Howdy! I picked up a Raleigh RXM with 105 on it, I love the fit of the bike & steel frame but the gearing is too low for my liking & needs. It is a short cage derail so im wondering if its worth dumping money into or flipping this bike for another friendlier geared bike. I also dont love how skinny the tires are & dont have a ton of room on the rear triangle for much wider. Ill add some photo’s if you guys could give me advice on what to do!
by TieOneOnFlyCo
8 Comments
Sounds like you bought the wrong bike. The gearing can be fixed, but will cost money. Tire clearance cannot be fixed.
for gearing, you can get a bigger chainring like 50/38 or even something with a 52. for tires, you can squeeze fatter tires in if you go for a tire with less tread.
Go 1x with a narrow wide chainring up front-get a long cage 10/11 speed rear der with a wide range cassette and a friction shifter.
Is your wheel crooked? It appears that the wheel isn’t straight in the dropouts. The rear tire should be evenly space on both sides.
Clearly you aren’t averse to used goods. For about $150 an 812 RD with M8000 long cage swap, an 11-46 cassette, and a 32 inner chainring (if you can) will have you geared better. As for tire clearance? Thats on you. Maybe your fork can support wider than the rear and just go from there.
If you like how the frame feels, you could get a different crankset. That would be the cheapest way to get lower gearing. There isn’t much to do about the tire clearance. Look up path less pedaled on YouTube for cranks, or Google sub compact cranks for lower tooth counts. Merry sales should have options as well.
Those 33 at the correct pressure (Silca’s tool is amazing) can be really fun, you already got it so why not enjoy it. I had similar gearing 46/36 – 11s 11-28 and changed it to a 11-40 with a grx 400 10s which can handle 11s with no problems, the difference is night and day on steep long climbs. I also started with 33s but my bike can take up 40s and both sizes are really fun
Big TIre conglomerate has ruined everyone by making them think they all need to run 50mm rubber