Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
Man that's some climb!
For lower than 34, I'll need a different crank than 110 BCD; Sure hope I can find a 2-piece hollow spindle one, because I love that setup. But I don't want a lower high gear than 50-11-406 so 85 gear inches, I need that as a minimum high. A tourer of renown needed to go down to about same as you, 15 gear inches IIRC, after some loaded tours where he was up around 20 and that wasn't low enough. But 50/30, and going bigger on the low cog from 30T to 34 or 36, should get me there. Others have said that 20T jump is doable. If I get a freehub that will do a 10T high cog, I could probably go down to a 44/24.
There is a fairly affordable crank sold in Japan called the Dixna La Crank that is a hollow spindle and with 110/74 bcd and also comes with 130-170mm crank arm length in either 5 or 2.5 mm increments.
There is a Japanese exporter that sells it but you can find it cheaper if you buy it in Japan on rakuten or Mercari for 20,000 jpy
It's probably an import from somewhere in Asia so I don't know how good is the quality. I am using sugino.
A reviewer says the q factor is actually 150mm.
But I cheat with my sugino to get more spline engagement by using the Shimano MTB BB cups instead of the road cups because they're 1 mm thinner on each side, but I have to use a road sleeve in between and shave one end of it. Reduces the q factor by 2 mm and gives me some tolerance to shim the drive side to adjust the chain line if needed since the outer chain ring is mounted on the inner face of the spider.
