kingston 

Thanks. It's not very hilly where I live so the range on the 3 speed is fine. I've settled in on 34/20 gearing which gives me 35/46/62 Gear Inches. 3rd gear is my cruising gear and the other two are for climbing the small hills we have on the North Shore of Chicago. 35" is about the same as the 34/25 low gear I have on my road bike which will get me up anything I have encountered in the Midwest. Moving the range up or down is as easy as swapping out the sprocket.


The drum brakes are perfectly adequate for the way I use the bike. I don't ride very fast or aggressively so emergency stops aren't really an issue, and the brakes work fine for normal stops. My other winter bike has cantilevers which don't work at all when they ice up, so drums are a definite improvement over that. I went with drums instead of disks because I think they will be lower maintenance. I have BB7's on my touring bike and I am always fiddling with them to keep them from squealing.