On May 27, 8:39 am, Maury Markowitz wrote:
On May 25, 9:22 pm, Hank wrote:

I hope that made any sense at all.

Yes, it's great! A couple of smaller questions then, if I may...

On my road bike I stay in the 53 ring at least 99% of the time, the
other one's the 42 IIRC. I'm definitely leaning towards a 50 on the
big end, so do you think that a 50-39-26 would work with the 2203? Or
maybe a 38 middle if such a thing exists?

On the back end, any old cassette I can find should work, no? I'm
thinking maybe the long-cage Ultegra 9-speed that they put on my 5000
by mistake, and replacing it on that bike with the short-cage. I've
got a 12 to 27 cassette on the 5000, so what would be more suitable
here, perhaps a 13 to 30? Can you go that high?

Maury

2203 would work, but the Sora Triple 3403 would be better, since
50-39-30 is its native combination. They claim a total capacity of
22t, so a 26 might not work, but probably would. There's usually some
wiggle room.

As for the RD you use, 30 would be pushing it for the Ultegra
RD-6500GS that you have. I got a Tiagra RD-4400GS to work with a 30,
but only by flipping the B-tension screw around, to give the added
extension of the screw's head against the hanger tab. Official maximum
cog size is 27T, but a 28 would work fine. Are you going to index?
There are no off-the-shelf 13-30 9s cassettes. They have to be custom-
made by combining the parts of 2 other cassettes. There's a dead spot
between 12-27 and 11-32, selection-wise, and the 11-32 would require a
MTB RD.

Don't bother with a 38T ring, if you get a crank with a 50-39-30
combo, like the new 105 FC-5603, Tiagra FC-4503 and Sora FC-3403 all
come with. It's not enough of a difference to matter, especially if
you have a granny gear.

Good luck!