robow

Largest hill in this area was the man made hill that took you over the interstate. 23" gear inch was over kill on this one. You being from Colorado surely have ridden the eastern part of your state, one of the few areas I've ridden that was more boring than where I live. Ha

nun

I think we agree more than disagree. Gearing and a comfortable cadence are important......mashing is bad. Trying to use brute strength on a long climb is stupid, so I use the mechanical advantage of my gearing and I also distribute the effort between my cardio vascular system and the various muscle groups by changing my gear and my position on the bike. I enjoy climbing most when I am not "pedaling squares" so I like to have a good level of basic fitness and I keep the weight I carry to a minimum. Also relaxing on the bike and not pancking are important, that's where technique and psychology come in. I've seen people defeated by a climb even before they start. A climb is seldom as tough as you think it will be.

cyccommute 

Do you only ever intend to ride within a couple of hundred miles of your house? Expand your horizons some and you may find a need for something lower than a 23" gear.

Colorado, by the way, isn't the place where I've found the greatest need for very low gearing. Sure it helps at altitude...there's not much oxygen up here...but the eastern parts of the US are far tougher than just about any paved road you'll find out here...even in the mountains. We don't put roads up 25% grades here. Dirt roads are a different story. Go to Tennesse, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Vermont, New York, etc and you'll find some climbs that have more then enough attitude to make up for their lack of altitude.

Finally, I can find some butt kicking climbs in eastern Colorado. It's a large area and depends on how you define "eastern". The "eastern" half of Colorado. Hartsel is the geographic center of the state which means there's a lot of mountains in the eastern half of Colorado. Even if you draw a line from Denver north and south, there's some nasty little climbs out there.

nun

The Vermont Gaps and Western MA have some nasty gradients.

cyccommute 

Yep. I once did a mountain bike ride starting in Roxbury up Stoney Brook Road and over to Winch Hill Road. I knew I was in trouble on Stoney Brook when the road looked steeper than the roofs of the houses I was passing. And "Winch Hill" is named that because you need a winch to go up the damned thing.

In Colorado, we go up and over mountains but we can see where we are going and no one in their right mind would draw a straight line up our mountains. Eastern road engineers can't see where they are going...too many trees...and just draw straight lines everywhere

bikemig 

East Burke MTN in VT is a stinker. There are some really tough hills in and around the Hudson river valley in NY. I need to make it up to the driftless region here in the midwest where I live now as I've been told it has some great climbing.

bmike

for sure...!
and then there are some places you can make it across without pavement...

IMG_2143 by mbeganyi, on Flickr

steep, all over by mbeganyi, on Flickr

nun

Off road, up hills, in snow, against a head wind.....doesn't get better (worse) than that. Partly prompted by this thread I went looking for some hills around Boston and came up with the NEBC "Wednesday Night" hill ride. It's 18 miles with 1800ft of climbing and a lot of 10% plus hills. I did it yesterday and the worst bit was a 12% twisty down hill, I don't mind climbing steep stuff, but coming down it sometimes scares me. I was glad of my 34x36 on the final climb up to the Arlington Heights water tower.

NEBC Wednesday Night Hill Ride at Bikely.com

bmike

Sounds like fun. That image of the GPS was taken south of Bloodroot Gap. Telephone Gap maybe? We crossed the greens from Pittsfield to above Chittenden Reservoir. Good fun.

I was running a 2x setup on my Fargo, briefly moved to a 3x setup, then a Krampus became available. I'll be running that 1x10. For bikepacking I'm going to have to get stronger!

I have a TA crank on my IF. Currently running 30-44 up front and 12-36 9spd rear. There are days I miss a perfectly smooth step between gears, but most I'm thankful for what I have setup on the steep stuff.

mdilthey

I also run a compact double in Western mass. The gradients get pretty bad, but my legs got pretty strong to compensate and now I can roll up just about anything. Mt. Greylock comes to mind... Here I'm running a 36T cassette with a 34/50 double, 175mm cranks.



I've since switched to a 34/46 double, and I like the transition much better, though it doesn't affect my low end any.

