Cassette vs. crank swap to lower gearing
So at some point this summer (a long way away, I know) I'm planning on doing a 1500+ km tour in Eastern Canada, and while I'll likely try and travel reasonably light, I'm a bit concerned that the gearing on my bike (a Jamis Coda Sport) will probably be a bit too high. The crankset's 50/39/30, and the cassette is 11-32.
Basically, I'm hoping I can get away with using one of Shimano's new 12-36 tooth cassettes, which would give me just under 23 gear inches in my lowest gear, compared to about 26 now. That's significantly cheaper than getting a new crankset (48/36/26) and BB (pretty sure the current one is proprietary to the cranks), especially since I'd probably need to get a new front derailleur, since the current one I've got has a 20T capacity. Both of those options would give me a similar low-low and high-high (a few more gear inches with 48x11 than 50x12, but I almost never max out, anyway).
Anyone see any fatal flaw in taking the cheap cassette-swap route?
Last edited by Turbofrog; 11-10-09 at 10:51 PM.