Originally Posted by
cyclistjohn
I suspect a front mech' wouldn't cope easily with the rather large jump from small to big ring, so I'll stick to manual, unless anyone has any bright ideas?
Front mechs can cope with a wider range than you think, if you are mechanically sympathetic as you change gears. After all, wide range double cranksets (e.g. 46 & 28t chainrings) used to be seen fairly often on touring bikes, as were half-step + granny set-ups with 20t jumps between small and middle chainrings.