Re your ultegra FD , on this forum there is a fellow named barretsv and it from him that I saw it worked well to go to a 26t granny. His bikes have ultegra I'm fairly certain, and it worked fine for him. Can't vouch for a 24t but the diff that the top tooth is lower than a 26t must be very little.
Re your bike and you. The Jake the snake is a nice bike , and probably weighs under 30lbs, so that means you must weigh over 100lbs more than me--so in other words, go with the granny and cassette that works for you, and not what anyone else says.
Hey djb,
Just eyeballing my clearance, looks like there's plenty of space to go down to even 24t. This clearance is eyeballed on a 30t right now. Not sure what I'll end up with, really just needed to know what my options are.
In regards to the Kona, I'm really happy with the handling and feel of the bike. I haven't done any camping with it yet, but I like that to be shooting for a light and minimal setup. The poor thing will be handling me all time! And at ~260#, I feel for her! BTW, the bike weight is 21.5# which aint bad! That's without any additional paraphernalia and with pedals.