play with this gearing calcualtor to get an idea of how low you'll need to go...
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/
you can always goto a wider cassette... in 8spd you can get a 11-28, 11-32 or a 11-34 (megarange YUCK)... you can also go to smaller rings on your crank (or a 22-32-44 mtb crank)
lots of ways of doing it but it all depends on how much you want to spend and what works with what you have...
as a side note... i have an 11-28 cassette on my roadie... even with the '92 era suntour roadie rear D it ran it happily... prob could have gone wider but prefer narrower cassettes for cadance reasons... had to goto an old mtb rear D i had laying around when I went to a triple up front.
good luck and enjoy that ride of yours
