I currently have a Sirrus hybrid for daily rides on paved trail near by. I thought about adding a vintage road bike since I prefer drop handle bars but the gearing of most road bikes is not to my liking since the trail is almost all up and down. I use the two lowest gears to get up the hills.

My current bike has 48/32 with 11-34.


The Lemond I was planning to buy is 53/39 12-26, I've seen triple ring variants 52/42/30. I dislike triples but I was reading a ****** thread that made sense to use the two lower front rings. There are lower geared Shram PG-950 cassettes 11-34t & 11-32t but people have pointed out the derailleur probably can't handle that high of teeth count. Then you have to change the derailleur to one with the same pull or also change the shifters and gets complicated and expensive at that point which brings back to the triple chain ring to simplify things.