Originally Posted by
spinnaker
Didn't want to steal the other thread on gearing so I figured I would start my own.
I am looking at the Jamis Aurora.
http://www.myjamis.com/SSP%20Applica...cat_grp=road_9
Looks like a lot of bike for a decent price.
I am not a good hill climber. And I am not getting any younger.
My current tourer is a road bike that I have fitted with a 24T granny and 11-32 cassette. It does me fairly well though there are times when I wish I had something a little lower.
The granny on the Jamis is 26T which I want the LBS to swap out. I might also ask them to swap out the 11-28 cassette for an 11-32 or should I go to an 11-34?
Will those stock deraillers handle that range?
Any thoughts on the stock crank itself?
The FSA Alpha Drive is a 104/64 BCD which means it can take an inner ring as low as 20 teeth (you can find them on Fleabay and Amazon). Although I'm a proponent of going as low as possible, a 20/28 would be lower than a 26/28 by about 3 gear inchs (19 gi vs 22 gi). I would suggest getting a 9 speed mountain bike rear derailer to make life easier and you can get a 20/34 (16 gi) low unless you wanted to go really silly and get a 36 tooth low but even I think that's absurd
