Originally Posted by
ColonelSanders
The higher/bigger number of teeth on the cassette, plus the less/smaller the number of teeth on your crank.
So the Giant 3 & 2 have the same number of teeth on the crankset, 28/38/48, but on the cassette, the Giant 3's teeth go from 14 to 34, whereas the Giant 2's cassette goes from 11 to 32.
So for tackling hills you have the following ratio's :
Giant 3 - 0.8235 (28/34)
Giant 2 - 0.875 (28/32)
With the above, the lower the ratio number, the better for hill climbing. Admittedly the difference above is not that big.
The reverse applies to ratio's for gaining speed downhill or even on flat ground.
Giant 3 - 3.4285 (48/14)
Giant 2 - 4.3636 (48/11)
It is likely that you will encounter occasions where your speed downhill/flatish ground is limited by your gearing on the Giant 3(although you will still be going at a fast speed), but you probably won't encounter that on the Giant 2.
One other question, now that my search has extended into the release of some of the Trek FX 2015 models. I am curious as to your opinion on how the Escape 2 compares to the Trek 7.2 FX 2014. The components of the 2015 Trek 7.2 FX do not appear as good as the 2014's, but the price on the 2014 has now come down to around $479. Many have expressed great satisfaction with this bike and I am beginning to think that if I am considering the price of the Escape 2 now, perhaps I should just push my limit a bit for the 7.2 FX 2014 if I can still find it.