Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,209
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
Mentioned: 48 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3461 Post(s)
I think your question really boils down to what should you have for your largest chainring, 36, 38 or 40 teeth. I am not sure what your tire size would be but I am guessing that if you had a 40T chainring, you would have a highest gear of 92.9 gear inches or there abouts with a smallest sprocket of 11. And if that was 36T instead of 40, then highest gear of about 83.6 gear inches.
My expedition bike has a highest gear of 85.1 gear inches. I sure wish it was higher for those long shallow downhills where it would be nice to pedal at a low cadence and low torque instead of sit on my butt and coast. I wish I had a high gear closer to the 92.9 that you would have with the 40T. But my bike has a Rohloff, so if I made my high gear higher, my low gear would also be higher and I do not want to do that.
I am assuming you will go with the 22T smallest chainring instead of the 24T.
In other words, I think you would be happier with the 40T chainring. You might only rarely use your highest gear for occasional downhills, but it is a nice gear to have on those rare occasions.