Originally Posted by
bud16415
We have those like pacificcyclist, nun with doubles of some type with gearing such as 42, 24
I have one bike with 42/26 x 11/34 and another bike with 46/34 x 12/25
Everyone seems to agree a 22 or 24 tooth granny is what is needed and they will give you a usable range of low gears 17 to 35 GI about without cross chaining so there is no question that small ring is needed no matter what the other ring s are.
Many will agree with the idea of needing gearing around 20" to tour.......I don't. I am not a particularly strong cyclist and I've happily toured without a small granny gear doing some reasonable climbs in Yorkshire, the Berkshires Hills and New Hampshire. So from my own experience it's perfectly possible to tour with a smallest gear in the high 30"s.