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Wondering what most rodies are riding in this area. I have a compact double crankset and an 11-25 cassette. Some of the hills here are killer and even on the small ring and the 25 I have to stand and really crank to get myself up the incline. Wondering about a bigger cassette, or should I just man-up and continue to crank.

Most of my regular crew are riding compacts with either a 12-27 or 11-28 (SRAM). No manning up about it - we climb, A LOT. During the warmer months a typical ride for us almost always includes 10,000 feet of climbing. You can either make a climbing century doable by having all of the gears, or you can kill yourself out of the saddle all day.

Plus side is that if you're running Shimano, it's cheap to experiment here in Japan. Shimano components aren't very expensive. Now if you're a Campy guy.....

Ditto. As a guy who's not a bad climber I ride a 11-27. Why kill yourself.

Thanks for the help, that settles it for me. I need a bigger cassette. I'm a Campofile, so guess I'll need to dip into the savings. Looks like a 13-26 is about the best I can do, they have a 13-29, but that would require a rear der. upgrade as well.

you will need all the gearing you can get! These climbs are VERY unforgiving!

Right now I am running a 12-25 cassette and a double compact crankset. I was looking at getting something with a larger range. Particularly the Shimano Ultegra 6700 10 Speed Cassette 11-28. I started getting into my road bike maintenance book before making a purchase and read something about different size rear derailleurs not fitting some cassettes but it was not specific enough. I have the Shimano 105 RD-5600-SS rear derailleur. I found a GS version which has the longer arm but cannot decipher the specs of each to figure out what size cassettes will work with each of them. The specs are the same for both Maximum Sprocket at 27T and Minimum Sprocket at 11T. The difference is that on the SS the Maximum Front Difference is 16T and the Total Capacity is 29T and on the GS the Maximum Front Difference is 22T and the Total Capacity is 37T.

So what exactly does the maximum front difference and the total capacity mean?

Can I get away with the Shimano Ultegra 6700 10 Speed Cassette size 11-28 on my current derailleur? How about a 12-27?

Also as a slow rider and pretty horrible climber (looking to improve) would you recommend the 12-27 over the 11-28 or visa-versa, if one works and the other won't that should make the decision simple?

James,

If you're looking to add a couple of gears, the Shimano 12-27 would be plenty. With already having a compact crankset, you'll simply be adding some lower gearing - and you will NOT need to change derailleurs. I've swapped stock 12-25's for 12-27's a couple of times now, and the stock der. worked fine.

Your short cage rear der is fine. Long/medium cage der's are for triples ONLY. 11-27 or 12-28 is basically your choice. Do you need that 11 more than you need the 28?

Ending up getting a 12-27. I didn't see any 12-28, I might have gotten that but I think 27 will work fine for me. Thanks for the help! Now just have to wait on my new wheel-set to come in and try to figure out how to get the cassette on (I also ordered the two tools I think I need)