Mtb gears for touring.
 

Hi guys and girls.
Ive been super lightweight single speed touring for a few years, but now my wonderful girlfriend wants to come with me.
This will mean taking a tent and more comforts, clean clothing etc. So generally more weight and probably the majority of it for 2 people.
The time has come for a bike with gears! I have decided that i want mtb style shifters and shimano for the ease of finding spare parts if needed.
But what groupset are recomended what is a good starting ratio?
Where to find a good deal?
My legs are strong but my girlfriends are not so we need advice for 2 different setups.

The 22,32 44 or 42 T triple is a common choice .. a bike shop is a good deal if you have no tools and no Idea of how to put them in and adjust the shifting . etc.

If you are on a budget (who isn't?), the easiest way to get started is to keep your single speed and find a couple of older mountain bikes... best ones to choose are steel and have rigid forks. Deore/LX/XT or if older STX-RC would be what I would look for concerning groupset.

Necessary gearing will vastly depend upon loaded weight, terrain, and your strength. The MTB gearing (probably 22/32/42 or 44 with 32T cog) should do it. Pretty easy to change if you need to go down a couple of teeth up front or change cassette.

As for you being the stronger rider... I'm sure she won't mind you carrying the tent and some the other gear as a equalizer.

Thanks for your quick replies
Budget is not my biggest issue but always a concern. (i will hunt out the best deal after i know what i want)

I currently have a small fleet of bikes a few fixed gear and single speeds as this is where i started out and my passion still is. A 26" nishiki mtb with deore XT, a Planet X tt bike with sram rival, and a couple of 3 speed city bikes for everyday bad weather use.

I have all or have access to all tools needed.

I have sourced a couple of KHS cromo cyclocross frames to build on and and happy sourcing the rest of the parts to my preferences.
(Some advice on good wheels wouldn't hurt)

The question is what Shimano Mtb groupsets work best for touring and why? Deore SLX XT ? Is the cheaper Deore more durable? does the higher end XT give lighter shifting but lose out on overall lifespan? Is SLX a good middle ground? I'm Looking at carrying a lot of weight what handles the torq best?
Where would you spend your money?

Grahamlund, My touring bikes have Shimano Alivio through LX bits and they're trouble free. So much so that I haven't a good excuse to upgrade anything and I really like upper tier bits on my roadies.

Until I move them to my back-up touring/beater bike I use Sun CR18 rims on Alivio hubs with straight 14 gauge spokes. Not an "ultimate" wheel set, but bullet proof over the last three years.

Gearing is very personal and generally a range of 20-100 GI is the most suggested. Two things to remember is that a FD from a mountain bike group is incompatible with an indexing road group shifter and a DynaSys RD in incompatible with an indexing road group shifter.

Brad

Stick to low to mid range group sets.....no need for really fancy stuff.

Personally I like SRAM X7 or X9, with X7 you can combine a 22-33-44 triple crank with a 12-36 cassette and get lots of range.
You can do the same with Shimano and Deore and Alivio will both work.

Here is a picture of my current mountain drivetrain. Deore level crankset- 46-36-26, XT level derailleurs, SRAM 11- 32 cassette, SRAM 9 speed chain. Don't have to spend a ton of money. Also, you can stick to Deore level on everything. From experience, it works perfectly for loaded touring.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=438461

Shimano Deore 610/615 Groupset at Ribble Cycles

Is this a good purchase? I will probably try to source different size front rings, Its about time to change the ones on my mtb anyway so they won't be wasted.

Deore will work nicely, but most tourists will mix and match a few parts.......do you have a frame that takes disc brakes? do you need the whole group set?

I have this frame set.
CX 100 - KHS Bicycles

it has mounts for all types of brakes apart from road racing brakes, even compatible with old center pull caliper brakes.

I know I dont need disk brakes but it seemed to be good for the price. Wheels would probably be cheaper with v brakes.?

I don't know about the value for money, but I expect you'll get a discount for buying everything together and you also know that it will all work. You'll have to gets some flat bars if you are going to use the MTB shifters. That's one area where tourists tend to mix and match often using drop bars and road brifters (or maybe bar end shifters) with MTB gears. Disc brakes are going to be more and more common, but I'm more comfortable with simple rim brakes just because they seem easier to fix.

No need for the latest 10 or 11 (or more?) gears on the cassette. I am quite happy with 8 speed, many tourists are doing well with 9. For a rear cassette, I like the 11/32, I use Sram but Shimano is certainly good too.

I would avoid the newer XT rear, starting with the M770 series, the smaller bearings did not do as well as the older ones. I use rear M760 and M756 rear XT rear hubs which are good, but as noted by others the lower level groups are just as good.

Will your new frames take 135mm rear hub width?

I think you should go for the ultimate test and see if she is really the one. Just get a tandem and go for it! You will find out really fast by sharing a tandem on a tour!

I would say no matter what you decided to do for gearing I would focus on what the resultant gear inches would be. You can find a calculator on Sheldon Brown's website. As far as XT components go, take care not to use a Dynasys rear derailleur if you're using road shifters. Otherwise you'll be good.

I'm building up a Soma right now and doing a deore triple (48/44/26) and 10spd in the back (11-36) with an XT derailleur. Gives me 20-119 gear inches.