Gearing question

[rosceaux]

I know that the ultimate answers are going to be:
1. N+1
2. Fire
3. Fire & N+2

But none of those are realistic options right now.

I've been putting a lot of road miles on my cross bike in an effort to build my endurance base. I would like to spend some more road time on the hills, but I'm getting long in tooth and short of sack. I love my bike and it's geared great for cross at 46/36 front and 11-28 cassette. I was wondering how large of a cassette I could throw on without needing to swap chains. I have two wheelsets,so I could go to a larger casette on the road tires while keeping 11-28 on the cross setup.

If it makes a difference, I'm running a 105 11-speed groupset on a Trek Crockett.

Thanks in advance

 

[GSTim]

I think that you need to find out the exact model number of the rear derailluer so that you can determine the total gear capacity of it. You'll need the whole number like RD-5800-GS so that you know what the cage size is. Then look on the Shimano site for the specs on that der. to see what the gear capacity (and max/min cog sizes) are. You can always add links with a quick link and remove them.