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With an external derailleur, I could train you how to change out the gear set on your bike. Sure you might need to wait for a special wrench or two to arrive in the mail, and futzing with chains has gotten harder every time we added another gear in the rear, but you can do the math and decide if it's cheaper for you to take it to a mechanic. Personally I think people change their minds over time about what the correct gears are for them, so if you do it once, you'll probably do it at least twice. And some people buy extra cassettes so they can change it up on a whim (based on where they're riding and with whom) in a matter of minutes. Being able to change your mind is the primary advantage of being able to do it yourself. You can't change gear ratios on a Rohloff yourself, under any conditions, and the damned thing is part of your wheel so there's no swapping them either. Wheels have always been the hardest part of a bike to assemble properly, and the next two are headsets and bottom brackets. Simplified bottom brackets designs stopped being specialty hardware over 20 years ago, and headsets 10 years ago, so the wheel is now by far the most technical part. And you just welded your gear ratio choices to your wheel. The downside of front and back chain rings was that you often didn't have 2 times Y gears, because there were overlaps, and if you or your bike manufacturer were not careful, sometimes exact overlaps. Having a 95:1 and a 96:1 ratio is useful when you are struggling to keep up with the guy in front of you and you need just a tiny bit lower gear, but you have to do a double gear change to accomplish that, and in the old days especially you might miss, so there was a non-zero chance that instead of keeping up by downshifting, instead he drops you while you swear at your derailleurs. Plus to even know that you practically had to print out your gear ratios and stick them on the neck of your handlebars (and I knew people who did) because if you're that tired, you aren't doing gear ratios in your head or from memory. Two 48:1 gears are just wasted much of the time, even despite this failure mode. The Rohloff at least is going to be 14 gears, all unique and all sorted so you just need one click to spin faster or slower, so that is probably about as useful as 16 gears. 18 is a stretch, but I could see an argument, so 14 is probably 'enough' for most people (though I bet they'd sell more at 15). But if you switch from rides on mostly flat terrain to hilly terrain and back, you're gonna need two rear wheels. And if you're on a trip you'll have to bring both if you're not sure, instead of throwing a wrench and a second cassette into your luggage. And if you're on a cycling tour you can't really bring two wheels, so going plains to mountains means compromising. |
Probably unnecessary. I just rebuilt my wife's campagnolo chorus rear derailleur, interchanging a problematic body and changing the arm length.
I also rebuilt her cassette, to give better ratios to match the new compact 50x34 set I had just installed, and to avoid jumping due to chain wear. That was after switching from 2006 era bar end shifters to 2011 bar end shifters.
In short, I am the specialist wrench you've been waiting for :)