Thanks for your comments. It's pretty much the way I was thinking. What do you think of the Ultegra, front and rear, with 11-34 cassette?
I know CO-Mo offers an Ultegra package, but full Ultegra is not optimum for touring. The Ultegra front crank is only available in 52/39/30, and with even the Ultegra long cage rear derailleur, it wont handle a rear cassette with a large cog of greater 27 teeth very well. However some folks have managed to use cassettes with a 30 tooth cog. For me, that set up defeats the purpose of using Ultegra gear. I like smooth crisp shifting.
Correction: Co-Motion specs out an Ultegra 11-32 rear cassette.
You can use an 11-34 rear cassette in combination with a Shimano LX or or Deore rear derailleur. It will work very well with Ultegra shifters. Even with the 52/39/30 crankset it provides a little better gearing for touring. One of my wife's road bikes is set up this way, and it works well. Due to a bad knee, she is a spinner not a masher, and the lower gearing works for her. A "trekking" crankset, usually having a 48/36/26 or 24 chainrings will also work well without the chainline issues associated with using a true mountain crankset. While some folks view the square taper bottom bracket as obsolete, it offers a wide range of sizes not found in the external and splined bottom brackets. A good LBS or can put the appropriate bottom bracket and a crank like the Sugino XD 600. While it does not have the bling of Ultegra, it is nicely finished, and more importantly, works well. I have my hill climbing/commuter road bike set up this way.
http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...0&category=526
We are lucky enough to live about 45 minutes from the Co-Motion shop. I was in there a lot when they were building my wife's frame. It is a 47 cm frame which required quite a bit of collaboration and measuring to get things in the right spots to allow me to use mountain bike cranks, and have the derailleur hanger not hit the water bottle cage mounts. They are great folks to work with and may be able to help you come up with a lower useful range of gears right from their shop.
This is my commuter/winter bike set up using the same concept. The difference here is that it is an 8 speed, and it has the plain Deore rear derailleur. I also have a 24 tooth chainring that will fit this crank. I actually like riding this bike rather than my "good" road bike. The reason is the combination of fit and gearing.
