I'm wondering what you tourists think about my possible or likely gearing for a long, solo tour I'm thinking of doing this Summer.

I own a 36 y. o. Raleigh "Supercourse" touring bicycle. It only has a double chainring and due to its age, I found out that the bb might be wrecked if I try to put in a new bb so that I could have a triple chainring. [Long ago Raleigh used its own unique threading which is a bit different from standard British threading. My bicycle has that unique threading so changing certain components is impossible or not easy.]

I used this Raleigh on a very long tour many years ago. For that tour (in the US and Canadian Rockies) I had a Suntour, 6 sprocket freewheel made: 14-19-20-21-28-34T. The double chainrings in that tour were: 40-52T. I got by OK with this arrangement in the Rockies, but I was much younger then, long ago.

I recently checked with Sheldon Brown (who knows a good deal about old Raleighs) about this planned tour. He, knowing my age from my email message, thought I should forget about a triple chainring and instead keep the double chainrings making them 33-52T. [I'd probably favor 34-52T.] I didn't mention to Sheldon that I'd have front and rear panniers and that I'd be traveling from east to west across southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta heading to Canada's Waterton Lakes Nat'l Park and to Glacier Nat'l Park in Montana. I mention the direction of travel because I wonder how often and how strong headwinds could be in southern Canada in Summer.

Since that old 14 to 34T Suntour freewheel is still in excellent shape (I took it off after the long-ago tour), I'd like to use it and change my Sugino GT double chainring (presently 42-52T) to 34-52T.

I'd certainly test in varied local terrain the proposed gearing and my pannier-loaded bicycle before I ever set out for this tour. I suppose that without headwinds and in order to make some progress, I'd have to be riding often in the big chainring. I'd be interested in your comments and ideas about my plan. [Also, should any changes be made in the Suntour freewheel?]

[I made a gearing chart but I can't get it to appear helpful here--> in the "Preview Post" feature, I see that the numbers get all pushed together for some reason.]

Headwinds will definitely be an issue. I did a tour that ran through northern michigan, north dakota, minnesota, montana, etc... and I ran through waterton and glacier as well, going from east to west. But I don't think you'll have to worry about your gearing in relation to the headwinds. As brutal as it can be riding into a stiff wind all day, you'll never end up getting down into your lowest gearing, even if you keep the forty tooth front chain ring. Climbing the going to the sun highway will probably be the most challenging part of the trip, where you will need the granny gear.

if there are going to be steep hills, and you are going to be fully loaded, then I think you might want something a bit more granny-ish.

do you really need the 52? maybe go for a 33/46 or something like that if youre keeping the double.? (if its even possible)

Phil wood makes raleigh-threaded rings to hold their BB cartridge in place, so a triple is still possible (though not cheap).

the one thing about the wind in the west (haveing grown up in montana) normally it comes in strongest during the hottest part of the day say between noon and 6 pm... so if you can ride most of your distance in the morning.. you may not have to much problem with winds..

+1 on the 46/33. it should be no trouble to setup, althought the front derailleur/46 ring gap might end up a bit larger than usual. It will give you a range from 89" to 26" which should be ok for loaded touring.