Originally Posted by
saddlesores
depends on the rider's fitness, terrain, amount of gear, etc. i'd recommend
switching out the crank......22/32/44. (or change the rings, whatever
is cheaper...)
that's what i've got now, and honestly
i've only used the big ring maybe a half dozen times in the last 50,000 miles
of touring. (just haven't found a 40T to replace it with yet.) that 22 gets a
lot of use. my current crank.....i've now worn out and replaced the middle
ring twice and the inner ring once. other than scratches, the big ring is
almost like new.
i don't think 48/36/26 11-34 is reasonable on a touring bike.....the gears just aren't
conducive for riding a loaded touring bike outside of florida. the marketers
are pushing higher-geared gravel bikes. no reason to buy into the hype and
just "get used to it." i don't see the attraction in pushing a bike up a
30-km long hill.
Indeed, I am recovering from a very serious motorcycle collision that occurred less than 4 months ago. My left leg was broken, and both knees have numerous torn and stretched ligaments. I need to be very careful and precise about what gear I'm in and how much pressure is being placed on my knees. Since this happened to me I've chosen to give up motorcycling for good, and I've replaced it with bicycling instead.
So I'm new to serious bicycling, and bicycle touring specifically. I've been researching and learning a lot. I got a great deal on this bike, and overall I really like it, but it's going to need a few tweaks to match my body better. In-spite of re-breaking my collar-bone a few days ago, I decided to take the bike out on it's first ride yesterday, and I absolutely loved it. I'm so used to extreme pain I hardly notice the pain anymore, so I just keep on going.
Keeping in mind these injuries, and those are only a few of many more I'm dealing with, and that I rode out on some decent grades on dirt, sand, and rocks along the hills on the beach, I got a pretty good feel for this bike and it's gearing. I rode for around 5 hours straight over this kind of terrain. I learned a lot over the course of just that first ride.
The first thing I realized, and much to my surprise was how much more I love riding off-road than on. I'll take dirt, sand, and rocks over a paved road every-time now, and I never thought I'd say such a thing. This was a huge revelation to me about myself. The next thing I learned, was that for me, this stock gearing is a no go. I found that all three front chain-rings were a size too tall for me overall, and this is what led to make this post.
What you've shared here really jives with what I'm experiencing and the change I think I need to make. Keeping in mind that I haven't even had the chance to ride fully loaded yet, and I'm sure that will only make the need to lower the overall gearing that much more evident. So I think I'll go ahead and order up that lower geared Deore Crankset "44-32-22". I would have also considered something like 46-34-22, but I see no practical way to do that.