Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 18,134
Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB
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In my book the lowest gearing generally wins when touring, but I tend to ride through hilly areas out of choice. Next up is how many and how close together are the mid range gears. How high ended the gears are is never (and I don't like absolutes) a concern of mine. (I think the fastest I've gone with a touring load on is in the upper 40's and that was coasting...)
x3 hits these points better than a wide range x2. Shifting the front isn't an issue for me so a x3 works well for my abilities. Were I to not want to shift the front much I just don't and use the middle or large rings wind direction dependent (as this would pretty much only be on flat sections).
All my drop bar bikes (well, excepting the one IGH equipped one) have 46/36/26 or 44/34/24 cranks with 11-34 or 36 cog sets. And I use the pointy hooded Campy Ergo levers with a Shift Mate. Not mentioned are the brakes and how the levers interact. I run dual pivot calipers or cantis, which play nice with the Ergo cable pull amounts. Andy
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AndrewRStewart