Originally Posted by
NoControl
I've been a busy bee lately - well, all summer long. Consequently, there's been no touring, and not a lot of riding. The Troll frame that I purchased back in June has been gathering dust, and only recently have I found a few brief windows of time to build the wheels and get the build going.
I have a 36/24 crankset, and an 11/40 cassette. Using Sheldon's calculator, that gives me an 84.3 high and a 15.5 low. My question is this: Is 84.3 high enough? Obviously I could pull stumps with the 15.5, but since these are 26" wheels, do any of you think I need more?
Only you can tell if your gearing is high enough. Personally, I find a high gear that low to be frustrating. Your high is similar to old mountain bike gearing with a 44 tooth chainwheel and a 13 tooth cog. I always found that I was running out of gears and having to speed too much time coasting.
I currently have a gearing that has a range of 711%...take that ya IGH yahoos!
Here's a comparison of your gearing to my road gearing. You can see that your gears run out just over 20 mph at 90 rpm. Mine run out at a bit over 30 mph. Having a higher high gear has some benefits. On short downhills, I can get more speed up which carries me further up the inevitable uphill.
Here's a comparison to my off-road touring gearing. I still find the higher (but lower then the road bike) gearing to be useful. Riding on trails is different from off-road touring. While you might never run across pavement on single track, off-road touring can involve a fair amount of pavement. Having the higher gear comes in handy for the same reasons as it does for road touring.
On long downhills, I can pedal and keep my legs moving without feeling like I'm going to bounce off my saddle for longer. Colorado can have some epic downhills that last for 7 or 8 miles or more. Being able to spin your legs helps keep them a least a little fresh. Coasting for long periods can leave your legs feeling leaden when you have to start climbing again.