Rick Youngblood
CarbonCraft Master
Wolf Tooth has stepped up to the plate, and in my opinion keeps hitting home runs. They now have available a 49 tooth cassette cog conversion for Sram and Shimano and their 11 speed cassettes.
What this means for me:
I'm currently running a 34t x 52t Rotor Q-rings and a Shimano 11-42 XT 11 speed cassette, with Sram Force 11 speed brifters on my Vendetta 2.0. Prior to the recent 11 speed conversion, I was running a 10 speed system with 34t x 52t Rotor Q-rings and a Shimano 11-36 XT 10 speed cassette converted to 13-42 using a Wolf Tooth 42 cog, which worked extremely well for me in Northern California.
As we know the 34 rotor q-ring is not very oval/oblong, and does not have the benefits of a larger q-ring for obvious reasons.
With this conversion kit I can now upgrade my q-ring from 34t to a 38t, or even go with a QXL and still retain the lowest gearing and more with added benefits.
Here is an example of gear inches taken from http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_inches :
34t chainring X 36t cog = 25.1 gear inches
34t chainring X 42t cog = 21.6 gear inches (what I'm currently using)
38t chainring X 42t cog = 24.0 gear inches
38t chainring X 49t cog = 20.8 gear inches (what I can upgrade to)
...and 34t chainring X 49t cog = 18.4 gear inches (this would be too low for me personally)
We discuses hill climbing and low gearing quite frequently here on the forum. What I see is it all comes down to a. where I live + b. my fitness + c. my low speed stability-ability = what gearing options I should be looking at. We can always work on and improve b and c with training and practice.
For me and where I live dictates my low speed gear inches to be about 21 to get me up and over my hills. I'm comfortable at this climbing speed in the the areas I live in. How much time and often I use my lowest gear combination depends on several things. For example when I'm not fit (which is my current state) I will will this combination quite a lot when climbing. But when I'm at the top of my fitness (not to be confused with Jason Perez, when I'm at the top and he is at his lowest, with a broken hand and a belly full of donuts taking a nap...well I not even close), I use the 42t much less, using it to conserve energy or at the end of a log ascent. In other words 21 gear inches is essential to my riding style in my local area.
It won't be until Spring or Summer until I'm able to test out this combination.
The cost for this kit is $124.95 which is very reasonable for what your getting. This is the Shimano version.
From the Wolf site:
The GC 49 is the latest addition to the legendary GC line and it's the biggest yet. The GC 49 cassette extender cog allow you to modify your 11 speed 11-42T cassette from Shimano to create an ultra-wide range 11T-49T cassette. This is a wider range than a SRAM 10-42 cassette. To achieve the optimal shifting, the GCs are optimized for Shimano or SRAM / SunRace cassettes so we have two different 49T cogs available. Includes 18T cassette cog for optimal gearing in the smaller cogs.
You might ask why 49t rather than 50t, and the answer is simple. It allowed us to nearly double the number of shift gates from 4 on a 50t to 7 on a 49t...so you get much faster shifting. With cogs this big this is critcal as you can be waiting nearly a half revolution of the crankset before you will see a shift with only 4 shift gates. The 49t is only 2% different than a 50t, which is so small it won't be noticed.
Compatibility:
What this means for me:
I'm currently running a 34t x 52t Rotor Q-rings and a Shimano 11-42 XT 11 speed cassette, with Sram Force 11 speed brifters on my Vendetta 2.0. Prior to the recent 11 speed conversion, I was running a 10 speed system with 34t x 52t Rotor Q-rings and a Shimano 11-36 XT 10 speed cassette converted to 13-42 using a Wolf Tooth 42 cog, which worked extremely well for me in Northern California.
As we know the 34 rotor q-ring is not very oval/oblong, and does not have the benefits of a larger q-ring for obvious reasons.
With this conversion kit I can now upgrade my q-ring from 34t to a 38t, or even go with a QXL and still retain the lowest gearing and more with added benefits.
Here is an example of gear inches taken from http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_inches :
34t chainring X 36t cog = 25.1 gear inches
34t chainring X 42t cog = 21.6 gear inches (what I'm currently using)
38t chainring X 42t cog = 24.0 gear inches
38t chainring X 49t cog = 20.8 gear inches (what I can upgrade to)
...and 34t chainring X 49t cog = 18.4 gear inches (this would be too low for me personally)
We discuses hill climbing and low gearing quite frequently here on the forum. What I see is it all comes down to a. where I live + b. my fitness + c. my low speed stability-ability = what gearing options I should be looking at. We can always work on and improve b and c with training and practice.
For me and where I live dictates my low speed gear inches to be about 21 to get me up and over my hills. I'm comfortable at this climbing speed in the the areas I live in. How much time and often I use my lowest gear combination depends on several things. For example when I'm not fit (which is my current state) I will will this combination quite a lot when climbing. But when I'm at the top of my fitness (not to be confused with Jason Perez, when I'm at the top and he is at his lowest, with a broken hand and a belly full of donuts taking a nap...well I not even close), I use the 42t much less, using it to conserve energy or at the end of a log ascent. In other words 21 gear inches is essential to my riding style in my local area.
It won't be until Spring or Summer until I'm able to test out this combination.
The cost for this kit is $124.95 which is very reasonable for what your getting. This is the Shimano version.
From the Wolf site:
The GC 49 is the latest addition to the legendary GC line and it's the biggest yet. The GC 49 cassette extender cog allow you to modify your 11 speed 11-42T cassette from Shimano to create an ultra-wide range 11T-49T cassette. This is a wider range than a SRAM 10-42 cassette. To achieve the optimal shifting, the GCs are optimized for Shimano or SRAM / SunRace cassettes so we have two different 49T cogs available. Includes 18T cassette cog for optimal gearing in the smaller cogs.
You might ask why 49t rather than 50t, and the answer is simple. It allowed us to nearly double the number of shift gates from 4 on a 50t to 7 on a 49t...so you get much faster shifting. With cogs this big this is critcal as you can be waiting nearly a half revolution of the crankset before you will see a shift with only 4 shift gates. The 49t is only 2% different than a 50t, which is so small it won't be noticed.
Compatibility:
- Cage is compatible ONLY with mechanical Shimano 11-speed rear derailleurs (SLX, XT, and XTR). Di2 mountain derailleurs are not supported. Be sure to select the right cage length. Here are the pulley center to center distances for each cage type so you can be sure to order the right one:
- XTR 9GS - 84mm
- XT 8GS - 88mm
- XT 8SGS - 107mm
- SLX 7GS - 93mm
- Compatible only with Shimano 11-speed 11-42 cassettes (we have a SRAM cassette version also).
- Compatible with all 11 speed chains
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