11-32 on my latest bike, I don't swap it out as once a month I head out to the hills and I'm lazy. The chain slap on the chainstays is very annoying when riding around and I'm seriously considering getting rid of it and tell myself to HTFU and use an 11-28 instead with a short cage derailleur. I'm using Ultegra Di2 with a mid cage


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[fabriciom]

I ride 11-29 which is VERY noisy, could not imagine going up to 32.

[c50jim]

I put an 11-32 on my travel bike for the Pyrenees a couple of years ago. I had to use a mid-cage derailleur (Campy so might not be the same for you). It was a bit clunky but always shifted. I never got used to the gaps in the gears and don't have much use for the 11 since big hills in Europe also have a lot of switchbacks that keep my speed down.

I swapped my 12-29 back on and it works for almost everything. I have a 46/30 crank and will put it on the bike once the bike comes back from Maui (I left it at a friend's place there since I'm heading back tomorrow and again in late March.

I'd say stick with the 11-28 for normal use if it's low enough and use the 11-32 only when you'll need it a lot.

[fa63]

Not sure why you all are experiencing noise and clunky shifting; I run a mid-cage Shimano RD with a 11-36 cassette (yes, it works on my particular bike), and it shifts just as well as a short cage RD and no noisier (except the big-big combo, which I never use anyways).

[fromtrektocolnago]

I have an 11-32 on my gravel bike(6800 mechanical). it works fine, actually more than fine. I don't find the 32 all that useful on the rides I do here, but on a few high grade off road rides it came in handy. Just not a situation I encounter all that much.

[RussellS]

Can't figure out why a 11-32 cassette would be any noisier or difficult to shift than a more flat road oriented cassette. Short or long cage derailleurs shift the same. As long as the upper pulley clears the big cog, the noise should be the same if adjusted correctly on all specimens. I use 11-32 ten speed on a touring bike. Works fine with the chainring sizes I use. Some of the gaps in gears are not as nice as a tighter cassette. But that is what comes with having a wider range. Bigger jumps.

[Marin]

I run 11-32 as a default cassette on all 3 bikes, and that's with a short cage Red derailleur on 2 of them. I don't experience noise or chain slap at all on any of them.

The gaps aren't a problem for me. How did people ever ride 8 or 9 speed, where you'd have the same gaps on an 25t cassette???

I like climbing steep stuff while keeping my cadence high, so the 32 comes in handy for that.

[NiFTY]

I have a bike with short cage 11-28 and one running an 11-30 on wifli with a chain sized for 32 and the wifli shifts better. Both are sram red and both are with 53/39.

[boots2000]

I just built up a bike with a compact and an 11-32. Rode it twice and brought it on vacation to Hawaii with me.
I am using 9070 DI2 with a short cage. Shifting performance is excellent.
I do have bigger jumps between gearing combos but overly it is fine.

[fixxed1]

I'm running a Campy 11spd 11-32 cassette, with a Super Record short cage derailluer, with no issues.

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[fromtrektocolnago]

I have an 11/32 on my Firefly Gravel bike. It works fine. I went compact on the gravel based on recommendation from the bike shop doing the build. It works fine, but I hardly find the 32 necessary on any of the rides I put the bike through so far. It has small benefit on steep dirt climbs I suppose.

On a road bike 11-28 is far more practical. The closer gears make more sense on the road. The only time I've wished I had a 32 so far were when climbing Ventoux or riding up Devil's Kitchen two rides i do not do on a regular basis. I'm just as happy struggling up in the mid-compact 11-28 and telling myself I need to train more.

[tilf]

I've run 11-28 (short cage + midcage), 11-32 (mid cage), and 11-40 (mid cage+goatlink and with an XT). On the road they all work well, the spacing is a little larger on the big range cassettes. This can be a little more fatiguing on day 3 of a ride in the flats with gusting wind. On the other hand, when I hit a hill and can sit and spin up it that is a huge plus. In the end I am going to swap around a few of the smaller gears to get smaller jumps around my cruising range (15-19) (which all the discussed cassettes have pretty good gaps around). If I weren't married to my current crankset I would just go for as wide of a range on the front as I could using something like White Industries VBC.

Assuming a compact crankset:
http://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=DERS&KB=34,50&RZ=11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23,25,28&UF=2125&TF=100&SL=2.6&UN=KMH&GR2=DERS&KB2=34,50&RZ2=11,13,15,17,19,21,24,27,31,35,40&UF2=2125 This compares an 11-28 vs my 11-40 setup. Both don't have optimal jumps. For me the tight spaces on 11,12,13,14,15 do no me no good as I am "at home" at 100rpm cadence.

Here is the setup I would like to try on a VBC chainset from white industries, I just need to see if I can get any FD to make the 20 tooth jump. http://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=DERS ... 2&UF2=2125

Another consideration if you are worried about chain slap -- even the 11-28 slaps offroad for me, thus monkeying around with the XT and its clutch was the answer.

[teleguy57]

I'm running a Campy 11spd 11-32 cassette, with a Super Record short cage derailluer, with no issues. 20170125_150103.jpg

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Interesting. What chainrings? Can you go all the way from small-small to big-big? How did you size the chain?