Originally Posted by Mithrandir

I sincerely doubt you'll feel a noticeable difference between 28t and 30t. That's only a 7% difference and not worth it imo. You'd be going from 32 to 30 gear inches:

http://www.gear-calculator.com/#KB=3...5&UF=2099&SL=2


Unfortunately any gearing solution you pick is going to hurt you in the pocketbook. I'd recommend a triple crank first:

http://www.gear-calculator.com/#KB=3...5&UF=2099&SL=2

But that's only 4 gear inches lower, so it'll hardly be worth the cost. In which case I it might make sense to put a custom granny on, say a 26t:

http://www.gear-calculator.com/#KB=2...5&UF=2099&SL=2

Now you're looking at 2 full gears lower than your old setup, while maintaining a tight cassette.


The other option of course is replace the rear cassette and derailleur with a long cage and a mountain cassette:

http://www.gear-calculator.com/#KB=3...5&UF=2099&SL=2

That'll give you about 1 and a half lower gears without having to change the crank.