# More gears than Ultegra Compact



## pastpob (Jul 31, 2008)

Good morning all...time to get the wifey a nice birthday present and a new bike! She's coming from a Trek 5200 with full Ultegra, triple and a 12/27 rear cassette. She loves how much she could climb with it.

Her new bike will be a compact double but i know that even if I put a 11/28 cassette on the rear, she will lose some of her climbing gears. I've heard of people putting mountain bike derraileurs on the rear to accomodate a 32 cassette but not sure what that actually entails since i know nothing about mountain bike parts...hell, i'm still a newbie myself when it comes to road bike parts!  So that's one way to do it...

I know that SRAM has Apex now which could accomodate a 32 or even maybe a 34 rear cassette but is there anything like that for Shimano?

The new bike I am getting for the wife comes equipped with full ultegra already so i am just trying to find the most economical way to get her more climbing gears. 
Thanks for any insight on this topic!

H


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## DaveT (Feb 12, 2004)

I've had great success using an SRAM 11-32 cassette on my 6700 Ultegra equipped bikes (3 of them and soon to be a 4th) with no modifications. All had the compact double cranks and a short cage rear derailleurs. The only thing I had to do to accommodate the large cassette was to set my chain length to the big/big combo.

You could also run a 9-speed Shimano long-cage MTB rear derailleur with the Ultegra shifters so you could run larger cassettes that way too.


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## pastpob (Jul 31, 2008)

Thanks Dave..that's really good to know that you've actually been able to get a SRAM 11/32 to work...would i need a new chain? Obviously, i would only have the chain that coems with the new bike, but wondered if that would work? 

Thanks again!


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## DaveT (Feb 12, 2004)

Depending on what the stock cassette was on her new bike, you may be able to use the stock chain. However a problem she will most likely run into then, would be if she was in the big ring and inadvertently shifted into the larger/largest cog on the cassette. That could result in some serious damage to the derailleur and/or wheel. I'd spend the extra money for a new chain cut to the correct length.

BTW, I made the assumption that her new bike is coming with 6700 Ultegra components. If not, all bets are off. I've had personal experience only using 6700 stuff with the SRAM 11-32 cassette.


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