Originally Posted by
cplager
Hi,
First, congratulations. It looks like you looked at your life, decided parts that weren't working for and changed it. You didn't ask about weight loss advice and I'm not going to give any except to say that it sounds like you are on the right track and worrying about what the scale says isn't useful.
Second, hills suck. Particularly for those of us who are not tiny. The good news is that when we add another 30 pounds of crap to the bike, it is a much smaller percentage change and will hurt our hill climbing less than if you added 30 lbs to somebody who weighted 140 lbs.
I highly recommend lower gearing. You said you have a 44/34/28. Swap the 28T out for a 22T. I run a 48/38/22 front crank and in my case, I need to shift the rear derailleur up a couple gears when dropping into the granny gear, but you may not even need to do that.
Third, it does make a lot of sense to start out with smaller over night tours and see how that goes.
Good luck and keep riding!
Charles
I agree with all of that . . Also I have a plan to just use my home as a a base and leave and return to the house for a weeks worth of riding . . . I went to Ride With GPS and made routes . . . I have a tent so i will pack out every morning and return to set up camp in the front yard . . . It will give me a test of all the equipment and packing procedures . . without the expense of camping or motels. . I am at 260 lbs and me, bike and gear is at about 350 lbs I have a 28/34 that is good for a short distance of 6%grade
I suggest to get as low a gear as the derailleur will handle and good choice on the wheels