Originally Posted by rykoala

I am building a commuter based on an old Nishiki MTB, but want to do long distance cycling in the future when I get back in shape. I used to commute every day but since I got hurt (herniated disk) I have stopped riding. So I've given up fixed gear riding for now in favor of a 3x7 set up. I'm matching two cassettes together for the 7spd cassette I want. For chainrings I am using triple cranks and have the options of 52/48/40/38/28. I have cogs from 12-32, but plan on doing 32/13, or maybe 13/28.

I have done some reading and I think that 52/48/28 would work well, as the granny is just a bail out gear anyway. The half step gearing might give me a better way to fine tune cadence. Sheldon said that people think it looks good on paper but in practice is a pain in the butt. Is there any reason that half step gearing wouldn't work well?

I could also do 52/40/28, 52/38/28, etc etc.

I've probably worn out the gear calc on Sheldon's site and so It has generated one serious question:

Has it been anyones practical experience that getting up a monster hill or pass that having a 20" gear over the 30" gear you have would make that much of a difference?

I can't quite decide how I want to put the gearing together. I can go as low as 22.5" with 28/32. Do I really need to? I've contemplated replacing the 28 with a 24, I could get down to about 18". Is that too low?

Thanks for the insight.