I'm in Cincinnati, OH and we have our fair share of hills around here. Almost any route out my door will take me to a moderate to serious climb.
I went down a rabbit hole last night and tried to get up to speed on gearing. In running the numbers, I'm fairly convinced a 7 speed hub alone isn't going to give me the advantage I want. It seems as @
Thalia949 suggests, my chainrings are the big offenders. There appears to be too much overlap in my current 52/42 combination (as my rides last week suggest). I could swapout the chainrings, but the 130mm spread limits my inner options to maybe a 38 or 39 tooth I believe. I'm really liking the idea of going to a semi compact or compact crank. Of course, that opens a whole can of worms and makes me consider upgrading the whole drivetrain. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to go there yet from a budget standpoint. I would prefer to do incremental upgrades as my riding time increases and budget allows.
In looking at newer cranksets, they appear to be marketed as 9-speed or 10-speed. What does this mean? If I change out my crankset alone, will it be compatable with a 6 or 7-speed freewheel?
Given an initial budget of $150-$250 what would you do?