Thread: Group Advice
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Old 01-11-21, 11:36 AM
  #51  
djb
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Originally Posted by Russ Roth
When I lived in the Finger Lakes, technically Sterling,NY is the northern most point of the Finger Lakes, and rode there it was sufficient, actually didn't have that good of gearing riding along the Lake Ontario shoreline up to the Thousand Islands 30/26 was my easiest but it still worked fine and I didn't have to walk. I will put it to the test this summer as the VT ride is 30k feet of climbing which still isn't the most I've done but that was paved and not gravel so I'll have to see.


The trail is mostly flat, the campground we stayed in on the south and the lighthouse we went to visit were not flat at all, getting to and from the campground was 4 miles of steep rollers with no flats at all, those were a strain.
I've never run into a campy crank set up like yours, my old tandem has a similar setup but haven't seen that on a Campy touring bike which have been largely nonexistent since i started working in shops in the late 90s. Plenty of racing triples but that's all I was aware that was made. I was basing my options on what I presumed he must have a 30 chainring and usually a 28t max cog. If he's got lower like yours I haven't seen where he's said. In which case I'd still go the microshift option with mtb crank which could still be set up with a 44/28 and up to a 40t in the back. Although I wouldn't be happy to be limited to a 44, loaded its only on the downhills I would use a 44/11 and even then I limit myself to 30mph loaded anyways.
re the Vermont trail--I kinda figure its the more moderate one right? I love biking in Vermont and found the blurb about the Vermont trail, and it seems like a fairly "family friendly" type trail, similar to Le Petit Train du Nord trail north of Montreal, an old rail system made into a trail.
I also did find online a much more offroad Vermont trail that is a pretty hard technical offroad one, where really wide tires and a light backpacking setup is pretty much recommended.
I can't remember the name of both of the trails, but I suspect you've looked into the more laid back one, given your bike choice etc and no mention of hardass hike a biking etc.

Both look fun though, and if you don't know Vermont, its a great place to ride. Beautiful scenery, quiet towns, nice people, respectful drivers. Ive ridden Montreal to Boston and biked to Burlington, then east a bit and all the way down Vermont mostly following the 100 route , maybe 101, cant recall exactly. Super pretty riding, but on paved roads.
So yes, re gravel, your average speed will be down and you'll likely hit steeper stuff a lot more often, but thats part of the deal (unless the whole thing is a rail trail that is)

re climbing, 30k feet is about 10,000m, and I always reckon a 1000m accumulative climbing day is a good day, and I've ridden in mountains a lot, so if you're looking at 2000m per day for a 5 day trip, you sure will sleep well !

re gearing, my mtb gearing on my touring bike 44/32/22 and 11-34 has a top gear of 104 gear inches, which I spin out at a bit over 50kph, or 30mph, but that bike is competent at any speed I can get it up to, if the conditions warrant it, so 70 or 80k or whatever.
All that to say that low gearing really has no bearing on your top downhill speed nor your real life , real people, average touring speed carrying stuff, whether heavy or light.
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