joelh

Bear with me, I haven't ridden since college (20+ yrs) and have forgotten most of what I knew of bikes. I just bought a 10 year old cannondale m200 and it really seem to suit what I want to do. Light around town errands and recreational riding. My only problem so far is that I don't seem to have a high enough gear for even mild downhill stretches. My largest front ring is 38 teeth and my smallest back ring is 11. I can't seem to keep my pedaling up with the bike speed downhill at all. Is there an easy ( cheap ) fix? Thanks

tuolumne

Do you have 2 or three rings in the front right now? 38 teeth is pretty small; depending on what's already there you can either add a ring or swap a few. These can be found fairly cheap.

Velo Dog

Did it come stock with a 38 big ring? That's really small...I wonder if you're missing the original, somewhere around 46 or 48 teeth. It could have been damaged on a bike that old, and a seller might have removed it. A replacement ring shouldn't cost more than about $25 (you CAN spend a lot more, but for that bike, there's no reason to).
If not, assuming it's a standard bolt circle, a larger ring would be a straight bolt-on, a two-minute swap, but you might have to replace the chain as well, if the old one's too short. Any bike shop can advise you.

joelh

The crankset is a shimano altus. It has 3 rings. I don't really see any chainring bolts. The crank arm is connected with a large hex nut and the base of the crank appears to be hiding the bolts. I think I will take the crank off and look at the bolt hole pattern. The teeth show a lot of wear, so I may be better off replacing the entire crankset. I notice some low price shimano sets that may work.