Originally Posted by
pdlamb
I don't see a low gear in that entire list. If you're having problems climbing steep hills, look for a 20 gear inch low -- that's about a 26 tooth (small triple) chain ring and 34 big cassette, or 24/32 with 700C wheels.
I ended up going with a 2017 Exploit;
I verified that it should be possible to swap out the stock 11-32T cassette with an 11-42T, for a ratio of 0.81. I'm gonna take it on some trips first to see if that seems necessary first, but the important thing is that I can always make that swap if need be.