Bicycle Mechanics - Adding chain rings to Giant Suede?

I ride a 2008 Giant Suede (7 speed cassette) for recreation, fitness and commuting (1-20 mi. almost daily). The offset bottom bracket really works well with my knees. As I expand my distance and routes I am finding a need for a lower gear at times and a desire for more speed (my old legs can only pump so fast). From my research it appears that teh ony difference between my model and the Suede DX is the three ring crankset and derailer. Since I cannot afford a new bike, nor the labor for my bike shop to add chain rings and derailer, can anyone share advice on my adding the chainrings and derailer?

So you want to change this:

http://aebike.com/images/library/large/giant_suede_blue_09_m.jpg

into something more like this:

http://tomwallacecycles.com.au/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/suede_brown1.jpg

On a normal bike this would be only a matter of getting the (common) parts and about 3 hours of work. However, notice on the second picture where the front derailleur is actually mounted - there's an extra little piece of tubing coming up from the bottom tube right above the crank. Your model seems to lack this. Because this bike uses such an odd design, getting a front derailleur onto your bike is next to impossible without some serious welding. If this sounds incorrect, please post some pictures of your specific bike and we can help you better.

The simplest option for wider gearing with just a single chain ring is to change the cassette. This is a common fix, but you will need to make sure that your rear derailleur can handle it. Derailleurs have a maximum difference in teeth that they can shift over, so you need to stay within this range if you're going to change the cassette. Also, if you just want to change the gearing in one direction, (faster, not easier, or vice versa) you can change the cassette to accommodate that or change the front chainring to be larger or smaller, as needed.

Yes, that is what I want to do, but until now never noticed the extra post for the derailer. Since my goal is to extend the range gears I guess I need to go back to the drawing board and rethink this. Thanks.

That's a derailleur post, commonly found on recumbent and crank forward bikes.

I ride a 2008 Giant Suede (7 speed cassette) for recreation, fitness and commuting (1-20 mi. almost daily). The offset bottom bracket really works well with my knees. As I expand my distance and routes I am finding a need for a lower gear at times and a desire for more speed (my old legs can only pump so fast). From my research it appears that teh ony difference between my model and the Suede DX is the three ring crankset and derailer. Since I cannot afford a new bike, nor the labor for my bike shop to add chain rings and derailer, can anyone share advice on my adding the chainrings and derailer?
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the suede that's equipped with a triple chainring is poorly designed. the distance between the crankset and the rear hub is so great that it makes for really sloppy shifting. so while you probably perform that "upgrade", you can get this:
sram makes the dual drive which is a 3 speed internally geared hub onto which can be installed a cassette.
of course, that means you'll need to buy the hub and have it laced to a rim. you'd have to get the shifter and install it. http://www.sram-imotion.com/us/html/navigation_us.html