I signed up for the Civil War Century which is at the beginning of September and involves 7000 feet of climbing over 103 miles. As i would like to do this and some more challenging hill rides in the future, is it worth upgrading my cassette to a 11/28 or 12/28 for this ride? I am a decent climber with the 50/34 compact and 12/25 that is currently on the bike.

It depends on your power, cadence & speed on that climbs. If the climbs are steep and your cadence goes less 60/min, test smaller gears to have more fun oSo >>

 I would absolutely upgrade to the 11-28. The 50x11 combo is faster than the old 53/12 and the 34x28 will be much better. (12% better) .

Nashbar has the cs 6700 11-28 for $68.99 (avail 8/10) with free shipping for today and tomorrow.

Any serious climber on that type of terrain would use this combo.

"If you think you wont need that low of gearing you just haven't explored enough"

Enjoy the event!

Aloha,

Jeff

I changed from an 11-26 to an 11-28 on my 53/39 to get up some steep hills on the Harlem Valley Century in NY (Mcgee hill is 20% & Mt Washington was 15%).  Most of the hills were 10-15% and it really helped. It would have been easier on a compact crank .