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Old 03-23-10, 01:28 AM
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gorshkov
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It seems OK for touring, with one possible problem: the lowest gear is 33 gear-inches. If you are touring in flat places, it should work, but it seems too high for long and/or steep hills. I use my lowest three gears (17, 19, and 22 gear inches) a lot when riding mountain passes, and I wouldn't really want to do loaded touring with a low gear higher than 20 gear inches.

Does anyone know the availability of different chainrings and cogs for carbon belt drive? Depending on what is available, and on Shimano's recommended lowest gear ratio (which I couldn't find on their website), you might be able to use a smaller chainring (a 40 tooth chainring with the stock 24 tooth cog would give you a low gear of 24 gear inches). You would lose some of the higher gears, but that would be better than not having the low end. Another way to get the low gearing would be to go to an 11-speed Alfine hub, but I don't know how cost-effective that would be.

Since you already own the bike, rack, and panniers, I would suggest loading it up with whatever you plan to take on your tour, then finding some hills. Based on how it feels to climb those hills, and on what you will find on tour, you can decide if what you have will work.
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