Biker395,
As usual, another enjoyable post from you. The pics you post are always great.
Good for friend Molly toughing it out! You say you swapped bikes so she could experience lower gears. Makes me curious, what gears was she pushing compared to yours.
Have a great day,
BKE
I have an older Shimano triple. My lowest gear is 30 in front and 28 in back.
She has a compact double and what she thought was a 28 in back. Most folks I know doing a lot of mountain climbing with compact doubles are using cassettes with 34 or 36 tooth cogs. She's got a long cage derailleur, so it would be easy to hook her up with some lower gears.
She liked the triple, BTW.