My road bike came with 52/42 chainrings and a 13-26 freewheel. The cheapest approach I found to get more acceptable gearing for the hills around here was going to a 38 chainring, and 13-32 freewheel, which required a new rear derailler. This cost me about $45 total to do. It dropped the gear inches from 42.6" in 42x26 to 31.3" in 38x32, a very noticeable difference. Since I have an old Suntour setup I had to go to friction shifting, but thats fine.