Before anything, you should determine what gear range you need, how to calculate it using the gear-calculator programs online. This measurement will be independent of wheel size, but will vary with the wheel size, the program will take that into account. I think in "gear-inches", but the other units are fine too, you just need something for apples-to-apples comparisons.
For example, my 1X folder with 20"/406 wheels lowest gear was about 33 gear inches, and I needed about 21 G.I. for the hills here. I would have liked 3X gearing but that wouldn't package on the folder, so I went with 2X, with a 50/34 hollow spindle crank with external bearings (LOVE it, many benefits), and that gives me a range of 21-85 gear inches, about 400% range. 85 G.I. is just enough to pedal down mild grades, I don't need higher, I'll just coast.
You need to determine your needed lowest and highest gears. Then you can see what components will work. With your bigger wheels than me, high gear won't be a problem; Getting the lowest gear you need will be the primary issue; You can get it with a big pie-plate low cog on a 1X cassette (limitation will be the rear derailleur, standard ones are max 34T cog and these cassettes and derailleurs are dirt cheap to buy, but newer 1X RDs can handle a much larger low cog and total cassette range), or a granny low on a triple crank.
To find your needed gear range, find the lowest gear you need on your bike, then enter the tire size, chainring teeth, and cog teeth into gear calc, and it will provide your gear inches or metric units. do the same with your needed highest gear. Once done...
Now, using gear calc, you can play with specs for chainrings and cogs, to look at all the possibilities, at your fingertipes, in seconds, to figure out what you need. The gear calc program on Sheldon Brown website is fairly simple. The one on gear-calculator.com is more sophisticated, with a graphical interface, you can slide the chainrings and cogs along a scale, to change results quicker and easier.
So go get your data on needed gearing, then we can look at options.
Last edited by Duragrouch; 04-26-26 at 04:15 AM.