Thanks, Tyrion. I bought a used recumbent about a year ago because they looked like fun to ride and I needed someway to get some exercise. I have a good friend that I go motorcycle touring with who is also an avid bicycle tourer. We have some pretty good hills locally and I was *****ing about how hard it was to push the recumbent up a long grade. He dug around in his garage and came up with a 24t inner ring that bolted right on to my bike to replace a 30t ring. It made a nice difference in combination with the biggest 34t rear cog.


I'm not at all knowledgeable about gear ratios as many here seem to be. I considered getting a smaller inner ring but it didn't seem to me that it would make as big a difference as getting a bigger cog in the back. However, considering your input and the replies from DJB, I decided to try the 22t ring. It will be a cheap experiment and I will be overjoyed if that's all it takes to make it possible to haul me and my gear over the mountains on my Troll.