I picked up a vintage bike from a shop this week: Novara Strada, steel frame, downtube indexed / friction shifters, double chainring bike. I think it's 80s era, looks like it was an entry-level road bike, e.g. there are no braze-ons for racks on the seatstays. It rides very well, so I'm guessing it sat in someone's basement for a few years. My main purpose for this bike is for long distance rides (i.e. centuries, ultras), so I think the steel will work out very well.

I noticed that the gearing is kind of high: 52 -42T "Biopace" chainrings, looks like a 12-28 in the back. By my calculations, that's a gear inch range of 40" - 112". I usually run closer to 30" on the low end, but that's with a hybrid bike with very wide tires. So far I don't mind the Biopace, although obviously I haven't put many miles on it.

Also, the tires are mixed -- 700c 25 in front, 700c 28 in back.

So, here we go with the questions....

1) What are my options for lowering the gearing, if it turns out that is necessary?
2) Would replacing the Biopace chainrings require swapping out the cranks as well?
3) Is mixing the tires per this setup a good plan, bad plan, not important?
4) Will going up hills with a 40" low gear make me, like, macho?

Thanks....
B