Originally Posted by
countrydirt
Well, adjusting to retirement, having my out of town sons visit for a couple of weeks and moving into a new house sort of put the extended touring plan on hold until 2023. But, I'm working with the owner and a great mechanic at the LBS and we are changing out the front crank to a 44-32-22 on the 520. She'll be walking me through it step by step and I'll be doing the work in their shop. Now that summer is over (kids back to school, festivals and fairs done) things are relatively quiet there, so they have time and patience to deal with me.
In the meantime, I'm riding a lot of single track, volunteering with a local legal organization and playing the guitar and mandolin more than I have in years.
That's awfully nice of them to do that for \with you. It will be a great learning experience, and you'll see, it's pretty easy to pick up.
When you ride this bike loaded with this setup, you're going to find it to be very useful and particularly suited to a heavy bike.