Sjtaylor

I’m still learning this stuff so bear with me. I have a touring bike and I’m preparing for my first several day tour with some hills. From my reading and training rides I think I need 18-100 GI range in my gearing. As purchased I have a 11-32 cassette and a 48/36/26 Octalink crank triple. This gearing seems too high. I bought an 11/34 cassette and the chain rings to convert my crank to 44/32/22. I’ve read that it is probably less expensive to purchase a new crank set than just the rings but I got the chain rings at a very good price so I figure its a good opportunity to experiment a little and maybe upgrade later.

I’m thinking about just changing the two outer rings and leaving the 36 ring alone. The reason is that the 36 is where I mostly stay and the 32 might cause me to have to often shift to the large ring on the flats. I want avoid double shifting.

My whole reason for all this is to get that 22 in front...so does my reasoning seem right? Any suggestions or comments?

Thanks.

Rick

If your derailleur will handle the 36 to 22 jump than why change the 46. A little wider range on the high end wont hurt.

mtnbud

You should be able to put the 22 up front - especially if you decrease the size of the large ring at the same time. You might be able to leave the large ring alone. It'll depend on the length of the cage on the rear derailure. You should be able to look up how many gear inches your RD can handle. As long as your middle ring isn't worn, you shouldn't need to change it.

The 34 tooth cassette may be too large. You might want to try leaving the rear cassette alone.

There's a chance you may need to change the length of your chain. If your chainrings are worn, you may need a new chain. You'll notice the chain slipping on the chainrings if you need a new chain.

Sjtaylor

I think the 34 technically puts the gearset outside the range of my rear derailleur so I may have to keep the 11/32. Since the 22/44 is the same tooth difference as the 26/48 I guess the derailleur should be able to handle the spread. My crank puller works on old mountain bike cranks, not on the Octalink crank so I can’t change out the inner chainring until tomorrow when I can get the correct puller.

I just clad my butterfly bars with those long cruiser foam grips. They feel comfy but maybe not too durable. The twisty shifters also worry me. They seem like they might break maybe on the tour. By the way I have a Novara Safari purchased second hand.

Thanks for the advice.

mtnbud

Sounds great! Have fun!

The foam may work fine for you. The foam grips were fairly popular in the 70's or 80's, so it should be alright. I prefer cork handlebar wrap, but that's always something you could change further down the line.

Happy Feet

If you go with changing cassettes and chain rings just make sure not to cross chain.

Riding large up front and low rear will stretch out your derailer and possible jam it.

My default is:

Large chain ring - higher range on cassette
Middle chain ring - full range of cassette
Small chain ring - lower range on cassette

On this bike I run an 11-34 cassette and 42/32/22 crank and a stock Shimano XT derailer.

acantor

I think your decision to favour the lower gears is a good one. When I am touring, I use super-low gears far more often than I use my highest gears. I rarely use my top two gears.

I have ridden thousands of kilometres in hilly terrains. With sufficiently low granny gears, I have managed to pedal up every hill without too much effort. At least, until last week: I encountered a hill with a grade of 20%, maybe more, and had to push my bike. The last time I was forced to get off my bike for a hill was 15 years ago, and soon after that, I swapped the 24T chain ring for a 22T.

fietsbob

My tour bike 50,40,24 , 13 - 34t 6 speed freewheel sun-tour bar end friction shifters..

On self supported solo tours , I like robust simplicity ..

Tourist in MSN

If you take a couple links out of the chain because of the smaller chainrings, don't discard them until you are certain that everything is working well. On one of my bikes I use different chainring for touring than I do for riding near home, when I lengthen the chain for the larger chainring that I use around home I use a second quick link.

tyrion

I had a Deore 10 speed 48/36/26 "trekking" crankset and replaced the 26t ring with a 22t ring and it worked fine. Didn't adjust the FD at all (I think it was an LX FD). The chain might have been a little sloppy in the small ring/small cog, but I never used that combo in practice.

Sjtaylor

I regeared my touring bike tonight. Put an 11/34 in back and 42/32/22 in front. I discovered the Topeka water bottle cage was interfering with the FD travel. I shortened the chain like the Park Tool guy shows in his video. I still need to fine tune the position of the FD on the seat tube and shorten the cable. Now that I’ve done all this I have these new spare parts...11/32 cassette, 26, 36, 44, 48 tooth chain rings. I have one new tool...a spline crank puller.

I will finish up and test ride tomorrow.

Thanks for responses.

djb

what bike is it btw?

I didnt chime in before but here is my experience with the gearing you now have on the bike.
For loaded up touring, camping stuff and all that, which can easily be 30 or 40lbs, the 42/32/22 works great. Your concern about the 32 mid ring being a bit too low compared to the 36 was a good observation--when loaded up, its not a big deal, Ive toured a lot with 44/32/22 and with a load on the bike, its generally not too much "going back and forth" between the 32 and 42--BUT you have this covered if you do find you are consistently getting to the high end of the 32 too often--and you can simply put the 36t ring back on.

as you have said about the 48t that you dont use it that much, this is certainly true when riding loaded.

back to "what bike"--because without knowing the derailleur systems and shifters you have, how your front derailleur and front shifter will play with a 42/36/22 is unknown.
With an octalink 48/36/26 this kind of places the bike in a certain era, so its probably 8 or 9 speed, but show a photo or name the bike.

changing the cassette from 32 to 34 isnt much, but hey, you've done it, and without knowing the bike and rear derailleur, who knows if you could have gone more, but in any case, Ive toured a lot on a 9 speed 11-34 cassette and the jumps are pretty good between shifts (I mean percentage of jumps not too big) --but again, we dont know what bike you have and how many speeds.

and lastly, mucking about and doing stuff on your own, buying new tools etc, is excellent knowledge and skills that for someone touring, is a real plus simply because you are familiar with your bike and familiar with the mechanical aspect of stuff.
My experience has taught me that the more you learn about bike mechanics, the more chances your bike will be in great shape and that you are aware of catching stuff long before it becomes a problem, and this really helps in reducing the chance of mechanical problems happening during a trip.

also, its a great idea once a week or when you take a rest day, to go over your bike, clean things and quickly check bolt tightnesses etc--again, hugely reducing the risk of stuff becoming a problem because you know your bikes condition, and it also just helps because you are more aware and observant of your bikes mechanical shape.

re chain length, did you do the "big-big, chain not through the rd, plus two links" or whatever it is that the Park guy shows at the end of the diff methods he describes? (great videos arent they?)

escii_35

Mmm KISS.

As for the OP. If you are going to change the big ring you may as well buy a new crank.

Also, 44/32 drives me bonkers when riding on the road unloaded. 40T is a bit too tall for the middle 32T way too short.

mtnbud

Curious if it has all worked out for you. Hopefully so. Looking forward to hearing.

cyccommute 

Your reasoning is okay but you don’t need to get rid of the 48 or end up with a funky shift pattern. My touring bike is a 48/36/20 with an 11-36 9 speed in the rear.

Untitled by Stuart Black, on Flickr
Untitled by Stuart Black, on Flickr

Just adding the 22 tooth inner shouldn’t cause any problems.