30 vs 32t Comparison – Drivetrain Review

30 vs 32t Comparison – from a slow climber…

We get a lot of questions on chain ring options. So when my old cranks finally gave up the ghost, press-fit eventually gets sloppy and the creak / get loose often, I decided to go to a bigger ring. So here’s a 30 vs 32t comparison – from someone who’s never, never been a climber.  Keep reading – it’s more than a saga of pain and suffering…

My last couple bikes were 27.5″ setups so I ran a 32t Eagle setup. This gave me a pretty solid balance.

When I went to my SB130 I decided to give myself a bit of an easier gear to compensate for the larger wheel uphill. Wait, 29s are faster rolling right so wouldn’t you go bigger? Not exactly. 29s roll faster and maintain more speed on flats and most climbs until you go anaerobic. Now that is a moving bar and varies both rider to rider but possibly even day to day. Point is – when you have power to hit the gas the bigger wheels are easier. When you’ve barely got power to spin the wheels? Longer leverage as well as added mass (more rubber) of the 29s isn’t as “fast”. This is a big reason you see even strong riders spec’ing smaller rings on the 29s so they can spin on climbs.

So did I decide I was giving up speed with the 30t? Not really. Did I decide I needed an ego boost? Far from it I’ll hike a bike if I think it’s faster or I’m blown out. I just wanted to see where the differences might lie for, well, probably a slightly below average climber. I hoped it wouldn’t be “well this is un-rideable” hahaha… Continue reading 30 vs 32t Comparison – Drivetrain Review