Originally Posted by
staehpj1
On the other hand he may be happy with the stock gearing. Now and then I meet someone doing long mileage on gearing like that or even higher who are puzzled by why folks need lower gearing. I remember a guy in camp on the Pacific coast. Folks were talking about gearing and how steep the climbs were. He had just ridden form Chicago on a bike with a double and standard road gearing doing long mileage. He said he didn't get the complaining since everyone else in camp "had triples". He seemed genuinely puzzled.
It can be done. When I was 30 years old, and in racing shape, I covered 854 miles in 8 days with a medium load. I was on a Peugeot PX10 with a 52/45 crank and a 14/24 freewheel. The ride was from the Canadian border in northern Idaho to southern Oregon and it was not flat. It wasn't a problem. My longest day was 135 miles. It is type 2 fun, and I'm not sure 13 year old kids are into that yet
Pete, this is almost the driveline changes you used as an example. This is one of my wife's road bikes set up with a 46/36/24 Sugino XD 600 crankset, 11-34 cassette, and a LX mtn derailleur. It works well with her STI shifters. It is a hill climbing machine!