LateSleeper

When I built up a custom "Colorado century" bike, I put an Ultegra 6700 triple crank on it, a medium-cage ("A") derailleur, and a 12-30 cassette. This is a good solution, but Shimano never made a 6800 triple crank, so folks who want a current group can't use it.

My Specialized Tricross spends much of its time being a gravel bike, but came equipped with a SRAM Apex compact double that left me wanting on the hills, and straddling the "crack" most of the rest of the time. After a lot of research, I finally discovered the Sugino OX601D crankset, which has 74 BCD spacing, a splined crank axle, ramps for good shifting, and can be ordered with whatever rings you need. I decided to go with 14 tooth difference in front instead of 16, which made the Apex front derailleur work way better than with the stock compact crank. For gravel use, I've found 44-30 works well; if I were buying it strictly for on-pavement use, I might have gone for a 46-32.

wheelinthai

+1. I've a Bianchi Volpe with 44-32-22 crankset for my light touring. I'm going to build a "lighter touring" bike with a Chinese carbon cx frame, with rear rack, and 46-30 double crank. For rear cogs, 10 speed 12-32 SRAM will do. I hope to have a bare bike <9kg. I'm a die-hard STI lover. I just want to tour like a roadie some time. I can ride most hills where I live, with 50-34 crankset and 12-27 cogset, on my 7.9kg road bike. So I figure I can get thru with lower gearing and a light load.

nun

Mt. Greylock is on my list of things to do, but it will have to wait until next year. Here's what I do when I want a quick hill work out in Boston's suburbs. I do this with 46/34 and 12/36 gearing.

It starts with the ride up Eastern Ave. to Arlington Heights water tower



Then down Park Ave....this will be the last climb on the way back



There's a couple of little hills along the Park Ave Extension and onto Ridge St and then turn down Hutchinson and go around Winchester golf course



Follow Old Mystic St onto Rt3 briefly and then a hard left onto Arlington St, left onto High Street and eventually onto Girard St and around Mt. Pisgah



Then climb up Johnson Road



Then right when you meet Ridge St again and down Waltham St.



From there I ride up to the junction of 128 and Rt3 and loop back, up Waltham St.....I don't do the loop out around Winchester golf course and Mt Pisgah again as I'm not a masochist,

robow

Well I bit the bullet and finally had a chance to install the new bottom bracket and 46x30 crankset, though with our present weather here in the Midwest, it might only get used on the indoor trainer for a while. Thought I'd try it on my cyclocross bike and get a feel of what a 30x34t is like on some inclines before I tour with it.

bikemig 

I like it; what's the crank? Is that one of the uber expensive sugino 110/74 bcd cranks?

Lt Stonez

How do you like the 46/30 setup? Is it good for touring?

robow

I ended up building up a cyclocross frame with it, which serves as my general purpose road bike and I LOVE it. When riding with friends who have the common compact crankset 50/34, my lower low allows me to scale some pretty steep grades that they sometimes struggle with. I have done some lighter touring in flatter and rolling areas and it has done beautifully. Now would I do fully loaded touring with 30 lbs of gear up mountains, no, I will continue to do that with my triple 46/36/24 but your fitness and willingness to pack ultra light might make it more doable for yourself under those conditions.

MassiveD

I like what they do, and wouldn't mind having it:

ROAD CRANKS ? White Industries

But I have been places, Hurricane Mountain Road in North Conway, where a ski lift would have been handy.

loneviking61

I'm running a 22/44 front, 11/36 back. Lots of mountains where I ride.

antokelly

looks like a big drop from big ring to small any problems with the chain coming off.

edthesped

I have the same Sugino setup and have no issues. Then again I put the Deda Dog fang on all of my bikes.

antokelly

deda dog fang emm never heard of that one
obviously keeping the chain from falling off .

robow

Knock on wood, no issues yet, but of course after revealing this, tomorrow's century ride will see me carry an extra link, a chain tool and rag

edthesped

Works like a champ. The randonee used to dump the chain every once in a while, research led me to the deda, I now put them on all of my bikes as a precaution...

https://www.amazon.com/Deda-Elementi...JAHZWATWKYKACZ

DropBarFan

IGT/belt is the future for touring bikes w/many advantages over derailer vs slight added weight/cost. Folks will no longer worry about range/steps/dirt/compatibility etc.