Originally Posted by
wphamilton
Just shift down to the 21 or 24 when you shift to the big ring. There's no good reason to change the crank rings.
You have a really wide range in the sprockets, 11-32. It would probably be more efficient and convenient for you to tighten that range up and keep the triple as it is. Also cheaper.
I have to agree with this too. With that range you should be able to tour just about anywhere and do it without exploding. I would be more worried about knee injury if you are mashing the big gear too much.
Since you are riding on mostly flat terrain, I think it would be wise to start slowly training your legs and body how to spin on the 48T. I guess if you really wanted to, you could get 46T if you feel you're still mashing on the biggun. But I think you will eventually train out of that and be putting the 48 back on. This would be more dependent on personal ability, and how your knees feel after spinning the big gear. If there is any pain in your knees, then you may want to gear the big one down.