Originally Posted by
Bostic
These doubles are also all close so I would not have to spend much on the traveling/lodging side. I have the triple on the steel bike and combined with a 12-29 cassette should be enough to welcome Sierra road at mile 150. I could always swap the 30t granny with a 28t for even lower gears.
Uh, oh - if Ramon's talking triple with a 28 small chain ring, I should probably just not do this.
I've hit Sierra road about 65 miles into a tough ride (started in Livermore, down Mines/San Antonio Valley and over Mt. Hamilton - basically the 2nd half of the Devil Mountain Double) a few times - I spun up with a 30/27 combo that was plenty of gearing, even for me. That's already pretty close to what you're talking about (although a 28/29 combo - less than 1/1?). I don't think that climb would have been any easier with different gearing, even though a few folks on the ride had mountain bike gearing - it took them forever to climb that road!
JB
edit - I think the Terrible Two has a couple of climbs that may be even tougher than Sierra - that one from Fort Ross, for one - maybe not as long, but just as steep. The Gualala Wall (spelling?) is really steep, too, but not very long. I had pretty fresh legs when I hit those climbs - on the Terrible Two, half the ride is already over when the real torture begins. The triple crown website has climbing profiles of most of the tough climbs on these rides.
http://www.caltriplecrown.com/