Sometimes a different position really helps me with carrying a load. For light fast riding I can go a little higher and more forward on the saddle. With a load, just a little lower and further back seems to let me carry through the dead spots better. Makes so much more difference going up hill. Mostly the lowest gears get through the dead spots - rarely much of a problem in the high-torque zone!

And to think I used to tour on a 42x28. Must have been younger.

Another "trick" I used to use was to go extremely light. Light everything. I still do for backpacking. My daughter and I weighed our packs for our last trip. 32 lbs. Combined weight. Including a day's worth of water. Worth investigating ultralight. I rarely toured with more than 20 lbs load including a day's food. 33 lbs has to be a killer. It's not just pushing it forward, it's balancing that up hills.

On gearing, rarely need the really high gears. I'm with a 30-42-52 x 12-28 at the moment. I don't need a 52-12! The only advantage, other than that I had the triple hanging around, is that I grew up with 42 x 52 and 14 - 28, so the intervals are quite familiar. That's absolutely the only advantage!! I think about changing it, but that would be work.

FreeMti, would you mind updating us on how you like the setup? I'm thinking of doing the same. Thanks!

I assume you're talking about the "touring double" setup I rigged up on my bike. You can read the details of my trip here But the bottom line was that a 34-34 granny gear was low enough for 85% of my trip. But there was a significant amount of unavoidable (or didn't want to avoid) hills where I sorely would of liked a few lower gears. I ended up pushing my bike up quite a few hills.

If I do it again (I have a trip from Montreal to NYC for next spring) I may go the extra mile and put a proper triple on, but whether or not I actually do would depend on the topology of my planned trip. Anything with only occasional hill work and/or low grades I wouldn't bother, however any trips across Pennsylvania would probably mandate a "triple-ectomy"

On the point of how did the basic mechanics hold up over ~1000 miles - the grade was a B-. A bit clunky on the gear changes and I got a serious chain jam (possibly not related to the work I did - but I doubt it) that entailed a visit to Bike shop for fixing mainly because of my lack of 'how to fix your front derailleur' training.