Can the same bike and the same set of gearing work well for flat criteriums and a Colorado hill climb up over 14,000 feet? In this Horse for the Course, I put Shimano’s new 9000 crank and its wide acceptability of chainrings to the test on a Scott Foil.
I also tested Bontrager’s new tubeless Aeolus 5 TLR D3 carbon wheels and Garmin’s new Virb XE video camera, which lets you embed power, heart rate, speed and other data in the footage.
Historically, we had two options for cranks and their compatible rings: standard (with a 130mm bolt circle diameter) gave you 53/39, and compact (with a 100mm BCD) gave you 50/34 or 52/36. Shimano’s new crank, however, has its own BCD that works with rings from both ranges. My sweet spot is the 52/36, but I had a 53/39 on the Foil, so I thought I’d try swapping in a 36t ring – and exchanging the 11-25 cassette for a 12-28.
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Related reading: What is a compact crank?
In central Colorado, Pikes Peak tops out at 14,115ft / 4,300m. One day each year they close the mountain to cars and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb takes riders up nearly 5,000ft of vertical over 12mi on an average gradient of seven percent.
I have been called many things on a bike, but climber has never been one of them. Would 36/28 be low enough?
- The Courses: Pikes Peak Hill Climb + various run of the mill criteriums like this
- The Horse: 2013 Scott Foil Team with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, 53/36 and 11-28, Stages power meter, Garmin Edge 1000, Garmin Virb XE video camera, Bontrager Aeolus 5 TLR D3 tubeless wheels — 7.34kg / 16.18lb all in
- The equipment goals: A single setup that works well for two diametrically opposed styles of riding
A hit for crits
An uphill battle
One horse for two courses?
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