General Discussion / Lowest acceptable highest gear inches for you to tour with?
« on: February 25, 2023, 08:32:13 pm »Last summer did my three weeks road and gravel CC touring Austrian, Italian, Swiss and French Alps, French countryside, Netherlands. On a Diamant Rad 136 HER. It's a Trek subsidiary in Berlin. Similar tube set to Trek 1120, nearly identical geo to Salsa Fargo but stretched to 1120 wheelbase because of 468mm chainstays. It's not heavy, very smooth for aluminum and rides better loaded.
Stock 11-51 11sp cassette. Came 1x with a 40t big ring. No frickin' way! I need a lower low gear than that.
Ended up with 36 up front and 90"-19.5". Would have loved a little lower low, but workable given light load (8-10lbs).
90" high gear was good! I don't think I could go lower. Not because I want to go fast, but because on a 100 mile day I need to stand up on the flats sometimes or I might get an injury from staying static. I like to stand for a couple of minutes every 20 minutes or so, and a 90" gear lets me cruise of flat terrain comfortably while standing at about 60rpm. Lower and there's not enough resistance to stay up comfortably.
I do wish I had 2x gearing, but 1x is so simple. Hard to think about returning to 2x (much less 3x) for me.
So 90" it is for me. You? I'm curious about what works for others and why.