Muggaccinos’ 1^st Commandment is “Hills are your friends”.  Alas, hills are only your friends if your bike  has a gear combination which enables you to climb them without popping your kneecaps and self-immolating your quads.

After an all too painful slow learning curve, many cyclists, including Bank Teller, have a triple front chain ring with 28 teeth on the smallest “granny” front sprocket and a nine speed 12 / 28 rear cassette.  Bank Teller's lowest ratio is a 28 / 28 which is “one to one”.  For each pedal revolution, his rear wheel only turns 1.00 times. So he can almost climb up walls.

Some cyclists have only a double chain ring 52 / 39 on the front.  Unfortunately, many bikes are sold with a rear cassette with 23 or 25 as the biggest chainring.  Even if a bike has a Shimano Ultegra 12 / 27 rear cassette, the lowest ratio they can achieve is 39 / 27, whereby each revolution of the pedals turns the rear wheel 1.44 times.  On a steep climb, that 44% increased load, between 1.00 to 1.44, places a much greater strain on the knees/quads and will waste a cyclist faster.

It costs an arm and a leg to replace a double front chain ring with a triple front chain ring.  However, you can replace your road bike –

(i)      rear derailleur with a long-arm mountain bike rear derailleur,

(ii)     9 or 10 speed cassette of 12/34; and

(iii)    chain,

*     $190 “all-up parts” for the lower end of the below quality range, such as Shimano Deore, or

*     $260 “all up parts” if you change to the upper-end grade, namely Shimano XT.

If your chain has less than 4,000km and your cassette less than 9,000km, changing only the rear derailleur will cost approx 45% of the above forecast costs.

Siggy Hoffmann aka Smiling Assassin has worked on several cyclists bikes who ride with Muggaccinos, incl Bank Teller, Arno aka The Kaiser and Robert H. aka California Death Ride.  When it comes to bicycles, Siggy has a fastidious preoccupation with mechanical technical detail, and knows all the nuances/vagaries of the plethora of models Shimano, Campagnolo, BBB, Miche, Mavic, SRAM etc stock. 

Siggy has provided the following details of mountain bike components which he can readily fit to your road bike if you have a 52 / 39 double chain ring:

A.    Shimano Deore mountain bike rear derailleur is equal grade to Shimano Tiagra road bike derailleur:
       (i)         Model RD – M510 long arm rear derailleur
       (ii)        Model CS-HG50-9 11 / 34 teeth cassette
       (iii)       Wipperman Connex 900 chain

B.    Shimano LX mountain bike rear derailleur is equal grade to Shimano 105 or 600 Series road bike derailleur:
       (i)         Model RD – M570 long arm rear derailleur
       (ii)        Model CS-M580 11 / 34 teeth cassette
       (iii)       Wipperman Connex 908 chain