Improving climbing on S40 Gen 6 with 1x11 drivetrain

[smarkberry]

Love my bike. I don’t love trying to climb the 10% 1/4 mile hill into our subdivision at the end of each ride.

I would prefer to stay with the 1x__ setup.

What can I to get more climbing capability out of a different cassette? 11/50 vs. stock 11/42?

I’d like to avoid replacing the derailleur if possible.

Thank you for your feedback!

 

[ak-tux]

I’d like to avoid replacing the derailleur if possible.

Was this a SRAM APEX derailleur?

Mine (2019 S40) was works with 11 speed Sunrace 11-46 cassette(see below) . It will work with the existing 42T 1X chainring without adding a longer chain. I beleive it can alos take an 11-50 casstte.

 

[Doccus]

I had similar situation (15-18% grade for 1/2 mile to get out of neighborhood). Mine was stock Gen 6 S40, SRAM APEX 42t front. I changed to a Shimano CS-M5100 cassette.
It is an 11-51 cassette. I added the Wolftooth Road Link. Same rear derailleur but added 3 links, I think, to the chain. This is an easy DIY job. The shifting is same as original. The other thing that changed is that with experience, I got better at handling the bike with low speed and hard pedaling. It still gets my heart rate up, but topping the hill is never in doubt.

​

​

 

[smarkberry]

I had similar situation (15-18% grade for 1/2 mile to get out of neighborhood). Mine was stock Gen 6 S40, SRAM APEX 42t front. I changed to a Shimano CS-M5100 cassette.
It is an 11-51 cassette. I added the Wolftooth Road Link. Same rear derailleur but added 3 links, I think, to the chain. This is an easy DIY job. The shifting is same as original. The other thing that changed is that with experience, I got better at handling the bike with low speed and hard pedaling. It still gets my heart rate up, but topping the hill is never in doubt.

​

​

Doccus, you used the Wolftooth Road Link so you didn’t need to change out the derailleur? Is there anything you felt you lost by making the switch?

 

[Doccus]

I used the road link after reading that others had done the same. I didn’t try without it. I did not change the rear derailleur though.
I don’t think I lost anything. I am sure the new cassette is a few grams heavier but on the S40 it is not significant. No change on the top
end but quite a bit on the low. There are some cassettes with 9 tooth cogs out there and the idea of a double or triple chainring is out there.

 

[Joe Riel]

My Moulton (a small-wheel upright) has a 9 tooth cog (with a 62/52 chainring), but I can't say the 9 was any faster than a 10, even on significant downhills. It never felt smooth.

 

[orind]

Another option is to change out the front chainring to something a little smaller. I run a 40 tooth ring.

 

[Boreen bimbler]

I've used the wolf tooth road link many times setting up DF bikes for Everestings and they always seem to work well. If the hanger is bent I'm sure they would exagerate that problem though.
I should be moving soon. Atm I have a 600m climb reacing double figures up to the house but the new one has a 3km climb with 15% pitches. I tried it on the S40 the other day and got up it on my 42/42 low gear but would have no chance in the wet. So I am thinking of trying the road link, a bigger cassette and hopefully get up the steep parts in the damp. I have an 11-50 cassette here so may buy a new 46t front ring and get higher gears too as 42/50 seems a bit ridiculous for unloaded road use.
You can get super cheap road links from aliexpress if you wanted to test one out. Not used them myself but friends have said they are ok.

 

[Greg S]

I live in an area that is very hilly (SW Wisconsin) - 8% grades are common, 20%+ are easy to find and sometimes tough to avoid. The climb up to my house is 19% so I finish every ride that I start from home with a steep climb!

The biggest issue with mega-super-easy gearing (for me) is one of control. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 MPH is the slowest I can go and hold a reasonably straight line. A 40x52 needs a cadence of about 81 RPM to achieve that speed which is certainly doable but you need to keep it going for a while on longer climbs which can be challenging. I've also found that it's even more difficult to hold a line when I'm on a climb of that sort and a car is approaching - probably a certain amount of tension/anxiety involved there. It's also more important in that situation to hold a completely straight line (weaving into the path of a car is probably a bad idea!) which is harder to do at low speed/high effort.

I typically hit the climb on my driveway going as fast as I can (my driveway is fairly long and sloped at 2-3% before the steep part) and take it diagonally since holding a line doesn't matter.

 

[Joe Riel]

Those are challenging slopes. I ride down a 13% hill at the end of each ride, but have only gone up it once (there are alternative routes) because holding a straight line when I could hear a car coming up the hill was quite challenging. It doesn't help that my instinct is to slow down when I hear a car approaching, which makes the situation worse. I have more control when going hard up hills, but that's an unsustainable anaerobic effort. Hill repeats have helped, as has more practice climbing slowly.

 

[Doccus]

I live in an area that is very hilly (SW Wisconsin) - 8% grades are common, 20%+ are easy to find and sometimes tough to avoid. The climb up to my house is 19% so I finish every ride that I start from home with a steep climb!

The biggest issue with mega-super-easy gearing (for me) is one of control. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 MPH is the slowest I can go and hold a reasonably straight line. A 40x52 needs a cadence of about 81 RPM to achieve that speed which is certainly doable but you need to keep it going for a while on longer climbs which can be challenging. I've also found that it's even more difficult to hold a line when I'm on a climb of that sort and a car is approaching - probably a certain amount of tension/anxiety involved there. It's also more important in that situation to hold a completely straight line (weaving into the path of a car is probably a bad idea!) which is harder to do at low speed/high effort.

I typically hit the climb on my driveway going as fast as I can (my driveway is fairly long and sloped at 2-3% before the steep part) and take it diagonally since holding a line doesn't matter.

Reassuring to hear that others struggle with similar issues. The cars approaching sometimes make me abandon my climbs out of fear I may swerve into their paths. Larry Oz told me when I first bought my S40 that regardless of gearing you can only roll so slow and maintain upright position (always a favorite way to be while on a bike). My minimum is around 5 mph but hard to be exact because if I’m really struggling up a hill, I can’t look at speedometer. It has really improved with experience but sounds like there is a limit regardless.

 

[Joe Riel]

Curiously, when a car is approaching from the front I always hear what sounds like another car coming from behind. I don't recall that experience when riding a diamond frame, though possibly it wasn't such a concern. Is this a usual phenomenon with recumbents?