Originally Posted by
motobecane69
go 22/34/44 up until 2 days ago I was gonna go 48/36/26 but then i ran sheldon browns gear calculator and saw that a 42/11 gear still cranks out 30mph at 100rpm ( i have a high cadence) thats plenty fast and going down hills you will go much faster than that just coasting. Your main concern should be getting up big hills loaded up.
I'm relatively fit and use a 26/38/48 crank with an 11-28 cassette for "credit card" tours. For me that means around 15-20lbs of stuff (camera, phone, cool weather gear, change of clothes, spare parts, mini U-lock, etc). The 26/38/48 makes multiple steep climbs per day possible, if not easy. For loaded touring, where I would expect gear weight to double or triple, I wouldn't consider anything other than a 22/32/44 crank and an 11-32 or 11-34 cassette. Even on a relatively flat tour, the lower gearing can be an asset (ex: riding into headwinds).