Originally Posted by
surfperch
Extremely hilly. I live/commute in the foothills area of Mission Viejo and Foothill Ranch, Ca. Some of the hills are borderline ridiculous in how steep they are. I also commute with a load of some kind. Either Carradice filled with work essentials, lunch, and snacks...or a trailer + daughter.
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The gearing issue is a tricky one that I don't have an easy answer for. The Deore crankset is offered in 48-36-26 which gives a little higher gearing.
Yes, gearing can be tricky. What size gears do you expect to use most?
I'm about to replace my stock CC crank with the 48-36-26 Deore set, as I, too, need a granny for hills & kid trailers (it's not too hilly here, but my kid really dislikes the bike & trailer lunging forward with each downstroke when going uphill in a too-high gear). With the 48-36-26 crankset and 11-34 cassette, I expect to spend most of my time in the middle ring and the 5th and 6th cogs; with a 44-32-22 I'd spend most of my time in middle/6-7 or large/4-5, neither of which has a nice chainline. I like to gear my bikes so that I'll rarely need the smallest rear cogs since smaller cogs wear out faster.
Note that Shimano's techdocs Safety Information sheets say you should expect the chain to rub the FD cage or large chainring(!) if you use the middle chainring with either of the two smallest rear cogs.
-Peter