Originally Posted by Rowan
As someone whose home country is Australia, I think you should go the MTB triple. Your road triple might build character, but it could bust your knees.
One thing I like about Aussies is that they've their heads on straight.
Originally Posted by Rowan
My feeling is the 24-36-48 with a 32-11 cogset might be the best for your parameters, rather than the super-low 22-32-44 with 34-11 or 32-11.
I like the 48 and only wish that there was a 13-32 9-speed that was readily available. In my opinion you cannot really tour without a 24 ring.
Originally Posted by Rowan
I note that you are touring with your partner. Just bear this in mind... speed is not everything when touring. And you haven't mentioned a word about what set-up she might run with, which I think might be a good thing to bring into the equation, because your lower gear range might equalise the speed differences between you (unless she already whips ya butt!
)
Of course I've only toured where there's a reasonable amount of climbing, but endurance has always been my goal and only enough speed to make it in at a reasonable hour. I prefer to trade distance for speed since what you speed past you've never seen. Nevertheless I average over 12 mph most of the time and I consider that pretty good on a fully loaded touring bike.