Originally Posted by
madsen
Well a little more info about me and the bike.It is a 7 speed free wheel and it has a Shimano LX crankset and I think it is a mountain bike model. My only other experience touring was about 8 years ago on an AIDS Vaccine Ride across Montana. It was fully supported and even though I had trained a lot of miles I had to walk the bike most of the long hills which caused ankle swelling and lots of pain.I rode all but 6 of the 540 miles in 7 days but I do not want to walk any miles on this tour.I only missed the 6 miles because I ran out of tubes and patches and it was over 100 degrees and I was not thinking clearly at that point.
I choose the 18 gear inches cause I have struggled with this bike up steep hills on early training rides so far this spring. The 100 gear inches was just a number.I have had the whole bike apart and new bearings and grease as I have a new neighbor who is an expert bike mechanic and really likes to help out and relaxes by working on bikes. Thanks for the responses so far. Feel free to ask more questions.
Again thanks for the responses as the more discussion that happens the more I think and learn.
JOHN
my old touring bike has a LX Mountain crankset on it, and that bike is from I think 1990. There are 5 bolts on the crank and I have the specs written down somewhere of the size of the crank (distance between bolts), and as mentioned, it took a 24 tooth granny (very cheap to buy, if this is still possible, but I would think you could with some research and asking at a good store)
With a 30 tooth freewheel, and the 24 granny, with 700 wheels and 28 tires, I got the gearing down from the original 25 gear inches or so (with the original 28 tooth granny) down to 21.5 or something like that, which for me was low enough for having 40 lbs or so on the bike and doing lots of hills.
Getting it lower, to somewhere near your 18 number, would be great, but as you say you had problems on hills on a fully supported trip (I assume then, no baggage on bike) you must realize that a crapload of stuff on a bike really ups the effort doing hills, so lower gearing will be a must.
Others may know of the availability of 7n speed freewheels, I dont. I would ask your neighbor to do some researching for you, and/or putting on a true mountain crank that could allow you a 22 tooth granny (a standard mtn bike crank often has 42/32/22 and would be a help to you.)